By Cliff Montgomery – Feb. 29th, 2016
Who is buying America’s presidential candidates? That can be a tough mystery to unravel.
One doesn’t just count donations from individual people and entities. There are also those somewhat shadowy groups working for White House candidates – so-called ‘outside groups’ like super Political Action Committees (super PACs), leadership PACs, 501(c)(4) ‘dark money’ groups and the like. It’s often quite hard to discover just who happens to be providing the funds for these organizations.
So the Spark has worked to give its readers some understanding of who is donating to whom during the 2016 presidential race.
Today, we will examine the three leading Republicans – Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.
Tomorrow, we will look into the campaign donations for the two remaining GOP candidates, Ben Carson and John Kasich.
On Feb. 25th, we reviewed the two remaining Democratic hopefuls, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
The raw data on these presidential hopefuls were released by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on February 22nd. This info was compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, an watchdog organization which focuses on the use and abuse of money in the U.S. political arena.
Now, let’s take a look at the leading Republicans…
Donald Trump
Trump is a wealthy real estate developer, television personality and businessman.
To state the matter frankly, Trump grew up with wealth and has never previously held any political office. Perhaps predictably, he is the hands-on favorite to win the Republican presidential nomination.
But let’s make this clear – there is no such thing as a ‘billionaire outsider’, especially in America. And especially when the person is Donald Trump.
“Trump has been a frequent donor to both Democratic and Republican federal political candidates,” points out the Center for Responsive Politics, adding that he has spent “tens of thousands of dollars supporting them [i.e., candidates from both parties] and [thus] causing some to question his sincerity as a GOP candidate.”
Trump’s Campaign Committee has raised $25,526,319 for his presidential bid. Outside groups have collected $1,894,509 as of Feb 22nd, according to FEC releases.
What is especially interesting is that Trump’s biggest financial supporter is…Donald Trump. About $17.8 million – a full 70% of Trump’s campaign funds – have come from the candidate’s own bank accounts.
Another matter: It appears that almost all of Trump’s large ‘outside money’ donors are affiliated with the finance, insurance and real estate sectors.
Andy Beal is the kind of well-to-do businessman who has proved a solid Trump supporter, contributing at least $100,000 to the candidate via the pro-Trump Super PAC Make America Great Again.
“In 1981, Mr. Beal and a partner bought two housing project buildings in disrepair, the Brick Towers in Newark, NJ, for $25,000,” according to a Beal biography published on his website.
“Two years later they sold the repaired buildings for $3.2 million to a private investor,” continues Beal’s website.
The mysterious “partner” in Mr. Beal’s NJ real estate development is apparently not identified – but one wonders if it might have been New York-based real estate developer Donald Trump.
Perhaps the best way to understand the influence of ‘outside money’ on the Trump campaign is for readers to view a recent FEC filing on the Make America Great Again Super PAC for themselves. Information on the particular contributors – names, addresses, amounts of “outside money” each donor contributed to the super PAC – starts on page six of the FEC filing. This document is dated Feb. 3rd, 2016.
All other data on Trump comes from FEC information released on February 22nd, 2016.
Ted Cruz
Ted Cruz , a U.S. Senator from Texas, gained notoriety after spear-heading a marathon anti-Obamacare filibuster and lending his support to a government shutdown over the health care law.
In 2012, Cruz was elected to the U.S. Senate with Tea Party support. But he is no stranger to the political arena.
“Cruz was a domestic policy advisor on George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign and an associate deputy attorney general in the Department of Justice,” points out the Center for Responsive Politics.
Cruz’s campaign committee has raised $54.7 million for the candidate – outside groups have raised $46.7 million.
It appears that nearly all of Cruz’s large ‘outside money’ donors come from people in the finance, insurance and real estate sectors.
Most of Cruz’s outside money has been shuttled through his four “Keep the Promise” Super PACs.
Here is a list of the most generous donors to the Pro-Cruz Super PAC Keep the Promise III:
WILKS, FARRIS, from Wilks Brothers – On 4/13/15, contributed $5,000,000
WILKS, JO ANN, from Wilks Brothers – On 4/13/15, contributed $5,000,000
WILKS, DANIEL, from Wilks Brothers – On 6/29/15, contributed $2,500,000
WILKS, STACI, from Wilks Brothers – On 6/29/15, contributed $2,500,000
LEININGER, JAMES, from Kinetic Concepts – On 1/1/16, contributed $250,000
DICK ANDERSON CONSTRUCTION, INC – On 1/1/16, contributed $25,000
LOCAL ARCHITECTS, PLLC – On 1/1/16, contributed $25,000
LEDERER, EUGENE, Inventor – On 8/25/15, contributed $7,900
CRAMER, ROBERT, from Cramer & Assoc. – On 12/19/15, contributed $3,000
These totals are based on FEC data released February 22nd, 2016.
Marco Rubio
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) is a first-term member of the senate, winning the office in 2010. Rubio previously served as Speaker in Florida’s State House of Representatives. He claims to support a smaller government.
Rubio’s campaign committee has raised $34.7 million, while outside groups have raised $34.3 million.
Individual contributions have accounted for 97% of Rubio’s campaign funds, with large contributions making up a full 78% of his funds.
One Pro-Rubio Super PAC, Conservative Solutions PAC, has raised $32.9 million for his presidential run – almost as much money as that garnered by Rubio’s campaign committee. That’s quite a bit of ‘outside money’…
Rubio’s large outside money sources come from such industry sectors as securities and investment, automotive and electronics.
Top Conservative Solutions PAC Donations (At Least $1 million):
BENJAMIN LEON, JR., of Besilu Stables, LLC – On 6/29/15, donated $2,500,000
GRIFFIN, KENNETH C., of Citadel LLC – On 12/14/15, donated $2,500,000
SINGER, PAUL ELLIOT, of Elliott Management – On 11/25/15, donated $2,500,000
BRAMAN, NORMAN, of Braman Motorcars – On 6/22/15, donated $2,000,000
ELLISON, LAWRENCE J., of Oracle Corp. – On 6/24/15, donated $2,000,000
PERLMUTTER, LAURA, of Marvel Entertainment – On 6/8/15, donated $2,000,000
BRAMAN, NORMAN, of Braman Motorcars – On 4/17/15, donated $1,500,000
BRAMAN, NORMAN, of Braman Motorcars – On 5/17/15, donated $1,500,000
ASNESS, CLIFF, of AQR Capital Management – On 12/31/15, donated $1,000,000
BRAMAN, NORMAN, of Braman Motorcars – On 12/23/15, donated $1,000,000
ELLISON, LAWRENCE J., of Oracle Corp. – On 5/18/15, donated $1,000,000
ELLISON, LAWRENCE J., of Oracle Corp. – On 1/20/16, donated $1,000,000
HUMPHREYS, DAVID C., of Tamko Building Products – On 12/15/15, donated $1,000,000
SPENCER, MARY M., Investor – On 10/19/15, donated $1,000,000
Rubio data based on FEC information released on February 22, 2016.
