Ready for Hillary

In this class, we shall discuss partisan outside groups (POGs), which include Super PACs and 501(c)(4) advocacy organizations.  Beth Reinhard reports at National Journal:

The Hillary Hoodie with the "Herculean H" logo goes for $38. Asphalt gray. One hundred percent cotton fleece. The mobile-phone cover features that badass photo of the former secretary of State in dark sunglasses looking intently at her phone. T-shirts and water bottles come in hip shades of fluorescent yellow, pink, and green.

"It was madness here over the holidays," said Seth Bringman, a spokesman for the Ready for Hillary super PAC, showing off a T-shirt-strewn storeroom that recalled an understaffed Gap store on Black Friday.

With 2013 sales of more than $350,000, the online store is one sign of the group's yearlong maturation from a shoestring gig run by a couple of junior-varsity Clinton staffers to a $4 million operation with the imprimatur of the Obama campaign.

Ready for Hillary claims to have an e-mail list that's bigger than Clinton's 2008 campaign database and more donors combined than major presidential super PACS like Crossroads, Restore our Future, Priorities USA, and American Bridge. The idea is to turn all of that over to Clinton, if and when she launches a presidential campaign.