Super PAC

The Republican split that defines this year’s presidential campaign has been on display in Congress for years, with the most conservative wing battling party leaders on issues from spending to immigration. A ProPublica analysis of campaign donations highlights just how profound this gap has become in the House of Representatives. “Sometimes,” Hasen said, “self-interest can trump ideology.”

Newt Gingrich is coming out now and saying big donors like Sheldon Adelson, who donated millions to his 2012 presidential campaign, have too much power. And his idea of election reform is ludicrous.

A U.S. House candidate in Montana is benefiting from a political action committee he created, leading at least one opponent and some experts to question the legality of the peculiar arrangement. Ryan Zinke, a former Navy SEAL who is seeking the Republican nomination for Montana's lone congressional seat, created the Special Operations for America (SOFA) super PAC to back Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign. The committee now backs candidates who support the military — and their first candidate is Zinke, a 52-year-old former state senator.

The dark money giant Crossroads GPS, launched by Republican strategist Karl Rove, told the IRS it raised almost $180 million in 2012, including one donation of $22.5 million, another of $18 million and another of $10 million. Fifty donations were for $1 million or more. Because the group is a social welfare nonprofit, none of the donors have to be made public.

The "no compromise" gun rights organization Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, which dominated the opposition at the Colorado state capitol last spring to the slate of gun safety bills passed by the General Assembly, today announced their endorsement of Sen. Greg Brophy in the 2014 GOP gubernatorial primary.

As Congress readies for a drawn-out immigration debate, a coalition of fundraisers who support overhauling immigration is funneling donations to a new crop of outside groups designed to protect like-minded congressional Republicans who fear a backlash by GOP's core supporters.