AMERICA’S RICH MAKE THEIR PICKS FOR PREZ
Mega donors let big dollars do the talking in White House race
Some of America’s richest individuals and their family members WASHINGTON showered millions of dollars on the presidential campaign during the final half of the year, picking sides in a bitterly contested and increasingly expensive White House battle.
A super PAC supporting Republican Marco Rubio’s candidacy raised $14.4 million during the last half of 2015 with half the money coming from just five wealthy individuals. Steven A. Cohen, one of Wall Street’s richest men, is betting on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s chances in New Hampshire, and with his wife, Alexandra, donated $4 million last year to a super PAC supporting the two-term governor.
At the same time, billionaire financier George Soros, one of the most prominent donors on the left, has re-engaged in American elections, pouring $8 million into super PACs aligned with Democrat Hillary Clinton in the year before the election. That’s nearly three times the amount he gave to super PACs during the 2012 presidential election.
Rubio, a first-term Florida senator, was another top pick for the wealthy donors. Two billionaire hedge funders, Elliot Management’s Paul Singer and Citadel’s Ken Griffin, led the way, each contributing $2.5 million to the pro-Rubio Conservative Solutions PAC.
“Many of the major donors are now making choices and taking a look at the viability of candidates,” said Anthony Corrado, who teaches government at Colby College in Maine. “In particular, Republican donors seem to be gravitating to Marco Rubio as their best choice” to face Clinton in a general election matchup.
Super PACs, which can raise and spend unlimited amounts, are rapidly changing the contours of the presidential race.
Candidate-aligned super PAC have raised nearly $350 million so far, according to tally by the liberal-leaning U.S. PIRG, which supports more restrictions on political spending. That’s more than seven times the $47 million collected by candidate-specific super PACs at this point in the 2012 White House contest.
“Super PACs funded by wealthy donors and special-interest groups have more influence in our elections today than they have at any time in recent memory, and their influence is grow- ing,” said Dan Smith of U.S. PIRG, which is seeking to overturn the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens
United decision that paved the way for super PACs.
Those vast sums have fueled an all-out air war in early voting states, as super PACs aligned with Jeb Bush, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and other Republicans scorch their rivals in last-minute television advertising. Kantar’s Campaign Media Analysis Group predicts all political spending on television commercials will hit $4.4 billion before Election Day in November, up from $3.8 million four years ago.
The new campaign reports, however, underscore the limits of big money.
Bush, once a fundraising frontrunner, saw his donations plummet along with his poll numbers last year. His campaign raised just $7.1 million during the final three months of 2015, down from $13.4 million the previous quarter.
While his super PAC, Right to Rise, collected $15.1 million during the last half of the year, its haul amounted to a fraction of the $103 million collected during the previous six months. Right to Rise relied on a single donation — $10 million from a company run by ex-AIG chief Maurice “Hank” Greenberg — for the lion’s share of the new money it obtained.
Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, battling GOP front-runner Donald Trump for primacy among Tea Party voters, each had their best fundraising hauls of the year, raising $14.2 million and $20.5 million, respectively, for their campaigns.
Cruz started the year with $18.7 million in cash reserves, the biggest cash stockpile of any Republican contender.
The biggest fundraisers of the 2016 campaign, however, are the top two candidates vying for the Democratic presidential nomination. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton collected $115.6 million in 2015, far surpassing all the super PACs supporting her candidacy. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders raised $75 million during the same period.
Sanders’ campaign, however, is buoyed by record numbers of small donors. Seventy percent of the nearly $33.6 million he raised during the October-to-December fundraising quarter came in amounts of $200 or smaller, records show. By comparison, Clinton relied on small donors for about 17% of her campaign funds during the same period.
Not all of the super wealthy have picked sides. Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, the biggest donor in the 2012 presidential election, is not among the big contributors so far in the 2016 election. And a handful of mega donors opted to spread their money among multiple candidates. Robert McNair, the owner of the NFL’s Houston Texans, donated $500,000 apiece to super PACs supporting Rubio and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee during the last six months of the year.
Seth Klarman, a billionaire investor from the Boston area, made six-figure donations to both Rubio and Christie super PACs.
“If you have enough money, you can place a lot of bets,” Corrado said.