Not-So-Super PACs: 2012’s Winners and Losers

<p><i>By Matthew DeLuca and <i>Michael Keller</i>.</i></p> <p>They spent hundreds of millions to get their candidates elected. But what did that money get them? In some cases, shockingly little. Here’s a look at the best and least performing PACs this election. <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2012/11/15/2012-s-super-pac-winners-and-losers.html">Read the Full Story.</a><br> </p>

To find out which super PACs wasted the most money on losing races, The Daily Beast first looked at the 20 biggest PACs by spending in the 2012 election cycle through Nov. 10, using data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. These PACs alone spent about $527 million. We then dug in to see how much each PAC spent on each campaign—whether by supporting a candidate running for president or Congress, or by actively opposing a candidate—and which campaigns went in the PAC’s favor. The dollar amount under each donor’s photograph indicates the total that individual gave to super PACs during the 2012 election cycle.

UPDATE, 3/19/13: Due to an FEC filing error, the Service Employees International Union was listed as donating $550,000 to the Service Employees International Union. The amended filing shows that the Service Employees International Union received all of its $15.2 million in donations less than $200, which is below the FEC's threshold for disclosing donor information.

We've updated the interactive to reflect that. We've also updated the amounts for every PAC and donor with the amended filings through November 2012.

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