Must-read Open Secrets deep dive:

Bruce Rauner is a Chicago billionaire who has never held political office, yet this spring he mowed down a crowd of rivals and claimed the GOP nomination to be Illinois’ next governor. David Perdue is a wealthy former executive who also has never been elected to public office, yet he too knocked off a string of far more experienced Republican opponents to win the party’s Senate nomination in Georgia.

Despite never having endured a run for office, both men battled through crowded fields studded with much more campaign-savvy candidates, digging into their own wallets to heavily finance their bids. In a primary season defined by the insider-vs-outsider story line, in both cases the new-guy-with-money pushed by the insiders and outsiders and got the win.

The pair are seeking very different offices in very different states, and don’t seem particularly ideologically aligned. But their campaigns have had two common elements, aside from their success thus far.

First, both benefited from large ad buys by a mysterious Ohio nonprofit that hides its donors and has no obvious interest in Rauner or Perdue’s campaigns. The ads have harshly attacked the two men’s rivals.

Second, they both employed a political consultant named Nick Ayers.

And Ayers, it turns out, worked for the very same groups that funded the attacks against Rauner and Perdue’s opponents.