By Cliff Montgomery – Mar. 1st, 2016
It’s been said that America has ‘the best democracy money can buy’. That’s why has worked to uncover who has quietly been buying our 2016 presidential candidates.
Today, we finish our examination by revealing some of the top contributors to GOP candidates Ben Carson and John Kasich.
Yesterday, we reviewed Republican front-runners Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.
And on Feb. 25th, we looked at the two Democratic hopefuls, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
So who’s been buying our 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 who is providing the funds for such organizations – so the Spark is here to help its readers work out the matter.
The raw data on Carson and Kasich were released by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on February 22nd. This info was compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog organization which focuses on the use and abuse of money in the U.S. political arena.
Now, let’s take a look at these two Republicans…
Ben Carson
Carson has no experience in public office, but he clearly has achieved much in his storied life. He previously served as Johns Hopkins University’s director of pediatric neurosurgery. Carson grew up a poor young man in Detroit, yet attended college at Yale. And he’s received numerous honors for his labors, including a Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Library of Congress designation as a living legend.
Carson is a best-selling author and heads a foundation which promotes reading and education.
As of Feb. 22nd, Carson’s campaign committee has raised $57.9 million for his presidential bid. Outside groups have raised an additional $13.8 million.
Large individual contributions account for $23.7 million of that cash – that’s a cool 41% of all individual donations to his presidential campaign.
Just two pro-Carson super PACS – 2016 Committee and National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee – have collected 98% of the candidate’s ‘outside money’ contributions. The largest outside money contributors to these super PACS have been retirees and individuals in the livestock industry.
Here are the names and occupations of contributors who have donated at least $15,000 to the pro-Carson super PAC, 2016 Committee:
BETTIS, HARRY Rancher – On 11/5/15, donated $100,000
BETTIS, HARRY Rancher – On 7/14/15, donated $50,000
CURTIS, JOHN D Retired – On 11/9/15, donated $50,000
HENRIKSEN, RONALD W Logix Communications – On 7/31/15, donated $45,455
HENRIKSEN, RONALD W Logix Communications – On 7/31/15, donated $45,454
HENRIKSEN, RONALD W Logix Communications – On 11/10/15, donated $45,000
HOLT, JULIANNA HAWN Rancher – On 12/8/15, donated $44,600
ERDAHL, ALTHEA Retired – On 11/9/15, donated $42,000
COPELAND, HAROLD D Real Estate – On 10/27/15, donated $30,000
COPELAND, HAROLD D Real Estate – On 12/29/15, donated $30,000
HILLMAN, TATNALL Retired – On 11/10/15, donated $20,000
HILLMAN, TATNALL Retired – On 6/11/15, donated $15,000
MOGAS, V LOUIS Mogas Industries – On 5/22/15, donated $15,000
John Kasich
Kasich currently serves as GOP Governor of Ohio. Before that, he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1983-2001), where he served a stint as Chairman of the House Budget Committee.
Kasich also is quite familiar with the workings of Big Business. After his House tenure, Kasich worked as an investment banker at Lehman Brothers – which no longer exists – and spent a number of years (2001-2007) as a commentator for Fox News.
Kasich’s campaign committee has collected $8.6 million for the presidential candidate – outside groups have raised $6.7 million.
Large donors have been a lifeline to the Kasich campaign, providing about 86% of contributions.
Every last cent of Kasich’s ‘outside money’ has come from one Pro-Kasich super PAC, New Day for America, according to data released by the FEC on Feb. 22nd. At least 40% of this outside money comes from individuals tied to the finance, insurance and real estate markets.
Organizations, rather than individuals, normally made the largest contributions to this super PAC. Below, we reveal the names of those organizations which donated at least $100,000:
Boich Companies – $1,000,000
George Pearl Rd Ltd – $500,000
Sequoia Capital – $260,000
Bet-Tech Construction – $250,000
Capital Group Companies – $250,000
Soros Fund Management – $200,000
Duquesne Family Office – $150,000
HJK LLC [Owner/Operator of Rally’s restaurant franchises] – $125,000
Independence Excavating – $125,000 M Betters Construction – $125,000
Village Communities – $101,810
Christopher D Orthwein Trust – $100,000
Hard Rock Rocksino – $100,000
Jacobs Investments – $100,000
Jonathan Mitchell Living Trust – $100,000
NKSFB [Nigro Karlin Segal Feldstein & Bolno] LLC – $100,000
Quicken Loans – $100,000
Richard Hurt Trust – $100,000
Sandia Holdings – $100,000
Wendt Family Trust – $100,000
