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Jeb Bush denounces super-PACs despite outside money support

Xinhua, February 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said Monday that he would try to overturn the 2010 Supreme Court ruling that opened the door to Super-PACs despite himself being supported by the best-funded super-PAC in this presidential election cycle.

"The ideal situation would be to overturn the Supreme Court ruling that allows for in effect unregulated money independent and regulated money for the campaign," said Bush during a luncheon event with supporters in Nashua, New Hampshire.

"I would turn that on its head if I could," said Bush. "Campaigns ought to be personally accountable and responsible for the money they received."

During his interview with the U.S. TV network CNN on Monday, Bush also called for the elimination of the 2010 Supreme Court ruling that paved the way for unlimited outside money in U.S. elections.

"This is a ridiculous system we have now where you have campaigns that struggle to raise money directly and they can't be held accountable for the spending of the super-PAC that's their affiliate," said Bush.

Despite his criticism of the Supreme Court ruling in 2010 that directly led to the creation of the Super-PAC, a political fundraising organization which can receive and spend unlimited money from individuals and corporations in an election as long it does not coordinate their efforts with any candidate's campaign, Bush had so far been supported in this election cycle by millions of dollars spent by Right to Rise, a Super-PAC that pulled in 118 million dollars last year.

Bush's remarks on reining in outside campaign money were unusual for a Republican candidate but could be popular with primary voters as the ordinary Americans were expressing increased concerns about big money's influence in the 2016 presidential elections.

According to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of new campaign finance filings released early this year, all presidential candidates and outside groups supporting them together raised more than 837 million dollars in 2015, among which nearly half came from super-PACs. Endi