GOP Plans to Drop $1B Ad Bomb on 2012

Republican groups plan to spend a record $1 billion on the November elections, and could outspend Democrats by a margin of 2-to-1. Politico has the details on the spending plans of super PACs and other outside groups: The Koch brothers plan to spend $400 million; Karl Rove's groups are looking at $300 million; pro-Mitt Romney super PAC Restore Our Future—which already spent almost $50 million in the primaries—is aiming for $100 million in the general election; and an array of smaller groups plan to spend anywhere from $5 million to $30 million each.

Some of the money—including a goal of $100 million from the US Chamber of Commerce—is focused on congressional races, but some of those ads will likely boost Romney as well. And of course, all this money—which will go toward TV, radio, and digital ads, mail and phone appeals, voter-turnout efforts and early- or absentee-ballot drives—is in addition to the $800 million or more that the Romney campaign and the Republican National Committee intend to raise. The staggering plans are, Politico notes, "unlike anything seen before in American politics," and dwarf the then-record-breaking $750 million raised by Barack Obama in 2008. In this cycle, however, the struggling pro-Obama super PAC has a goal of spending $100 million, and labor groups could chip in between $200 million and $400 million. (More Election 2012 stories.)