Republican-aligned super PACs and other outside conservative groups have spent more than $144 million on general election ads in swing presidential states, a huge outlay of cash that has allowed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney to not only combat but exceed heavy early ad spending by President Obama.

Roughly 80 percent of all ad spending by Republicans on the general election has come from these super PACs, as Romney has expended a relatively meager $35 million to date on ads in swing states, according to ad buy figures provided to the Fix by a GOP media buyer.

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Republican outside groups have spent seven times as much as their Democratic counterparts on ads so far in the general election. In fact, the two-pronged American Crossroads (a super PAC) and Crossroads GPS (a 501c4) have spent in excess of $94 million on TV ads — approximately five times as much as Democratic super PACs have spent combined. And that $94 million is roughly two and a half times more than Romney himself has spent on ads in the general election to date.

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What that raft of numbers make clear is that Republican super PACs and other outside groups have effectively kept Romney afloat as he recovered — financially and otherwise — from a costly Republican primary campaign.

New Wall Street Scandal Threatens Romney
A surprising development on Wall Street Thursday could magnify a little-discussed but key difference between President Obama and Mitt Romney — one with enormous consequences for public policy.

On a conference call with analysts, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon announced that his firm had lost $2 billion investing in the same species of derivative that exacerbated the 2008 financial crisis.

Dimon claims the company is prepared to absorb the loss, but it puts the reputation of one of the only big firms to weather the 2008 financial crisis directly on the line.

This is exactly the type of major loss of depositor money that the Obama administration sought to ban with one of the major planks of its 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law — the Volcker Rule, named after former Fed chairman Paul Volcker. And that’s bad news for Romney, who wants to repeal the whole law, Volcker Rule and all.

Mitt Romney says he wants to talk about the economy in this presidential campaign, including his call to repeal the Dodd-Frank financial regulation law. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)’s $2 billion trading loss in risky transactions isn’t the sort of conversation he had in mind.

So far, presumptive Republican nominee Romney has said little about the transaction that is roiling Wall Street and Washington, prompting an inquiry by the Federal Reserve, a call for a congressional investigation and a demand by Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic Senate candidate in Massachusetts, that JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon resign from the board of the New York Federal Reserve.
“Any time you have a development that suggests businesses take unnecessary and unwise risks, you give ammunition to Democrats and cause problems for the Republican narrative,” said Stu Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report. “Romney will have to deal with it.”

Romney, co-founder of private-equity firm Bain Capital LLC, has spotlighted his vow to repeal the Dodd-Frank law that aims to strengthen financial regulations, calling it one of several overly burdensome laws backed by President Barack Obama that costs jobs. Romney hasn’t directly commented on the JP Morgan losses since Dimon disclosed them on May 10; he ignored a reporter’s shouted question about the matter at a May 11 rally in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Romney is mum on how to regulate big banks
Republican Mitt Romney is pledging to repeal the Dodd-Frank financial regulations, a promise that is helping him reap millions from Wall Street contributors. But the presidential candidate is silent on how, without Dodd-Frank’s new rules, he would prevent the nation’s investment houses and bankers from once again engaging in the sorts of risky, poorly regulated practices that caused the 2008 financial crisis. It is a notable gap in the platform of a candidate who is running on his business acumen and who, at every turn, sharply criticizes President Obama’s handling of the post-meltdown economy.