Mitt Romney: Super-PACs Are a “Disaster”

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/seth/399340323/sizes/m/in/photostream/">sethrubenstein/Flickr

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Mitt Romney is biting the hand that feeds him. On MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Tuesday, Romney railed against so-called super-PACs, the relatively new breed of political action committees that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money in elections. He called super-PACs a “disaster” and said, “We really ought to let campaigns raise the money they need and just get rid of these super-PACs.”

That’s quite a statement from a candidate who’s benefited greatly from the rise of super-PACs. Restore Our Future, a super-PAC aligned with the Romney campaign and run by Romney 2008 aides, announced earlier this month plans to spend $3.1 million on TV time in Iowa to boost Romney’s standing there. The blitz appears to be helping: recent polls show Romney’s popularity inching upward. Restore Our Future, meanwhile, has plenty more gas in the tank; having raised $12.2 million as of June 30, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Romney’s hardly the one to benefit from super-PACs backing a specific candidate. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Newt Gingrich, and even former US Sen. Rick Santorum have super-PACs fundraising and spending on their behalf.

Fred Wertheimer, a veteran campaign finance reform advocate at Democracy 21, says super-PACs “are a dangerous fraud on the American people…designed to launder into a candidate’s campaign the very kind of unlimited contributions that the campaign finance laws have long prohibited candidates from receiving because they are corrupting.”

Here’s the video of Romney denouncing super-PACs:

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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