Super PACs kept election close, says leader of pro-Romney group
(CNN) - Were it not for the spending of conservative groups and super PACs such as Restore Our Future, President Barack Obama's margin of victory over GOP nominee Mitt Romney would have been even larger in several key battleground states, the treasurer of Restore said on CNN Friday.
"Imagine the headline on this story if 350,000 different votes in four states had been different," said Charlie Spies, who worked for Romney in 2008 and was a co-founder of the super PAC this cycle. "Then you'd be saying that (GOP strategist) Karl Rove is an evil genius and that Republican big money had bought the election."
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Restore Our Future spent more than $100 million between the start of the year and mid-October, according to the group's final pre-election Federal Election Commission financial filing. It was primarily focused on television advertising supporting Romney’s White House bid.
American Crossroads, a separate conservative super PAC backed by Rove, spent more than $70 million in the same period, with its efforts mostly directed at House and Senate races, as well as the defeat of Obama. Rove held a conference call with top donors on Wednesday to discuss the efforts of American Crossroads.
Spies said on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront" that he has "not had a single donor reach out to me or other co-founders of the group and say that they were upset about how we spent the money."
"I think everyone is disappointed because they thought our work was important and was something worth investing in," he said.
A report issued this week by the nonprofit political money-tracking group the Sunlight Foundation assessed the "return on investment" of a number of outside political groups: how many of the candidates they backed or opposed were elected or defeated. For Restore Our Future and the main pro-Obama super PAC, "their won/loss percentage will be obvious from the election results," the group wrote in a blog post.
Despite a spate of spending on both sides of the aisle, the presidency, House and Senate remained in the hands of the same parties as before the election.
Spies said "without us and the other outside groups, this would not have been a neck and neck election right through Election Day."
While Obama won in all the states CNN and other media outlets considered toss-ups between him and Romney, the margin in some was close. Obama won the key battleground of Ohio with approximately 103,000 votes out of 5.3 million cast. In Florida, where CNN has not yet projected a winner, Obama's edge as of Friday evening was 63,000 ballots out of 8.3 million cast.
But in the end, Obama ran a campaign in which "some of their tactics were very good," Spies said.
"They had a good ground game and they had very good targeting. And we as Republicans - royal 'We' - are going to have to figure out why that happened and try to match that, but that's probably a better function for political parties, and I think super PACs and c-4s are better at doing advertising," he added, citing other types of political groups.
As for Romney's post-election future?
"I think he can probably do whatever he wants to do, other than be president for the next four years," Spies said. "He's one of the great business leaders and I think he has a lot to say about the economy and I hope he keeps speaking about it."
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And the spin continues. The GOP doesn't get it now nor will it ever, as, it is now defunct. See ya! Wouldn't wanna be ya!
If I picked all 6 numbers I could win the lottery! These sore losers dont get it. The team with the most points gets the prize.The team with less points loses.Even kids playing a game knows this. Doesnt matter how much you spent on the uniforms. Get over it you lost. Re evaluating the lost makes you lool like sore losers!
Delusional to the end. It was never close, unless you believed Fox News and their polls.
Where's John McCain Newt and Rudy with their take on why they lost? The three stooges have been awfully quiet. What no talk about Libya or Libya or Libya? John's still trying to figure out how he lost. Has notime for Mitt right now.
Some people fell for the lies but the smart one know better
In other words you tell me that if we we remove all super PACs BS from the picture Romney would lose by double digits? Yes very likely
Superpacs are undemocratic dirt. Adelson, Koch brothers, Rove, etc. Just look at their pictures, and you have the
whole story.
Obama won and Romney lost. Money doesn't buy votes. Please accept the fact. No need to find excuses.
So without the super pacs Romney would have lost by a much larger margin
If losing by almost 130 electoral votes and 3 million popular votes is this guy's idea of a close election, then I have a bridge for sale. What a joke. The Republicans are on the verge of complete irrelevance.
Nice spin. We spent millions of dollars to come close but no cigar. Bottom line you still lost and you will continue to lose the White House until you come back to the center.
"Then you'd be saying that (GOP strategist) Karl Rove is an evil genius and that Republican big money had bought the election."
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Karl Rove IS evil, and isn't buying the election exactly what they were hoping to do?
A few Billionaires believed the could package and sell the election as though it was a product. The American people were not buying what they were selling.
Mr. Spies you tried, didn't you listen to yourself'
"Return on investment"...they said a mouthful there.
Hay learn from this, money CAN'T buy the white house......
If Mr. Romney had done such a great job as governor of Massachusetts as he said so smugly so often, for the good of all people there, then how come the majority population there voted for Obama?
Karl Rove was dead wrong and won't admit it. In the business world, he would have been terminated for flushing $400 million dollars down the drain. The evil boy genius is no more.
...and still you couldn't buy the American people!
The statement :"Super PACs kept elections close" is about as smart as a box of rocks. YOU LOSS! The object was to win, not keep it close. All their money did was dirty the politics even more. They apparently had some impact in Congressional races in some areas....but the GOP still loss seats in both houses and the biggest prize of all. Rove etal just don't get it. Their filthy money stinks and does not belong in our democracy. If you have to spend that kind of money and supress the vote, maybe it's becasue your message sucks.
Romney spent over three and a half BILLON DOLLARS !
CRAZY !
And now Sheldon Adelson who donated 53 million to Mitt needs to pay his fare share of TAXES !
The IRS is on him like white on rice .
Super PACs kept it close?? So elections are the equivalent of horseshoes and hand grenades? Spin Spin Spin
Sorry bunch of losers.
It was not just that the Democrats had a better ground game, they had better ideas for how to bring about economic recovery and social justice. The hundreds of millions spent by the Republican robber barons was not sufficient to overcome their bad ideas. While we haven"t gotten a redistribution of wealth through fair taxes, at least the money spent by the rich to keep their control filtered down to the workers who printed the leaflets, drove the cars, flew the planes and probably voted for Obama.
Super PACS are not evil. Corporations are not evil. The PEOPLE that run them are evil.
Super PACS and Corporations are not people.
Fire the Supreme court. Can we call for impeachment of the SC???
If they would have spent their money on buying me some free stuff, i may have voted for Romney. Instead they chose to waste their money on tv ads... Mistake... Big Mistake....