David Koch, proud new owner of the Senate.
Spending on this year's elections is on pace to reach
$3.67 billion, from candidates, parties, Super PACs, and the so-called non-profits—like the Koch's Americans for prosperity. That's a record for a midterm,
led by outside groups.
The 2014 elections will be remembered as the cycle when outside groups handled much of the mudslinging, which traditionally was the responsibility of candidates and their campaigns. In Kentucky, for instance, a secretly funded group called Kentucky Opportunity Coalition ran 12,000 TV ads—many of which attacked Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes, depicting her as an Obama clone. The group's commercials accounted for one out of every seven ads run during that race, according to the Center for Public Integrity. On paper, Kentucky Opportunity Coalition was independent of the candidate it supported, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. But the group was run by a former McConnell aide and functioned effectively as an offshoot of McConnell's campaign.
This pattern unfolded across the country, as outside spending ramped up. In all, outside groups pumped $554 million—$301 million from Republican-aligned shops, $225 million from Democratic allies—into 2014 races. And you guessed it: That, too, is a new record for a midterm election.
Karl Rove and the Kochs accomplished what they set out to do, buying the Senate. Rove's groups spent in 10 races, and have so far secured six—if Sens. Mark Begich in Alaska and Mary Landrieu in Louisiana go down, he'll be 8 for 10, a pretty phenomenal success rate that the Sunlight Foundation
pegs at 96 percent. The Kochs did slightly worse, with just an
85 percent win rate in the nine races they played heavily in. All that money spent by Democrats—particularly the Senate Majority PAC's $47 million—down the drain, with a
9 percent return.
Maybe all those ads did achieve something for the Kochs and Rove—an electorate so absolutely disgusted by the whole mess that they just chose to abstain. Less than 34 percent of registered voters showed up, dominated by the ones the Kochs were advertising to.