Occupied Washington

Gaze Into the Exploding Universe of Dark Money

We've charted the red giants and blue dwarfs spending millions to influence the 2012 election.

—By Dave Gilson and Asawin Suebsaeng

If Citizens United was the Big Bang of a new era of money in politics, here's the parallel universe it formed: rapidly expanding super-PACs and nebulous 501(c) groups exerting their gravitational pull on federal elections. A group's size in the chart below is based upon all known fundraising or spending since 2010…so keep an eye out for dark matter. Come back for regular updates.

PAC, Liberal Groups, Conservative Groups: Stars, Clusters, Belts, and Clouds

Source of financial data: Center for Responsive Politics, GuideStar. Data as of November 16, 2011.

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Dave Gilson

Senior Editor

Dave Gilson is a senior editor at Mother Jones. Read more of his stories, follow him on Twitter, or contact him at dgilson (at) motherjones (dot) com. RSS |

Asawin Suebsaeng

Editorial Fellow

Asawin Suebsaeng is an editorial fellow at the Washington, DC, bureau of Mother Jones. For more of his stories, click here. You can also follow him on Twitter. Email tips and insights to asuebsaeng [at] motherjones [dot] com. RSS |

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