Politics: Save Us, Soros!

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Politics Save Us, Soros! Conservative mega-donors are purging the GOP. Why aren't liberal tycoons doing the same for Democrats? By David Weigel Posted Wednesday, May 23, 2012, at 11:30 PM ET Republican Thomas Massie has a terrific shot at winning a seat in Congress. He's an outsider—only one little local victory on the resume—in a year when that's still popular. His district, Kentucky's fourth, is a cluster of coal counties and rich suburbs that's started to go solidly GOP. By primary day, May 22, Massie had slightly outspent his two strongest opponents. And he won, by 45 percent to 29 percent over a highly-touted state senator. But the losers say the game was fixed. In the final stretch, Kentucky voters saw more than $500,000 of ads from Liberty for All, a new conservative super PAC funded entirely by a 21-year-old Texan heir to a real estate fortune. The heir, John Ramsey, did not mind the attention. "We want to take the front lines," he told Mother Jones last week. "We want to be the front-line PAC that takes the weight of the freedom movement on our shoulder." In our post-Citizens United lives, the whims of a millionaire or billionaire can transform an election. Just this month, TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts's Ending Spending PAC bet more than $250,000 on Nebraska U.S. Senate candidate Deb Fischer. She won her primary. In Indiana, the Club for Growth bundled $330,000 and spent $1.45 million to help Richard Mourdock eliminate U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar. Two out of every five independent dollars in the Indiana race came from the Club. Mourdock won, too ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate The Bizarre Legal Case That Could Force 1.2 Million Canadians To Be Married—Against Their Will A Cutting-Edge Solution to the Old Ketchup-Bottle Problem Culture Gabfest: What Makes The Bachelorette Such Addictive Television?	Advertisement
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