-By Paul Blumnthal

November 4, 2012- WASHINGTON -- The independent group American Crossroads, a super PAC, and Crossroads GPS, a social welfare non-profit, set a goal to raise and spend $300 million on the 2012 election. When all is said and done on Nov. 6, they will, in all likelihood, have reached or come incredibly close to that once unbelievable goal.

The two groups, founded by Republican political operative Karl Rove and others in 2010, have already spent $271 million, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission and press releases.

Crossroads spokesman Jonathan Collegio told The Huffington Post that the groups will succeed in their $300 million effort.

"The Crossroads groups will meet their goal of raising $300m for the 2011-12 cycle because there is a great desire to change the direction of the country and donors see Crossroads as an effective and efficient platform for effecting change," he wrote in an email.

Today, we offered a million dollar reward for hard information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone using corrupt or fraudulent means to rig a 2012 federal election so the real winner loses.  The information must result in a correction of the fraudulent election and must be new information not previously reported.

There has been a great deal of nefarious activity in the run up to this election mostly by partisans on the Republican side of the aisle. Karl Rove is receiving a great deal of scrutiny for raising hundreds of millions from GOP billionaires to defeat President Obama.

So we want cyber sleuths and whistleblowers of all stripes to keep an eye out for things that normally stay hidden, such as manipulation of the tabulation results.  We have a tip line 1-888-VOTETIP or send to tips@velvetrevolution.us.

-By Kevin Liptak

October 16, 2012- American Crossroads, the major conservative super PAC co-founded by Karl Rove, said Tuesday it was spending another $11 million to air a spot critical of President Barack Obama in key battleground states.

The ad, which features a woman at her kitchen table directing questions to Obama, will run in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia. It will also air on stations airing Big 10 and SEC college football games.

The ad buy Tuesday comes after another $11 million buy from Crossroads, announced last week, which ran in the same eight battleground states. That spot hit Obama for his record on jobs.

The commercial released Tuesday begins with a woman watching an Obama ad on television, before turning to the camera and saying: "Mr. President, here's what I want to know: where are the jobs you promised? The trillions you spent – where did it all go? What's there to show for all of that new debt? And if we're in a recovery, why are we making less?"

-By Saki Knafo

October 1, 2012- Tim Bishop is a scoundrel. Just ask Karl Rove.

A new ad by Rove’s super PAC, Crossroads GPS, is trying to frame the five-term Long Island congressman as a paragon of corruption, highlighting a recent episode in which Bishop’s staff solicited a campaign contribution from a constituent who had asked for the congressman’s help in securing a fireworks permit.

The constituent, Eric Semler, wanted to throw a pyrotechnic bar mitzvah bash for his son, and Bishop agreed to step in on his behalf. But before the permits came through, Bishop’s staff held out a palm to Semler, who ultimately donated $5,000 to the congressman, according to a report by Politico.

-By Justin Sink and Cameron Joseph

October 2, 2012- The conservative super-PAC backed by former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove announced Tuesday that it would purchase $11 million in television commercials this week, their largest one-week buy of the election, in a new campaign slamming President Obama's jobs record.

The significant ad buy from American Crossroads comes on top of an additional $1 million radio buy and a $4 million television campaign targeting U.S. Senate races in North Dakota, Florida, Virginia and Montana, the group reported Tuesday. The Senate ads will be funded by Crossroads GPS, an affiliated political advocacy organization.

"Obama's weak leadership has yielded weak results and a weaker America. Staying on Obama’s course means a weaker America every day," Crossorads Chairman Steven Law, a former Bush administration official, said in a statement.

From the numbers they cite to the illustrations they use, some of the televised anti-Obama commercials developed for conservative political groups are indistinguishable except for the disclaimer saying who approved the message

-By Jeremy W. Peters

September 24, 2012- Independent political groups have long been the guerrilla warriors of presidential elections, tossing explosive advertisements into the middle of a campaign like hand grenades, with little regard for the strategy of the candidate they support.

But this year, in a tight race that leaves very little room for error, the conservative “super PACs” and other outside entities working to defeat President Obama have reached a consensus: Going off message is simply too risky.

Russ Feingold tells Salon the post-Citizens United world is "even more shameless" than he imagined

-By Alex Seitz-Wald

September 22, 2012- Former Sen. Russ Feingold is one of the country’s most outspoken voices on campaign finance reform, spearheading several major pieces of legislation to clean up money in politics during his time in Washington. He continues that work today with the group he founded, ProgressivesUnited. As we get close to Election Day and have seen the impact of the Citizens United decision on the first presidential campaign since the Supreme Court handed down the ruling, Feingold spoke with Salon about how campaign finance has changed for the worse and what can be done to fix the system. This conversation has been lightly edited for brevity.

-By Glenn Thrush and Byron Tau

September 18, 2012- Mitt Romney’s campaign might appear to be collapsing like a cheap card table, but one top Democrat close to President Barack Obama had a curt warning for allies who were declaring the election all but over on Tuesday.

It ain’t over, he said, until Karl Rove sings.

That litmus test of when George W. Bush’s former impresario gives up on the race reflects the unprecedented strength of the powerful money machine supporting the GOP. It also shows why even a wounded Republican standard-bearer could limp to victory in November.

“I’ll relax when Karl Rove wakes up one morning and realizes that Mitt Romney can’t win the White House, and he needs to throw all his money at other races,” the adviser told POLITICO hours after Mother Jones posted hidden video of Romney describing Obama supporters as a government-dole-addicted 47 percent of the population who will never vote for the Republican.

Craig Unger on the Continuing Power of Karl Rove from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.