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Dems best at tapping rich for political cash

Election figures are released

WASHINGTON — For as often as Democrats attack the conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch for their heavy spending on politics, it’s actually the liberal-minded who shelled out the most cash on the just completed midterm elections.

At least, that is, among those groups that must disclose what they raise and spend.

Among the top 100 individual donors to political groups, more than half gave primarily to Democrats or their allies. Among groups that funneled more than $100,000 to allies, the top of the list tilted overwhelmingly toward Democrats — a group favoring the GOP doesn’t appear on the list until No. 14.

The two biggest super PACs of 2014? Senate Majority PAC and House Majority PAC — both backing Democrats.

In all, the top 10 individual donors to outside groups injected almost $128 million into this year’s elections. Democratic-leaning groups collected $91 million of it.

Among the 183 groups that wrote checks of $100,000 or more to another group, Democrats had a 3-to-1 cash advantage. The biggest player was the National Education Association at $22 million. Not a single Republican-leaning group cracked the top 10 list.

Overall, for the campaign season that just ended, donors who gave more than $1 million sent roughly 60 cents of every dollar to liberal groups.

“They’re total hypocrites when it comes to this subject,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. “They’ve made a living off campaign talking points when, in reality, they’ve been raking in more money from millionaire donors than Republicans for quite a while.”

That’s true, but only among those groups that have to tell the Federal Election Commission about all the money that’s coming and going.

Left undisclosed are the specifics of the fundraising and spending of politically minded nonprofit groups, such as the Koch-backed conservative network of Americans for Prosperity or the environment-minded League of Conservation Voters.

Because they are not technically political, they do not face the same disclosure rules as overtly political groups. That leaves a gaping hole in the effort to follow all the money in politics, especially among Republican patrons who tend to favor those organizations that do not have to disclose how they raise or spend donations.

“I tip my hat to them. It’s definitely all legal,” said Eddie Vale, an adviser to American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal research group that tracks Republicans.

American Bridge, like Americans for Prosperity, does not disclose its donors.

“We’re not going to unilaterally disarm,” said Vale, a Democratic strategist who said he would prefer all organizations disclose their donors.

These figures are based on an Associated Press analysis of data compiled by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics from reports filed with the Federal Election Commission through Nov. 16 and with the Internal Revenue Service through Aug. 4.

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