Tuesday, July 17, 2012

FOLLOWING (lack of) MONEY IN ARIZONA'S POLITICS: Arizona Makes *Big* Time As U.S. Chamber of Commerce Targets Senate Races In Small Western States

The mighty U.S. Chamber of Commerce released some of its big dogs today, spending more than $1.25 Million in U.S. Senate races in five smaller Western states;  Arizona is not one of them.*  (Arizona's Politics is counting the nearly $100,000 spent late last month supporting Utah's Sen. Orrin Hatch.)

The five states are Nevada, Hawaii, New Mexico, North Dakota and Utah (three border Arizona).  In Nevada alone, the U.S. CoC dropped $489,500 supporting Sen. Dean Heller.  All the money is either listed as supporting the Republican candidate or opposing the Democratic candidate.

The large ad buys are especially significant in these states with smaller television markets, as it is much easier to saturate coverage.

The U.S. CoC's FEC reports were filed the same day that the Senate was discussing - during the filibuster - the DISCLOSE Act.  The U.S. CoC is one of the largest spenders to not disclose all of its members or donors, and many of its members are foreign businesses.

*Arizona IS larger than their neighbors listed here; however, the reason the U.S. CoC did not spend any money in Arizona yet is that there is a hotly-disputed GOP primary battle still going on.


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