Super PACS to Spend in Secret Through Early Primaries

Texas Rep. Ron Paul has built his campaign on small donor donations, but he stands to gain as much as any of the other Republican presidential candidates now that so-called “super PACs” will be able to spend unlimited money in secret until after the earlier primaries.

The Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune reported Thursday that an unintended consequence of Republican state officials moving up five key contests into January, is that voters won’t have any idea who is paying for advertising and other campaign activities until at least Jan. 31. That’s the financial disclosure deadline for big fundraising committees that support but operate independently of the candidates.

According to the Times-Tribune report, the pro-Paul “Revolution PAC” “will join other candidate-specific super PACs” supporting Texas Gov Rick Perry, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann in withholding the names of contributors until the caucuses and primaries in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, and Florida are over.

The newspapers quoted Revolution PAC spokeswoman Mary Putnam as saying the group hopes to report contributions at the end of January of at least $10 million - $2 million more than Paul’s own campaign fund reported raising in the third quarter of this year.