Super-PACs And Elections: Separating Myth From Reality

Originally published in Bloomberg Law Reports, February 24, 2012

So far, 2012 is on track to be remembered as the Year of the "Super-PAC". President Obama and his Republican challengers each are supported by at least one Super-PAC, and the groups are proliferating among U.S. Senators and Congressmen.¹ More importantly, for as many dollars as Super-PACs have spent in this election cycle, it seems that commentators have used an equivalent number of words to denounce them. By most published accounts, the Super-PAC is an abomination created by the Supreme Court's Citizens United² decision and set loose to terrorize our democracy. In urging Democrats to form Super-PACs supporting President Obama's re-election, his campaign even analogized them to nuclear weapons, noting that to refrain from participation would be tantamount to "unilateral disarmament."³