July 7, 2010

A controversial Supreme Court decision is helping to stuff the coffers of conservative political groups founded by Karl Rove.

President George W. Bush's former senior advisor admitted to Fox News Tuesday that his American Crossroads 527 and Crossroads GPS groups rely on the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision.

The Republican National Committee actually lost money in 2009 but Rove denies that donations to his groups are part of the problem. The party ended the year with $10 million fewer dollars than at the start of the year.

Fox News' Jon Scott asked Rove if his groups were responsible for siphoning fundraising dollars away from the RNC.

SCOTT: I know that you yourself are mentioned in some of these articles as perhaps being part of the RNC's financial problems because you've got this group, American Crossroads, which is raising money. Some suggest that the money that goes to American Crossroads might otherwise go to an organization like the RNC.

ROVE: Well that's not correct, because American Crossroads is collecting money in excess of the individual contribution limits the RNC has allowed to give. What we've essentially said, is if you've maxed out the to senate committee, the congressional committee or the RNC and would like to do more, under the Citizens United decision, you can give money to the American Crossroads 527, or Crossroads GPS, so we're not tapping the people who -- if you've giving to American Crossroads, you're fully capable, in all likelihood, of giving the maximum to one of the national committee organizations.

In January of 2010, the Supreme Court reached a landmark decision in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case. The court ruled that corporations could donate unlimited amounts of money to political organizations.

In his 2010 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama criticized the decision. "Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests -- including foreign corporations -- to spend without limit in our elections," said Obama.

"I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities," he said.

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