By Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-927677.mp3
LANSING, MI –
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An independent analysis of television buys finds that third parties--not candidate campaigns--have dominated spending on political ads so far in the general election campaign season.
AUDIO:
The Michigan Campaign Finance Network says Republican nominee for governor Rick Snyder has not purchased an ad out of his campaign fund since the August primary. At the same time, the Republican Governors Association has spent $2 million to support Snyder. Democratic candidate for governor Virg Bernero has spent almost million dollars on his own ads, after not spending anything in the primary. But the state Democratic Party has spent more than twice that, says the Campaign Finance Network's Rich Robinson.
"The real story here is the high degree to which these campaigns are being off-shored and made secret," he says.
Robinson says they are secret because the governors association and the Democratic Party do not have to reveal their donors, so they can hide the identities of the people who are really paying the tab in the race for governor.
Election 2010 - WKAR
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