Buying A Voice: Restore our Future

Many of the ads you see supporting republican candidate for president Mitt Romney or hammering president Barack Obama come from committees that raise big bucks, but aren’t officially part of the campaign.

One of them is the group “Restore our Future”. They have already spent close to $54 million dollars in 2012.

One of their ads running in Virginia picks up on a claim President Obama made during a White House briefing. The president said the private sector was “doing fine”. It accuses the president of being out of touch, for claiming the private sector did not need help.

You can see the ad below:

So who is “Restore Our Future?”

They are a “Super Pac” with the ability to raise and spend unlimited amounts of cash in support of candidates legally. Something they have done incredibly well to this point.

“Restore Our Future” has spent a little more than $53 million, all to help the presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

The bulk of their spending, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, has been to hit republicans. They have spent more than $39 million used to attack Romney’s primary opponents.

Now they are focused on the president, investing close to $7.5 million on ads like the “doing fine” ad, attacking his record.

“Restore Our Future” has picked up big donations. From a relatively small group of donors, among them is Las Vegas tycoon billionaire Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miram.  According to the NY Times the two have collectively they have invested $10 million dollars in “Restore Our Future”.

But that is actual a small part of the Adelson’s contribution to the 2012 campaign. Up until Romney secured the primary the two invested heavily in his opponent Newt Gingrich. Their total spending has been a whopping $35 million dollars, so far.

Adelson is not the only big money donor. Restore Our Future has also picked up checks of $3 million dollars from Texas housing billionaire Bob Perry, and $1 million from New York hedge fund manager John Paulson.

All told, Restore Our Future’s piggy bank has raked in close to $60 million dollars, and there is still three months to go before Election Day.

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Here is where we got our information:

*The Center for Responsive Politics has the list of Restore our Future’s known donors.

*The Center for Responsive Politics has a breakdown of how Restore Our Future has spent it’s cash.

*The NY Times reports on the donation given by the Adelson family.

*Restore Our Future’s web site can be found here.