ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the strategies and tactics employed by the candidates and their partisan allies, with a focus on the general election. It illustrates the ways in which the strategic context and regulatory environment influenced the flow of money and produced a steep rise in the amount of unlimited and often undisclosed funding in the race. The chapter explains what made the financing of the 2012 election unlike that of any other in the post-Watergate era. The 2012 election was the first since the adoption of the public funding system in which public money was not a meaningful source of campaign funds. Since donors rarely give money with the intention of paying for a particular ad, nonprofits that reported electioneering communications expenses did not report the sources of funding. The strategic context of the 2012 election offered wealthy donors strong incentives to contribute to Super Political Action Committees and other organizations engaged in the battle to win the White House.
