NEW: Big Money and Dark Money FLOOD Arizona For Senate Showdown - GOP Outspends Dems $11.7M To $6.5M... THIS WEEK Alone

More than $18 Million has been spent in Arizona's critical U.S. Senate race THIS WEEK alone. And, Republicans groups outspent Democrats $11.7M to $6.5M.

Arizona's Politics has scoured the filings required to be filed with the Federal Elections Commission, and they demonstrate the parties' supporters kicking in big time down the stretch. (Here's our separate article on the Super PAC created to support GOP nominee Blake Masters. )

The Republican effort to play catch-up - Kelly's campaign has greatly out-raised and out-spent Masters' - is demonstrated by the several different groups chipping in major independent expenditures. In addition to the $5.3M spent by the Masters-centric Saving Arizona PAC, Club for Growth spent $5M, the NRA Victory Fund spent nearly $200k on digital advertising today, the Sentinel Action Fund put $500k into TV, American Principles Project threw $300k at digital and the inappropriately-named Women Speak Out spent $272k on canvassing, digital and other media.

The Democratic-philic groups spending to re-elect Sen. Mark Kelly were led by the leadership-associated SMP ($4.1M) and Priorities USA ($1.3M). The SD PAC and Somos PAC each spent about $160k, on digital advertising and canvassing, respectively.

Arizona's race moved today to being rated as a "toss-up" from "leans Democratic" (by Cook Political Report).

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BREAKING: Peter Thiel Gives In, Kicks In; But, His Blake Masters Super PAC ALSO Gets $3M In Dark Money (#50ShadesOfDarkMoney)

The Blake Masters supporting Super PAC started by billionaire Peter Thiel has gone dark. Dark money, that is.

Saving Arizona PAC received $3M earlier this month from the American Exceptionalism Institute, Inc. It was disclosed in a filing today with the Federal Election Commission, but there is no way of knowing who is funneling that money to help elect Blake Masters to the U.S.  Senate.

The other big news from today's filing is that Peter Thiel - Masters' former employer - has given in and kicked in another $2.5M to support his protege. After spending $10M to get Masters through the primary election, Thiel told Mitch McConnell and Republican leaders that it was their turn to pull Masters through the general.

Saving Arizona then became a vehicle for other big money Republicans wanting to try to snatch back the Arizona Senate seat from Mark Kelly. 

Arizona's Politics speculated earlier this month that dark money may have taken over the Super PAC. We now know it was five days earlier that AEI had already done it.

It has spent $5.3M in the past week. For more on the $18.2M spent in Arizona's race THIS WEEK, go here.

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THE MASTERS NETWORK: Winkelvoss Twins/Big Tech Investors/Uihlein Invest $4.5M Into Blake Masters' Candidacy (FOLLOWING $$$ IN AZ'S POLITICS)

The question raised last week when Saving Arizona PAC placed a $2M ad buy to support Blake Masters in his run to unseat Senator Mark Kelly has been answered. The Winkelvoss twins, Richard Uihlein and several big tech investors have stepped in to kick in at least $4.5M.

There has been much speculation about whether Masters' former employer, Peter Thiel, would continue to support the GOP nominee after spending $10M in the primary contest. He had refused and there was reporting that Thiel was facing off with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the rest of the GOP's big money establishment in who should provide the support to try to win back the Arizona seat. The plot thickened last week with the $2M ad buy and the $5.2M total spent since the primary.

This report shows that Thiel stuck to his guns, and that the Super PAC vehicle is being driven by billionaires Richard Uihlein ($3M) and Cameron and Tyler Winkelvoss ($500,000 each). (Yes, the twins featured in The Social Network movie about the disputes surrounding the founding of Facebook. They had previously contributed $50,000 each to Saving Arizona) 

Another $250,000 was kicked in by another Peter Thiel protege - David Sacks and his wife Jacqueline. They ran their money through the "Purple PAC"*

A couple of regular Arizona Republican contributors also threw in some money - builder Tom Lewis ($50,000) and Services Group of Arizona ($10,000)

Amazingly, though, this is just a drop in the bucket of money being spent on the Arizona Senate race. According to AdImpact, the overall spending has reached $110M (as of yesterday), with more than $18M in advertising spots already reserved for the next 19 days.

$80M has been spent by Kelly and Democratic-philic groups and only $30M on the Republican side.

And, just today, Saving Arizona PAC dropped another $1.4M in advertising and $114,000 in "signs".

*Interestingly, the Purple PAC has only sent small contributions to several Republican Senators, and Arizona's other Democratic Senator, Kyrsten Sinema.  

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READ/WATCH: Former AZ Journalists Unite To Support Truth, Journalism, Democracy

As readers of Arizona's Politics and Arizona's Law might expect, I was quick to sign on to the statement issued by former Arizona journalists "IN DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACY, THE FIRST AMENDMENT AND THE FOURTH ESTATE".  The effort and news conference yesterday were led by Rhonda Bannard, Steve Krafft and Marlene Galan.* It was an eloquent and non-partisan plea for people to vote in this incredibly-important election. (The statement and some of the video are below.)

The critical nature of our plea for TRUTH was made even more crystal clear today, when Ben Petersen, the apparent "RNC Arizona Communications Director", tweeted out a completely false tweet purporting to quote Senator Mark Kelly saying that his Democratic colleague (Katie Hobbs) should "just run a better campaign." Kelly made that statement *explicitly* about their Republican opponents, Blake Masters (Senate) and Kari Lake (Governor).

With the veracity of the tweet already being challenged, Kari Lake decided to run with the obvious falsehood. "Wow. @SenMarkKelly just threw @katiehobbs completely under the bus."

Again, Lake knew or should have known that the key part of the quote was actually about HER and not her opponent.

Lake has proven the importance of those editors and colleagues. And those of us who are no longer in the profession but are concerned about the health of our First Amendment and our democracy.

That is why we are speaking out.

*Thanks to friends Nancy Puffer and Sal Caputo, both there in the accompanying picture.

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BREAKING: WATCH New $2M Ad Supporting Blake Masters, Raising Question: Will We Know Who Is Paying For It? (Plus, the Return Of Sean Noble) (#50ShadesOfDarkMoney)

The Super PAC dedicated to supporting Blake Masters' Senatorial run had been funded by his former employer, billionaire Peter Thiel. But Thiel insisted he was not adding more to the $10M he put in to help  power Masters through the primary election.

And, he has kept his word, according to the Saving Arizona PAC men (or, women). 

So, who has put in the $5.2M that has been spent by the Super PAC since then? The next finance report is due in 15 days, and we will learn whether or not the original source(s) is/are disclosed.

Adding to the speculation that we will learn that the money is dark is the return of DC London to the stage. The firm is run and co-founded by Sean Noble, the one-time dark money king for the Koch Brothers network and for outgoing Arizona Governor Doug Ducey. DC London started running the digital media campaign for Saving Arizona after the primary.

Adding a touch of irony to the funding question is that the new ad mimics late night local advertising that inevitably smacks of hucksterism. (It is an obvious attempt to break through the blizzard of serious negative political ads.)

The new $2M ad buy was first reported by NBC News. Watch it below.

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