OnAir: Candidate Spending Still Outpaces Issue Groups

Over the past 11 years, there has been a revolution in campaign financial operations. In 2008, the Obama campaign redefined what was possible by declining public financing and still amassing huge sums of money. Since this decision, no major candidate has accepted public financing, and it seems unlikely that one will without a major change to the system. Campaign finance changed again in 2010 when Citizens United vs. FEC opened the playing field to unlimited spending from Super PACs. Since 2010, campaigns large and small have increasingly embraced the Internet’s organizing and fundraising potential – once again altering the landscape of campaign finance. Citizens United is often seen as the most important campaign finance change, but the precedent set by Obama and the subsequent decline of public financing of elections has pushed candidates towards the Internet and allowed them to raise nearly unlimited amounts of money. Ever since Citizens United, Super PACs have been the boogeyman of American politics and are especially demonized by the left. Who can forget Stephen Colbert’s Super PAC, or the endless hand wringing over the