The Center for Public Integrity

Republicans and conservative super PACs have pounced on President Barack Obama’s July 13 comment at an event in Virginia: “If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that.”

Thursday’s ad from American Crossroads, the football-themed “Replay,” hammers home their talking point: that Obama believes small business owners didn’t build their businesses on their own.

The super PAC’s July 24 ad “Build” also uses the quote, as has the Mitt Romney campaign and other GOP candidates. The Republican National Committee’s video “The More Context You Get, the Worse It Sounds” also takes advantage of the admittedly artless quote.

But in fact, the more context you “get,” the more holes show up in the argument.

Obama’s speech on July 13 focused on government investments — in infrastructure, public schools and research. He talked about the investors, the educators and the inventors that underlie the American economy.

It becomes clear with context that Obama is not dismissing the effort of business owners: “The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together,” Obama said seconds after the “you didn’t build that” comment.

But the ads show the quote as a stand-alone; no context is provided. The Romney campaign goes so far as to play the statement on a loop for 15 seconds in an online video.

Getting into the spirit of the Olympics, Priorities USA Action, a pro-President Barack Obama super PAC, released “Romney’s Gold” Wednesday, blasting the former Massachusetts governor’s tenure with Bain Capital.

The ad depicts footage from the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, which Mitt Romney has been credited with saving, and some creative narration describing the countries with which he has ties. (The opening ceremonies are Friday.)

"There’s Mitt Romney, who ran the Salt Lake City Games, waving to China — home to a billion people. Thousands owe their jobs to Mitt Romney’s companies," says the announcer. "India, which also gained jobs thanks to Romney, an outsourcing pioneer. And Burma, where Romney had the uniforms made for the 2002 games."

The announcer continues with Switzerland, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, accusing him of using the nations’ favorable banking laws to add to his wealth.

The battle between two Republicans for the open U.S. Senate seat in Texas is becoming increasingly ugly with super PACs doing much of the dirty work.

The Texas Conservatives Fund, a super PAC supporting Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, is running an ad that features a mother whose son committed suicide after a stay at a for-profit juvenile detention facility, the developer of which Cruz, Dewhurst’s opponent, defended in court.

The ad, released Monday, is called “Ted Cruz Should Be Ashamed.”

Dewhurst and tea party-favorite Cruz, the state’s former solicitor general, face off again on July 31 since neither candidate was able to win a majority in last May’s primary.

The new ad refers to Cruz’s legal representation of Robert Mericle, a developer involved in the “kids for cash” scandal in Pennsylvania in 2008. Two judges were accused of accepting bribes from Mericle to send children to his facilities.

Mericle pled guilty to concealing evidence of a felony, according to news reports.

By linking Cruz, a high-profile appellate lawyer, to Mericle, the ad is somewhat misleading. According to both Cruz’s campaign website and news reports, Cruz represented Mericle in a civil suit over breach of contract with an insurance company, which was refusing to pay to help settle civil claims resulting from the scandal, the Texas Tribune reported.

Cruz was not involved in the criminal case against Mericle.

The kids-for-cash scandal has nonetheless become a flashpoint in the runoff election.

Conservative super PAC American Crossroads made one of the largest single ad buys of the election so far, spending nearly $8 million on ads opposing President Barack Obama, the group reported to the Federal Election Commission Friday.

Co-founded by Republican strategist Karl Rove, American Crossroads spent $7.9 million on air time to Crossroads Media and $40,000 on ad production to McCarthy-Hennings Media Inc., the same firm that created the negative ads for pro-Mitt Romney super PAC Restore Our Future.

American Crossroads posted “Build” on YouTube Friday, an ad attacking Obama’s position on small business, and “Smoke” on Thursday, which blames Obama for not fixing the economy and frames Obama’s attacks on Mitt Romney’s business record as a smokescreen.

“Smoke” is airing for 11 days in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia, according to news reports. American Crossroads has not issued a press release.

One of the ad’s central claims, that Obama added $4 billion in new debt every day, is misleading, according to an analysis by the Associated Press.

Congress holds the nation’s purse strings. Furthermore, the ad takes an overly simplistic view that the national debt is a major driver of the weak economy, according to the AP analysis.

New Mexico’s U.S. Senate race, which pits former Republican congresswoman Heather Wilson against current Democratic congressman Martin Heinrich saw more outside money flow in from environmental groups opposing Wilson.

The nonprofit Sierra Club Political Committee reported spending $140,000 on salaries, benefits, consulting and media buys against Wilson, according to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission Thursday.

On July 17, the Sierra Club began airing the anti-Wilson ad, “Dirty Water, Dirty Politics,” featuring a school child drinking from a water fountain gushing brown water.

And Environment America Inc., also a nonprofit, reported spending about $13,000 canvassing and strategizing on behalf of Heinrich between July 11 and July 19, the group reported.

The race, to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman, is as an important test for Republicans since the state has a large Hispanic population and those voters tend to lean left. A win for Republicans in New Mexico could help the GOP take the Senate.

The League of Conservation Voters has aired three TV ads against Wilson since June 21: “We’re All Paying for It,” “Emma” and “Who’s Wilson With?”

Super PACs continue to pour money into the U.S. Senate GOP primary runoff in Texas, with some groups spending to support establishment favorite David Dewhurst and others to support tea party-backed Ted Cruz.

On May 29, Dewhurst, the lieutenant governor of Texas, failed to secure 50 percent of the vote in the GOP primary. Cruz, the state’s former solicitor general, finished second, thrusting the two men into a runoff, which will be held on July 31.

On Wednesday, Club for Growth Action, a super PAC that supports fiscally conservative candidates, reported spending more than $450,000 on ads designed to aid Cruz, their favored candidate. The documents filed with the Federal Election Commission note that the money was spent on July 17.

This comes in addition to a $1.5 million ad campaign that Club for Growth Action announced last week, when they launched a pro-Cruz ad called “Time” and an anti-Dewhurst ad called “Mud.”

The tea party-aligned super PAC FreedomWorks for America has also aided Cruz’s campaign with more than $71,000 in expenditures between July 12 and July 17, the group reported Wednesday. FreedomWorks for America has already produced two pro-Cruz ads this month.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the country’s largest pro-business trade association, has reported spending more than $1.1 million on ads in four contested U.S. Senate races, according to Federal Election Commission records.

While the Chamber says it is a bipartisan group, the four spots are designed to aid Republican candidates in Nevada, Hawaii, New Mexico and North Dakota — battleground races that could lead to GOP control of the Senate next year.

The Republican National Committee filed a report Monday with the Federal Election Commission showing more than $5.1 million in independent expenditures against President Barack Obama.

The report shows the seven-figure sum paid for focus groups, media production and media placement.

According to press reports, the ads, which began running Saturday, encourage viewers that “it’s OK to make a change” and are airing in seven battleground states: Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia.

The RNC’s website and YouTube channel do not yet feature the new ad. A representative from the RNC did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.

In other outside spending news: