While prospective presidential candidates in past cycles crisscrossed the country cultivating relationships with county chairmen in Iowa and New Hampshire, most 2016 White House aspirants spent the months leading up to their launches schmoozing billionaires. “These [donations] make more people more cynical and serve to push people away from the polls. Will they be willing to give again?”
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But some doubled up; the late Carl Lindner’s widow, Edyth, gave $50,000 to both candidates, as did their son Carl H., current CEO of the American Financial Group. Half of the 40 billionaires identified by The Wall Street Journal donated a combined $17.4 million to Right to Rise USA while it was on the way to raising an unprecedented $103 million. Friday’s filings, however, gave the first look into how giving has changed since the 2010 Supreme Court decision that opened the door for super PACs. It’s also true that some of these candidates may enjoy vast resources, which they and their teams will invest poorly in the coming months.
“The question is whether we are in a new Gilded Age or well beyond it – to a Platinum Age”, said Michael Malbin, president of the Campaign Finance Institute, which tracks the flow of campaign money. They drop out only if they run out of the “sugar daddy” pumping cash into their super PAC, one expert noted.
Paul S. Ryan, senior counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, said the expansive use of super PACs in the presidential race has “largely rendered the $2,700 candidate contribution limit meaningless”.
The super PAC supporting Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, for instance, reported the donation of the use of a chartered jet valued at $70,000 from billionaire supermarket owner John Catsimatidis. Yet he appeared as a featured speaker at only one of its donor gatherings.
In 2009, more than two years after leaving the governor’s office, Bush penned an opinion piece in the state capital’s newspaper urging regulators to approve the utility’s proposed rate increase for Florida customers. More than a dozen of his $1 million donors hail from one of the states Bush has called home: Texas and Florida. “As president, he would do the same”.
Christie’s Super PAC America Leads got one donor who’s known to defend his brother no matter what. He raised $3.1 million through the America’s Liberty PAC, including a $250 donation from Joyce Dill of Cincinnati. Cruz, Fiorina, Bush, Rubio, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker are expected to attend a meeting this weekend in California in hopes of attracting Koch money.
In addition to Adelson and the Kochs, New York investor Paul Singer, who gave $10.5 million to outside groups in 2014, remains uncommitted.
Among Republicans, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who held an eastern Ohio fundraiser earlier this year, leads so far with $139,827, followed by retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who raised $91,791.
The other three Keep the Promise groups supporting Cruz haven’t yet filed as of early afternoon.
The report showed that at least $415,000 came from donors in Oregon and southwest Washington, although it wasn’t clear whether all of the contributions were tied to the two fundraisers. Hedge-fund billionaire Steve Cohen and his wife, Alexandra, gave the group $2 million, and another $1 million came from the Winecup Gamble Ranch in Nevada, owned by former Reebok chief executive Paul Fireman.
Priorities USA Action, the main group helping Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, will report having raised $15.6 million by June 30.
The Super PAC, now that Bush is an official candidate, is barred from coordinating with the campaign, but Bush’s favorite longtime strategist and top political adviser, Mike Murphy, is working for the Super PAC, not the campaign.
Super PACs – outside groups that can raise unlimited money to spend for presidential candidates – need to release their donors and total money by Friday night at midnight.
As CNN’s Tom LoBianco reports, Joe and Marlene Ricketts gave his super PAC, Unintimidated PAC, $5 million – which accounts for a quarter of the Walker group’s haul. The concentration of donors is greatest on the Republican side, according to the Times’ analysis, where consultants and lawyers have pushed more aggressively to exploit the looser fundraising rules that have fueled the rise of super PACs. It also eclipses the totals announced by any other group, Republican or Democratic, active in the 2016 race.
But most of the recently filed FEC reports reflect relatively little big-money spending so far.
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“That’s the impact of people who are giving a few bucks here and there seeing that candidates only care about the large checks”, he said.
