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ROBERT REICH Make Sure You Know The GOP's Big Investors Before You Vote

Alex Constantine - March 6, 2012

" ... Non-profit political fronts like 'Crossroads GPS,' founded by Republican political guru Karl Rove, are already gathering hundreds of millions of dollars from big corporations and a few wealthy individuals like billionaire oil and petrochemical moguls David and Charles Koch. The public will never know who or what corporation gave what because, under IRS regulations, such non-profit 'social welfare organizations' aren’t required to disclose the names of those who contributed to them. ... "

Robert Reich, Contributor

Business Insider, February 22, 2012

bruce kovner 300x225 - ROBERT REICHBruce Kovner

Have you heard of William Dore, Foster Friess, Sheldon Adelson, Harold Simmons, Peter  Thiel, or Bruce Kovner? If not, let me introduce them to you. They’re  running for the Republican nomination for president.

I know, I know. You think Rick  Santorum, Newt  Gingrich, Ron  Paul, and Mitt  Romney are running. They are – but only because the people listed in the  first paragraph have given them huge sums of money to do so. In a sense,  Santorum, Gingrich, Paul, and Romney are the fronts. Dore et al. are the real investors.

According to January’s Federal Election Commission report, William Dore and  Foster Friess supplied more than three-fourths of the $2.1 million raked in by  Rick Santorum’s super PAC in January. Dore, president of the Dore Energy  Corporation in Lake Charles, Louisiana, gave $1 million; Freis, a fund manager based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, gave $669,000 (he had given the Santorum super  PAC $331,000 last year, bringing Freis’s total to $1 million).

Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam provided $10 million of the $11 million  that went into Gingrich’s super PAC in January. Adelson is chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation. Texas billionaire Harold Simmons donated $500,000.

Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal,  provided $1.7 million of the $2.4 million raised by Ron Paul’s super PAC in  January.

Mitt Romney’s super PAC raised $6.6 million last month – almost all from just  forty donors. Bruce Kovner, co-founder of the New York-based hedge fund Caxton  Associates, gave $500,000, as did two others. David  Tepper of Appaloosa  Management gave $375,000. J.W. Marriott  and Richard Marriott gave a total of $500,000. Julian  Robertson, co-founder of hedge fund Tiger  Management, gave $250,0000. Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg  Whitman gave $100,000.

Bottom line: Whoever emerges as the GOP standard-bearer will be deeply  indebted to a handful of people, each of whom will expect a good return on their investment.

And this is just the beginning. We haven’t even come to the general  election.

Non-profit political fronts like “Crossroads GPS,” founded by Republican  political guru Karl Rove, are already gathering hundreds of millions of dollars  from big corporations and a few wealthy individuals like billionaire oil and  petrochemical moguls David and Charles  Koch. The public will never know who or what corporation gave what because, under IRS regulations, such non-profit “social welfare organizations” aren’t  required to disclose the names of those who contributed to them.

Before 2010, federal campaign law and Federal Election Commission regulations  limited to $5,000 per year the amount an individual could give to a PAC making  independent expenditures in federal elections. This individual contribution  limit that was declared unconstitutional by the District of Columbia Court of  Appeals in a case based on the Supreme Court’s grotesque decision at the start  of 2010, Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission.

Now, the limits are gone. And this comes precisely at a time when an  almost unprecedented share of the nation’s income and wealth is  accumulating at the top.

Never before in the history of our Republic have so few spent so much to  influence so many.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-gops-big-investors-2012-2?utm_source=readme&utm_medium=rightrail&utm_term=&utm_content=7&utm_campaign=recirc