GOP groups top Democrats in TV spending by far

WASHINGTON (AP) — Independent Republican groups are heavily outspending their cross-party counterparts on television advertising in the campaigns for the White House and control of the Senate, eating into President Obama’s financial advantage over presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and prompting expressions of alarm from top congressional Democrats.

The disparity is most evident in the race for the White House, where Crossroads GPS, Restore Our Future and other organizations aligned with the Republicans spent nearly $37 million on TV ads through the first few days of June, most of it attacking Mr. Obama. That compares with about $11 million by groups supporting the president, with much of it from Priorities USA Action.

Senate campaigns also have been affected, notably in Ohio, where Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown’s commanding lead in the polls began to erode this spring after the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others started a televised attack. Overall, Republican-aligned organizations have spent roughly $30 million on ads in key races, compared with about $11 million for groups supporting Democrats.

Underscoring the concern, Rep. Steve Israel of New York, who heads Democrats’ efforts to regain House control, issued a thinly veiled call for his party’s donors to step up. The recent recall election in Wisconsin “should serve as a wake-up call,” he wrote, referring to the lopsided advantage in spending by outside groups that helped Republican Gov. Scott Walker overcome a union-backed bid to dump him from office.

Other Democratic efforts to catch up are less publicized, particularly when it comes to Priorities USA Action, the group formed to boost Mr. Obama’s re-election.

David Axelrod, a top strategist for the president, is expected to meet with potential donors to the group in New York on Monday, according to officials familiar with his plans. Separately, former President Bill Clinton has agreed to help, although it isn’t clear whether he will appear at a formal fundraising event.

Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, Jim Messina, and White House aide David Plouffe, who ran the 2008 campaign, met previously with possible donors to the group.

The heavy infusion of outside money comes on top of candidate spending and ads financed by the political parties. While it can alter a race in several ways, one Democrat with long campaign experience cautioned that the impact easily can be overstated.

“You hate to be outspent at all, but in point of fact if you’re communicating loudly and the other guy is communicating twice as loudly, that doesn’t mean he’s communicating twice as effectively,” said Jim Jordan, who has worked in presidential and Senate races.

Outside groups have allowed Romney to remain competitive in the television ads wars while restocking a treasury that was depleted during the battle for the Republican nomination. It also raises the possibility that Mr. Obama, the Democratic Party and allied groups will be outspent by a combination of Mr. Romney, the GOP and allied organizations, erasing an advantage the president had in 2008.

Earlier this year, Mr. Obama’s campaign decided to dip into its own treasury to respond to commercials from the American Energy Alliance, which had spent more than $3 million attacking the president.

Privately, the president’s top campaign aides frequently express concern about the disparity, according to several Democratic officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. There is irony in that, because Mr. Obama previously shunned support from groups that may rely on unlimited or undisclosed donations. It wasn’t until February that he permitted top aides to publicly bless the work of Priorities Action USA.

By contrast, Crossroads GPS and American Crossroads, groups formed by prominent Republican strategist Karl Rove and others, were active in the 2010 election campaign.

Bill Burton, one of the founders of Priorities Action USA, said the pace of donations has picked up as the group expanded its staff and Democratic donors began to focus on a race between the president and Mr. Romney.

“There’s natural progression,” Mr. Burton said, adding that until recently, it wasn’t clear who Mr. Obama’s rival would be, and the imperative they might feel to donate was more distant.

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