Newly disclosed details of the
millions of dollars flowing into political groups are highlighting not just the
scale of donations from corporation and unions but also the secrecy surrounding
“super PACs” seeking to influence the presidential race.
Some of the
money came from well-established concerns, like Alpha Natural Resources, one of
the country’s largest coal companies, which is backing
Republican-aligned American Crossroads, or from the Service Employees
International Union, a powerful union allied with Democrats, according to
filings with the Federal Election Commission.
Some came
from companies closely identified with prominent industrialists or financiers,
like Contran, a mammoth holding company controlled by the Texas billionaire
Harold Simmons, a patron of a number of conservative groups and candidates, and
Blue Ridge Capital, a New York hedge fund founded by the wealthy investor John
A. Griffin, a supporter of Mitt Romney.
But some
checks came from sources obscured from public view, like a $250,000
contribution to a super PAC backing Mr. Romney from a company with a post
office box for a headquarters and no known employees.
President Obama continues
to outraise all of the candidates seeking the Republican nomination by large margins
when it comes to money that goes directly into campaign coffers. But the money
race is increasingly focused on outside groups that are legally not allowed to
coordinate directly with campaigns but pay for advertising and other activities
that support particular candidates.
Most of the
money disclosed this week went to independent groups supporting Republicans,
giving them an enormous money advantage over similar Democratic groups in the
first phase of the 2012 election cycle. Such donations were made possible by
the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010 and subsequent court
rulings, which opened the door to unlimited corporate and union contributions
to political committees and made it possible to pool that money with unlimited
contributions from wealthy individuals.
But the full
scope of such giving is impossible to ascertain from federal campaign filings:
Much of the money raised by the leading Republican and Democratic independent
groups went into affiliated nonprofit organizations that are more restricted in
how they can spend the money but do not have to disclose their donors.
The
contributions have already helped the Republican Party’s elite
donor class, who increasingly favor Mr. Romney, regain some control over the
party’s nominating process. Many of the party’s top givers sent checks to
Restore Our Future, the pro-Romney group, underwriting an advertising campaign
that battered Mr. Romney’s Republican rivals even as Mr. Romney himself
struggled to win the trust of the party’s restive conservative base.
Mr. Romney,
who assailed Newt Gingrich in
Florida last week for “working as a lobbyist and selling influence around
Washington,” also got a major boost from some of the Republican Party’s top
corporate lobbyists, who raised more than a million dollars in checks for Mr.
Romney’s campaign during the last three months of 2011.
Patrick
Durkin, a lobbyist for Barclay’s, raised over $400,000 in contributions. Bruce
A. Gates, a lobbyist for Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris USA,
raised $275,000. And Austin Barbour, a Mississippi lobbyist and nephew of the
state’s former governor, Haley Barbour, raised $210,700 in contributions.
Restore Our
Future raised at least $5.8 million from corporations during the last six
months of last year, along with $12.2 million from individuals. American
Crossroads raised $4.6 million from corporations and $7 million from
individuals. Priorities USA and two other Democratic-leaning super PACs raised
about $1,835,000 from individuals, $1.3 million from political action
committees affiliated with labor unions and other groups, and about $415,700
from other organizations.
Groups
supportive of each party employed a technique that allows them to cloak the
identities of many of their donors. Those groups, including Crossroads and
Priorities USA, have affiliates that are organized as nonprofit organizations
known as 501(c)(4) groups, which can raise unlimited money but do not have to
reveal their donors. Donors wishing to remain anonymous have the option of
making their contributions to those nonprofit groups, which raised tens of
millions of dollars in 2011, according to officials at the groups.
“While we
now know some names of some people giving megabucks, we know nothing about the
funders of the nonprofits,” said Ellen S. Miller, the executive director of the
Sunlight Foundation, which advocates for greater transparency in political
giving. “We don’t know what we don’t know.”
Even donors
who chose not to give via nonprofit affiliates can find ways to guard their
identities by giving through a limited liability corporation or other entity
that is hard to trace.
For example,
Restore Our Future received a $250,000 contribution last August from “Glenbrook
LLC,” which listed an address on Lagoon Drive in Redwood City, Calif.
The suite
number provided on Federal Election Commission records matches one occupied by
a certified public accounting firm, Seiler LLP. But an official with the firm
told a reporter who went to the address that it could not discuss its clients.
A search of
corporate records revealed at least eight different Glenbrook LLCs around the
country. The only one registered with the California secretary of state is
located in San Francisco and is connected to a wealth management firm, Monte
Vista Management. But Morton Pactor, who manages the firm, said in a telephone
interview that his office was not connected to the donation.
The
pro-Romney super PAC also accepted a $250,000 check last summer from Paumanok
Partners LLC. The donor listed only a post office box in New Canaan, Conn.,
outside New York City, in campaign finance records.
A Paumanok
Partners LLC is registered with the New York State Department of State with an
address in East Northport, N.Y., but about a dozen different companies appear
in phone listings for the address, none of them Paumanok Partners.
Other
corporate donations, while initially appearing opaque, were easier to trace
back to the probable source after combing through corporate records. A
contribution of $100,000, for instance, came from “Slocum and Associates” in
Salt Lake City, Utah.
Records filed
with the Utah State Department of Commerce revealed the president of the entity
to be Jonathan W. Bullen, a real estate investor who is also owner and
president of Provo College, Eagle Gate College and Evolution Fitness. Mr.
Bullen was a national finance co-chairman for Mr. Romney’s campaign in 2008. He
did not return a call or e-mail seeking comment about his donation.
In another
example, “Pita Raleigh LLC” in Salisbury, N.C., contributed $50,000 to the
super PAC in late December. Corporate and campaign finance records show the
company’s link to Bill Graham, a Salisbury lawyer who personally contributed
$50,000 to the Restore Our Future in late June.
He did not
return a call seeking comment about the donation.
Kitty Bennett, Griff Palmer and Katharine
Mieszkowski contributed reporting.