Quotes About Super PACs

Grass-roots politics, linking small-dollar fundraising to massive local volunteer organization, showed that it can rival the power of a right-wing machine comprising super PACs backed by entrenched interests and mega-donors.

With super PACs, we've seen voter turnout go up; interest in elections rise; and the number of competitive races increase. The campaigns of 2010 and 2012 have been more issue-oriented than their predecessors, not less.

I mean this is a revolution in how campaigns work - more money was spent by super PACs than by either myself or John Faso. So what that means is that if you're a voter in this district you are more likely to have heard from a super PAC than from me or my opponent.

There's been an unfortunate history of efforts to make sure Florida's votes don't count. Given that history, it's clear why people here would be especially concerned about efforts undertaken by Super PACs and the corporations that fund them to dictate the outcome of elections.

Few developments in campaigning have been as vilified and misunderstood as independent expenditure PACs, or, as they are colloquially known, super PACs.

Incumbents don't like it, but political competition is a good thing. Incumbents usually outspend challengers by better than 3 to 1. Super PACs, which tend to support challengers, have nullified some of this advantage.

The super PACs have brought an element of fear into the equation. The fact that they can bring this money into the campaign, basically ambush you out of nowhere, and you'll have no way to fight back.

I think there's a lot of reasons for having an extended primary. I think super PACs play a role.

There is no evidence that super PACs have led to a greater percentage of negative ads.

By law, super PACs are required to disclose their donors. There are groups that have never had to disclose their donors, non-profits such as the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, the NAACP, and the NRA. If you want more disclosure, super PACs are a step forward.

It's time for grassroots citizens to have a president that's focused on them rather than the super PACs.

Both Obama and Romney are just rolling in PAC money. Plus, they have the super PAC's behind them. They've got multi-millionaires and billionaires just buying 30-second ads. It gives each of them tremendous exposure.

Sheldon Adelson, for example, gave more than $53 million to Super PACs, but all eight of the candidates he supported lost.59 Karl Rove, a strategic mastermind who won fame advising George W. Bush, oversaw groups that spent $175 million and still lost twenty-one out of thirty elections.

We've already seen other candidates set up these secretive super PACs where they don't take any responsibility for what they're funding... because that's how the game has always been played. I've been very proud to tell people, 'I'm stepping forward, and you can see every single one of our donors.'

We've got to eventually get the Court on the right track with respect to super PACs and their influence on our political system. And whether that means an amendment to the Constitution or not is an open question.

There were 14,000 people at the rally for the president in Ohio. There were another 8,000 people in Virginia. If all 22,000 of those people opened their wallets and gave $1,000 each, that would be less than one donation from a billionaire to the super PACs. And that's why he's in for the fight of his life.

Peter Thiel, the gay billionaire cofounder of PayPal, who has supported Tea Party–aligned super PACSs and candidates such as Tea Party standard-bearer senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who opposes gay marriage and voted against a bill that would have banned discrimination against gay and transgender people in employment;