NPR analyzes Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS 'Social Welfare' 501(c)4: 90% of donors in first 18 months gave at least $1 million

Karl Rove, Wikipedia

From Huffpost:

Crossroads did provide the FEC with a list of amounts given by its donors, but excluded their names. The list shows that the dark money largely comes in million-dollar denominations. The group received 53 donations of $1 million or more, accounting for 89 percent of the total amount raised last year. Four donations of $10 million or more, including one $22 million contribution, accounted for one-third of the group's 2012 funds.

From NPR:

Both Crossroads GPS and its associated American Crossroads superPAC were created by Rove and his Republican allies following the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court ruling that invalidated a section of the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. In their first year, the two groups raised roughly comparable amounts — $35.5 million for American Crossroads and $48.4 for Crossroads GPS.
     The percentage of total money donated to American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS has continued to move toward the latter, where donors can remain anonymous.
     In the first three months of this year, the figures are $9.7 million for American Crossroads and $39.3 million for Crossroads GPS...
     The liberal organization Democracy 21 has asked the IRS to reject the Crossroads GPS application for formal nonprofit status because of the political nature of many of its ads.

     Many of Rove's Crossroads GPS campaigns failed miserably in the 2012 elections, but a notable success were the attack ads against Bob Kerrey, the popular Democrat who ran for his old Nebraska Senate seat in 2012 and was beaten by Deb Fischer, a Tea Party favorite.
     Fischer survived her primary by defeating her GOP rivals after a wave of primary attack ads paid for by Joe Ricketts, founder of TD Ameritrade, still based on Omaha, although Ricketts himself now lives in Wyoming.
     Below: an anonymously-funded Crossroads GPS attack ad which claimed that the application of a Kerry company for bailout funds was called a "disturbing trend" by an "independent watchdog" — an accusation which could well be applied to the machinations of Rove himself to sway elections with money from anonymous multimilllionaires.



Here's a Rove radio attack ad: