Election 2012 Super PAC: Stephen Colbert Loses Staffer to Rick Perry Campaign

Aug. 18, 2011 -- The treasurer of Stephen Colbert's Super PAC has quit to work for Texas Gov. Rick Perry's presidential campaign, drawing attention to these organizations that raise unlimited amounts of money from unions and corporations.

Colbert's Super PAC had been using real money as part of a joke, encouraging people to support fictitious candidate "Rick Parry" at the Iowa Straw Poll, even as Gov. Perry was flirting with a run for the presidency.

Salvatore Pupura was treasurer of the Colbert Super PAC but will now work for the real-life Perry campaign.

Colbert's high-concept mockery of the political process might qualify as a joke for the comedian's TV audience but the rise of Super PACs is not. They are raising real money and are likely to affect the 2012 elections, experts say.

There is a Super PAC (political action committee), for instance, that really does back the interests of Gov. Perry, but is not affiliated with his campaign. It is called "Make Us Great Again." A similar Super PAC, "Restore Our Future," is expected to back former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. A former consultant for Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., who is also running for president, has broken off to form a Super PAC, Citizens for a Working America.

Similarly, Super PACs are springing up to promote liberal interests, too. The AFL-CIO, for instance, plans to launch its own Super PAC.

Disclosure forms filed with the Federal Election Commission in August show an early buildup of money collected by newly formed political groups, also known as Super PACs, that can accept unlimited contributions from corporations, unions and other groups.

Both liberal and conservative groups raked in millions of dollars, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Democrats are playing catch-up after Republican Super PACs swooped into key House races in the final days of the 2010 midterm elections and, with organizing and advertising, helped Republicans take control of the House of Representatives.

The top three liberal-oriented Super PACs, all of which were formed after that 2010 shellacking, are House Majority PAC, Priorities USA Action, a group started by two former Obama White House staffers, and Majority PAC. They raised a total of $5.2 million for 2012.