By Sam Stein
TILTON, N.H. -- The rapid rise and far-reaching impact of super PACs -- the well-financed non-party groups that helped carry former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to victory in the Iowa caucuses -- have persuaded some prominent Republicans that restrictions of some sort on the groups' activities may be in order.
In an interview with The Huffington Post on Wednesday evening, former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge said he saw no legal way in which to limit the amount of money that these groups could spend or raise. But he said that both he and the candidate he supports, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, believed firmly that the names of the donors funding those groups should be subject to near instantaneous disclosure.
Even Romney, the candidate whose well-moneyed allies are responsible for the super PAC attacks against Gingrich, has said that he would like to see those groups eliminated. The former Massachusetts Gov. received an endorsement from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) this week, who lamented on Thursday that his signature campaign finance law, the McCain-Feingold Act, was gutted by the Supreme Court in Citizens United, the decision that paved the way for super PACs to emerge.
"What is happening now is what I predicted," McCain told CBS. "The United States Supreme Court -- in what I think is one of the worst decisions in history -- struck down the restrictions in the so-called McCain-Feingold Law, and a lot of people don't agree with that, but I predicted when the United States Supreme Court, with their absolute ignorance of what happens in politics, struck down that law, that there would be a flood of money into campaigns, not transparent, unaccounted for, and this is exactly what is happening."
More: Super PAC Disclosure Requirements Hot Topic Of Conversation Among GOP Candidates
