One of the lovely quirks of our political finance system is the role of “dark money” spent by organizations that DON’T have to disclose their donors. Where does it go? Thanks to a MapLight analysis of Federal Elections Commission data, we can see the Senate races that these “dark” organizations emphasized in 2012. Check out the map embedded below, and be sure to play around with it: clicking on a state, for instance, brings up a list of groups and their expenditures in that state. For 2014, look for “dark money” to flood again into competitive Senate (and House?) seats across the country. If money is speech, these folks have an awfully loud megaphone….
– cpd