Bloomberg: Democratic Groups Pool Money Efforts to Take On Rove, Republicans in 2012
Three Democratic political groups will team up with a new organization founded by former White House aides to try to keep President Barack Obama in office and win House and Senate seats in 2012, parroting a strategy deployed successfully by Republicans last year.
Mother Jones: Inside the Democrats' Outside Money Machine
The last piece of the equation is American Bridge 21st Century, the brainchild of media guru David Brock. Brock is the founder of Media Matters for America, the liberal media watchdog that, in seven years, Brock has grown from a three-person shop to a $10-million-plus operation employing upwards of 90 researchers, trackers, and more. Now, Brock is looking to replicate that success in the arena of electoral politics. American Bridge will serve as a clearinghouse of opposition research and candidate tracking that will feed information to the other three independent expenditure groups for use in TV ads, mailers, or other advertisements. It won't look like your typical oppo research shop, said a Bridge official who requested anonymity to discuss early planning. Traditionally, an outside research firm would dig up everything it can find on a candidate and then hand over a thousand-page tome stuffed into a three-ring binder. Bridge officials, however, want "to make it a living, breathing operation," says the official. That could mean publishing the group's research and tracking on a standalone website, and maintaining constantly updated profiles of GOP candidates available to the public.
POLITICO: Former DNC research director to American Bridge
Shauna Daly, the respected former research director for the Democratic National Committee, and deputy research director on Senator Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, has been hired as research director and senior adviser at American Bridge 21st Century, one of a handful of new Democratic outside groups.
National Journal: "American Bridge signifies just how far-reaching outside groups have become."
Democrats appear eager not just to match the conservative outside-group infrastructure but to exceed it. Another part of the plan: American Bridge 21st Century, which is modeled after the watchdog group Media Matters, will serve as a sort of “war room” of opposition research, feeding its three sister organizations material that they can use in independent expenditures, while pressing traditional media outlets for coverage.
CNN: Independent groups expected to rake in hundreds of millions
American Bridge 21st Century, will provide opposition research and communications for Democratic races for Congress and the presidency. Founded by conservative-turned-liberal activist David Brock and chaired by former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, it has a more far-reaching goal. In a statement to CNN, Rodell Mollineau, its president, says he hopes hopes to build the group "into an enduring political research and communications powerhouse."
Washington Post: Adapting to campaign-finance rulings, Democrats build big-spending network
[A]s Democratic activists finalize plans for an entirely new political infrastructure in 2012. A network of liberal groups formed in recent weeks is poised to spend $200 million or more in support of President Obama and other Democrats, in large part by raising unlimited donations from wealthy donors.