A super PAC’s abortive plan to launch incendiary, personally charged attack ads againstPresident Barack Obama sent a sharp warning message to candidates up and down the federal ballot: This year more than ever, they are not in control of their own destinies.
Campaigns and party committees have recognized since before the 2012 race began that independent spending groups would play an outsized role this cycle. But the revelation last week that the Ending Spending Action Fund, a group backed by billionaire Joe Ricketts, hadconsidered a proposal to run ads about Obama’s past ties to the firebrand preacher Jeremiah Wright highlighted just how little traditional political groups will be able to manage the 2012 debate.
To strategists on both sides of the presidential fight, the Ending Spending flap looked like a near miss — a sign of the ease with which reckless donors and operatives could meddle in this year’s campaign with a provocative message not authorized by either party.
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