Who's Paying for All Those Political Ads?

One of the Tea Party organizations, the Tea Party Patriots, said Tuesday it has just received $1 million from an anonymous donor to help get out the vote. All told, spending on TV ads for the midterm elections is expected to total $3 billion.

CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports that because of a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year, you may never who's behind most of those ads.

Airing now is the first wave of an oncoming flood of campaign ads paid for by groups that don't have to tell you where their money is coming from.

One ad states, "Harry Reid says no one can do more than he can."

"She voted for special interest earmarks," is the claim in an ad attacking Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., by a group called "The Committee for Truth in Politics."

CBS News Complete Coverage: Campaign 2010

Despite its name, the Committee for Truth in Politics has no website, no street address, not even a phone number, and insists on keeping its donor list secret. It's all legal.

"The information about who is bankrolling an ad really is important, critical information," says Committee for Responsive Politics executive director Sheila Krumholz.

The closest one can get to "the truth" is the attorney who represents it, James Bopp Jr., a small-town Indiana lawyer who has become the go-to guy when it comes to fighting campaign finance disclosure.

CBS News had a conversation with Bopp about the Committee for Truth in Politics:

Armen Keteyian: "What can you tell me about the Committee for Truth in Politics?"

James Bopp: "I can tell you what is public record."

Keteyian: "Can you tell me how many members are on that committee?"

Bopp: "No."

Keteyian: "Could you tell me how I can become a member?"

Bopp: "I don't know. I don't think you could."

Keteyian: "Could you tell me who your donors are?"

Bopp: "Oh, of course not."

The 58-year-old Bopp was the legal force behind landmark Supreme Court ruling in January 2010 that for the first time gave corporations, unions and certain non-profits the right to pump money into ads that directly endorse or attack a candidate, right through Election Day, without always disclosing who's paying for them.

Keteyian asked, "Jim, do you find it ironic at all that the word 'truth' is used but the committee is less than open about the truth about who is behind the organization?"

Bopp replied, "The truth has to do with the message. They haven't lied about who is behind it. They just haven't told you."

According to a new report from Public Citizen, only 32 percent of the outside groups spending on ads are disclosing who bankrolls their operation, down from nearly 50 percent in 2008. Many of these so-called shadow groups boast upbeat, bipartisan names like "Americans for Prosperity" and "American Future Fund."

"This is just the start. If you think it's bad in 2010, just wait for 2012 because this is just a test ground," said Krumholtz.

An ad by Americans United for Change states, "Hands off our Social Security and Medicare." The Democratic group, tied to organized labor, has already spent $4 million this year. They, too, refuse to release their donor list.

Early returns show groups supporting Republicans outspending those supporting Democrats by a wide margin. By August and early September alone it was $14 million to $2.8 million just for congressional TV ads.

There is a feast of new ads leaving the voting public to wonder who is really stirring the pot.

[hhandyman]

Do a tally and see how many Republicans should be replaced when Lobbists are pushing ads that means they have that politician sewn up and his votes deticated as well as lots of his laws written by Lobby groups like the National Chamber of Commerce one Largy Lobby that needs to be brought to its knees That group can cause problems for the Average income Citizen by getting thier Paid Republican Crew.
More than one of the groups are tied together to cram ads in the tv world, how many have a Job texitng all these blogs with Cryin time stuff missdirecting the true loss of money from the Last Republican run to dig the problem even deeper with a new Republican dig with all this push for a Regain Rerun with the people that caused this in the first place. ghee GET a life NOT MINE please Pay a fair tax dont use the rich tax breaks if you earn more than half a million send the balance to the natiional debt if you earn 24 grand Send 10% that is a fair way to tax the public. Think about it. Get rid of any that the Lobbist support or prepair for corperate Govenment of for and by the CEO's not the stock holders or the General public Thats Republican rule too. Heavy Negitive ads produced by Wealhy look at what that ad would cost and see if you could afford even one copy if you cant then you know it was paid for by the mega wealthy or a wealthy group that wants the middle class to loose in the long run.

[gmaas]

If you believe that corporations were somehow silenced and not permitted to get their voices heard in Washington then you?ve been laboring under a false impression. They employ legions of lobbyists and have been long and continuing contributors to candidates seeking office. Now if you think they did so with some benevolent interests, save their own, at heart then you?ll no doubt be interested in some swamp land I?ve heard about that has real potential in South Florida. Or perhaps a bridge in New York City. As far as I?m concerned both corporations and unions, and political action committees have too much influence over the political process. It?s the American citizen whose voice is least heard and whose interests are most deserving. If I had my way there would be a fixed number of hours allotted to each candidate paid for by the government, and no one could donate to a candidate who couldn?t actually vote for him. Flush the system of special interests and free the politicians to act as they should, in the best interests of the American people. Which isn?t necessarily aligned with corporate America or the Unions and certainly not aligned with the interests of foreign governments!

[frankcorreia]

Lets not forget those countries buying up our senitors and congressmen i refer to the ones i know of AIPAC and IAPAC , check them on your search engine, Isril and Iran and thats just 2 I found so far.

[noloyalisti]

Oh yeah, corporate media propaganda: compare the money corporations have to give: limitless in the BILLIONS to the money that groups like unions and non-profits like MoveOn have.

This is why our whole economy and country is going down the sewer into history: directly the result of this type of corporate propaganda.

[jeannettelj]

I don't really care who is paying for all those political ads. Anyone who believes what they say is an idiot. The mute button gets a fast workout when ever one comes on. I could not care less about what any one of them have to say.

[tsigili]

All of the special interests, mostly. Of course, they expect to get that all back and more, after the elections, from those they support, which is why they support both parties......so no matter who wins, the special interests get their way.

[Bisk1]

What if it's the actual news networks behind these groups and breaking the law - Organisations like Faux do not want a million dollar investment going to waste due to some FCC laws. Dumb Dumb repugs !!

[mnguyen4]

Most of the political attack ads are lies. They offer simplistic solutions to complex socioeconomic problems facing this nation. But, of course, the voters are easily misled.

Take the case of the CA governorship campaign. Meg Whitman, the EBay billionaire, airs a political ad of Bill Clinton making false assertions against her opponent Jerry Brown based on an incorrect CNN journalistic report. Even after CNN and Clinton acknowledged they were wrong, the Whitman campaign refused to pull the ad off the air. The truth is that Meg Whitman doesn?t have the political experience to tackle tough issues facing the state. Meg Whitman is not a godmother who can just wave her wand to fix California economic problems where Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger have failed.

I can?t believe that the US Supreme Court would encourage political office seekers to lie and to mislead the public in order to win. What?s next? It is not a crime to commit perjury? It is also ironic that Congressional lawmakers are susceptible to harsh punishments for white lies.

[earlysaid]

A lot of the ads are paid for by republican contacts that Karl Rove hit up for donations. He got billions from Texas oil tycoons and then big billion dollar donations from New York Wall Street bankers who don't like any regulations to keep them honest standing in their way. Just republican donors who like to do things their way. Pollute all they want and spend and gamble all they want. Good republican christian values on display.

[lami987]

Tea party makes Americans believe that conservatives are wiser on spending and are willing to make our government smaller. That is actually contrary to facts. Facts tell us almost all our national debt were created by conservative presidents starting from Reagan. Before Reagan our debt was $900 billion. After Reagan and the first Bush, also a coservative, our debt increased to $4.2 trillion. Clinton, a liberal, was the only president who was able to cut deficit spending from the first year he took office. He balanced the budget duing his second term and accumulated a huge surplus. Then came another conservative, the second Bush. He spend all clinton's surplus in no time and started borrowing all over again. At the end of his terms our debt was more than $11 trillion. He also started the first phase of bank bailout. Check CBO website for detailed spending of our presidents. Republicans have been talking about smaller government but I have yet to see they start making congress smaller, cut their salaries, benefits and staffs.

[jmca2009]

lami987 you are so correct, and this has been the frustration with the choices in politicians over the years. I believe that is why the Republicans were thrown out in 2008, unfortunately it is between deficit spending, and bigger Govt under Bush or HUGE deficit spending and massive Govt under Obama.
The Tea party has been ousting establishment big spending Republicans and the tax and spend Democrats are history this Nov. Hopefully you are a Tea party supporter, at least in principle.

Clinton certainly deserves credit for his excellent management in his 2nd term, but maybe the secret formula is a Democrat President and the Senate and House controlled by Republicans as it was in Clinton's 2nd term. The House is the one that really controls spending anyway, and we probably need Newt Gingrich back threatening more Govt shutdowns in order to balance the budget.