今年美国大选将是史上最昂贵的选战

Republicans are rapidly eroding the huge funding advantage that propelled Barack Obama into the White House, with wealthy donors flooding new conservative campaign groups with cash ahead of the presidential election in November.

庞大的经费优势曾助力巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)入主白宫，现在共和党正在这方面快速赶超。在11月总统大选之前，富有的捐赠者正将大量资金捐给新的保守主义竞选团体。

The so-called super-Pac backing Mitt Romney, the Republican frontrunner for the 2012 nomination, raised $30m last year, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission published on Wednesday, with ten individuals and corporations donating $1m each.

根据联邦选举委员会(Federal Election Commission)周三公布的文件，支持2012年总统大选共和党提名领跑者米特•罗姆尼(Mitt Romney)的所谓“超级政治行动委员会”(super PAC)，去年筹集了3000万美元，其中10家公司/个人各捐了100万美元。

Super-Pacs have proliferated in the wake of a 2010 Supreme Court decision allowing political action committees to take unlimited donations from companies and spend them at any time before polling day, as long as they do not co-ordinate with the candidates themselves.

超级政治行动委员会是在2010年美国最高法院(Supreme Court)做出一项裁定后大量产生的。这项裁定允许政治活动委员会无限量接受公司捐赠，并在选举日之前的任何时间进行花费，只要它们不与候选人本人进行协调。 

One conservative campaign group co-founded by Karl Rove, former adviser to George W. Bush, which includes a super-Pac, raised $51m by the end of 2011, raking in $7m in two donations from a single Texas businessman, Harold Simmons.

由乔治•W•布什(George W. Bush)前顾问卡尔•罗夫(Karl Rove)联合创立的一个保守主义竞选团体，就包含了一个超级政治行动委员会，该委员会截至2011年底筹集了5100万美元，其中德克萨斯州商人哈罗德•西蒙斯(Harold Simmons)一人的两笔捐款就达到700万美元。 

By contrast, the super-Pac supporting Mr Obama, co-founded by the president's former deputy press secretary, Bill Burton, had raised only $4.4m by the end of last year.

与此形成反差的是，支持奥巴马的超级政治行动委员会截至去年底仅筹集了440万美元，它是由总统的前副新闻秘书比尔•伯顿(Bill Burton)联合创立的。 

Because of the influence of the super-Pacs, and the likelihood that neither candidate will accept public funding — which would limit their spending — the 2012 election will be by far the most expensive presidential race in history, with total campaign outlays expected to top $2bn-3bn.

鉴于超级政治行动委员会的影响力，以及两名候选人可能都不会接受公共资金（那会限制他们的支出），2012年总统大选将是史上遥遥领先的最昂贵竞选，总竞选费用预计高达20亿-30亿美元。