citizenship to children. >> and if you want to keep i'm to date with all the stories we've been telling you about, head over to the website. you can see the front page all for you at aljazeera.com. >> i'm ali velshi. "on target" tonight. your donations don't always go where you think they do. we're on the money, to expose a system where almost anything goes and even the candidates themselves can't control it. there are still 14 months to go before americans vote for their next president in november of 2016. but the television air waves in some key states are already so inundated with campaign commercials you would think the

election is happening tomorrow. all through the 2016 election season al jazeera america is teaming up with the center for public integrity. a nonpartisan nonprofit investigative organization in washington. together we're going to follow the obscene amounts of money being raised and spent on the campaign trail. republican candidates running in their party's presidential primaries have put out an estimated 11,000 tv ads in recent months. at the same time, democrat candidates in their presidential primaries produced an estimated 4,000 ads. again we're still months away, more than a year away from the election and months away from the 2016 primaries. these figures are the total number of tv ads paid for by candidates, special interest groups, and so-called super-paks super-pacs, short for

superpolitical action committees. unlimited sums of money to promote a candidate for a political party. that explains why 90% of the gop ads we're talking about were paid for by superpacs unlike the officially campaign, superpacs are not committed to contribute to or coordinate directly with either political parties or candidates. but critics charge there's a lot of indirect coordination between the superpacs and the campaigns. it is a phenomenon that has supercharged campaign finance forecasts for this upcoming election cycle. donors and others now expect an astonishing $5 billion will be spent on the 2016 presidential race that is double the amount spent in 2012. and when you follow the money, you see that superpacs have made this election the wild west and the candidate with the biggest weapon by his side is jeb bush.

david schuster explains. >> as jurv jeb bush introduces himself to the residents of iowa and new hampshire. >> over 200 new charter schools, the state was florida, the governor was jeb bush. proven conservative. real results. jeb. right to rise u.s.a. is responsible for the content of this message. >> reporter: but these ads are not from mr. bush's campaign. they are from right to rise u.s.a. a superpac that is supposed to operate separately and unde independently from the candidate. less than a quarter of the total the superpac has so far reported bringing in, $103 million. in the same time period the bush campaign itself reported only bringing in

$11.4 million. why the difference? unlike a candidate's campaign superpacs can raise and spend unlimited's of money. most of the presidential campaigns in both parties are also getting a boost from superpacs and so far the center for public integrity have said those pacs have bankrolled 90% of all political ads. the ruling called citizens united the justices ss s affirmed, independent political action committees these are the groups known as superpacs. relying on a superpac though does carry risk. donald trump was paying for all

of his campaign efforts has repeatedly criticized mr. bush saying the former florida governor is already beholden. >> when they give 5 million or 2 million to jeb they have him just like a puppet. >> never mind the political optics, there is if the superpac goes rogue, superpac and candidates are not supposed to coordinate with each other. in other words if jeb bush does not like what right to rise is doing or how they are spending money there is nothing he can do to stop it. >> the power of these superpacs spreads well beyond washington. daniel craig's strange connection to the word of >> al jazeera america, weekday mornings. catch up on what happened overnight with a full morning brief. get a first hand look with in-depth reports and investigations. start weekday mornings with al jazeera america. open your eyes

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catch up on what happened overnight with a full morning brief. get a first hand look with in-depth reports and investigations. start weekday mornings with

al jazeera america. open your eyes to a world in motion. >> okay we are continuing this conversation about campaign finance, superpacs and the obscene amounts much money being raised and spent already in this election cycle. dan backer is the lead attorney for db capital strategies where he focuses on campaign strategy law. last year he argued a case before the u.s. supreme court. he called on the justices to eliminate the ceiling on what wealthy individuals can donate to federal candidates parties and political action committees in a single two year election cycle. he joins me from washington, dan thank you so much for joining us. i'm going to allow you to make your case for why money spent in the political system is a good thing. but the examples we have just cited, i didn't really think

like we were talking about these nuts on tv but the example of the superpac associated with bernie sanders that bernie sanders doesn't want associated with it, is that not the clearest example of where this has gone wrong? >> no, actually it's not. i think and i think most people involved on my side of the aisle would say, the right of individuals to engage with one another to associate with one another and to start their own organizations free of the candidates free of the parties tree of pri political insiders, are a good thing. carrie peterson, may or may not be a good example, doesn't look like it, but there are remedies for it. i heard about mr. mr. shuster and mr. beckel talk about buying lamborghinis. you can't buy a lamborghini. tyler harbor in virginia in

going to jail. had you same pate also in virginia going to jail. couple of years ago, had you jesse jackson junior sitting congressman for embezzling campaign funds go to jail. someone who did the campaign finance work for moat o most of the california democratic party go to jail. the police are doing their jobs and while carrie lee peterson may have somehow gotten $50,000 from james bond has a lot more to do with the fact that daniel craig is throwing around political contributions like it's a fashion accessory and not caring where his money goes. >> i know that the securities and exchange commission last nowhere near the teeth of the authority to do anything about this. are we in a situation where we have a regulatory body who can't possibly police this down?

>> their remedies are civil enforcement. the department of justice on the other hand is actively engaged in political prosecutions where they have these problems. they have a guilty plea they are sending tyler harbor and sam pate to jail. the department of justice is doing its job investigating acts in the political finance system. and providing a tremendous amounts of data that forms the basis of these complaints. >> what should a guy like me do if i want to support a candidate, to the extent that i want to donate more money than the federal limits are on donating to a candidate? how do i determine what's legitimate and what's not? >> well, if you've already maxed out to the candidate let's say for both elections and you're looking to do that something more the first thing you can look to do is a simple google search, who's out there

supporting the candidate of your choice. let's say you support bernie is a bad choice, if anybody googles bernie sanders, they would get bernie sanders doesn't like superpacs and doesn't want their money. hopefully q could hem james bond out. it's a bad joke i'm a lawyer it's the best i can do. let's say johnson, the libertarian candidate in 2012, if i don't get in trouble for naming any real candidate. you would google gary johnson, you would find their superpac, their website saying they are supporting gary johnson, they are not the authorized committee, frankly at the level of $50,000 i would have thought

that a little due diligence would be have been appropriate here. carrie peterson did not have reports on file. if i had been in that position i would say let's find somebody else, there's other ways to look at it. who are the people involved, what are their political pedigrees or professional pedigrees? i don't believe in the political universe always the better people to run on superpacs couple but it doesn't mean that there are not plenty of individuals out there who are trying to start their efforts free from the vendor universe who like to say, i like bernie or hillary or rand paul. >> i think that was what you were discussing with the supreme court. dan packer, thank you for joining us, that is our show for today. i'm ali velshi, thank you for joining us.

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