While President Barack Obama has staunchly opposed the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision that allowed the creation of so-called Super PACs, the president's re-election campaign has revealed that it has decided to support Priorities USA, a Super PAC founded by two former White House aides.
Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said the decision partly reflected the massive amounts of money that Super PACs affiliated with Republican presidential candidates have spent on negative ads.
Predicting that Republican-affiliated Super PACs will spend half a billion dollars trying to defeat Obama, Messina said, "With so much at stake, we can't allow for two sets of rules in this election whereby the Republican nominee is the beneficiary of unlimited spending and Democrats unilaterally disarm."
"Therefore, the campaign has decided to do what we can, consistent with the law, to support Priorities USA in its effort to counter the weight of the GOP Super PAC," he added.
With the decision, Messina said that senior campaign officials as well as some White House and Cabinet officials will attend and speak at Priorities USA fundraising events.
However, he noted that President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and First Lady Michelle Obama will not be a part of the effort.
Messina said, "It's my hope that by making this decision and doing what we can to neutralize the onslaught of special-interest money, we can ensure that the decisive factor in this election won't be an unprecedented flood of special-interest spending, and the outcome will be back in the hands of ordinary Americans."
The Supreme Court's Citizens United decision allowed for the creation of non-candidate political action committees that can receive and spend unlimited money. The decision also allowed the committees to accept money from corporations and unions rather than just wealthy individuals.
The decision by the Obama campaign comes after recent fundraising numbers showed that Republican-affiliated Super PACs have raised far more money than groups supporting Obama.
Although the campaign contends that the decision is necessary to compete with their deep-pocketed rivals, the move could turn off some supporters, as Obama has routinely called for a reduction in special-interest influence in Washington.
Republicans have also labeled the move as hypocritical, with American Crossroads spokesman Jonathan Collegio calling the decision a "brazenly cynical move by Barack Obama and his political handlers."
Collegio noted that Obama had previously suggested that spending by such outside groups could be a "threat to democracy."
Last week, Collegio revealed that American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, two Republican-affiliated groups tied to strategist Karl Rove, raised $51 million in 2011.
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