WASHINGTON AP – Dubbed “super PACs” and flush with millions of dollars, outside groups backing and attacking Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich include a hotel magnate, a casino mogul and former partners at Romney’s private equity firm. They’re all over the airwaves in the early voting states, at times spending as much as the Republican presidential candidates themselves.
The names of these super political action committees – “Winning Our Future” and “Restore Our Future,” for example – don’t give any clues to the average voter who’s behind them. And though big money has always been a part of big elections, this year’s efforts are something new, a result of major court rulings easing spending limits by groups not directly linked to the candidates.
