Six donors account for $36 million of PAC money supporting Cruz

Very few of the top donors to the super PACs backing one of the many GOP White House hopefuls or handful of Democratic candidates are new to giving substantial political gifts, according to a review of Federal Election Commission data by the Center for Responsive Politics, and many have been active for decades. But the risk for candidates is that these groups are heavily dependent on a few billionaires to sustain their presidential operations. Not all the reports are in, but we are already starting to learn which mega-donors are forking over big bucks, and how candidates are spending the money.

He has been referred to in the past by Cruz as a “key moneyman in the super PAC’s”.

That PAC, though, also spent the most money, but not on Cruz.

So far, the largest donor is Renaissance Technologies executive Robert Mercer, whose $11 million check went to one of the four super PACs backing Texas Sen.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has said he does not want the support of a super PAC. Mercer at least supports Fiorina personally – he gave $2,700, the legal maximum, to her official campaign. In all, $19 of the $20 million raised by Unintimidated PAC came from these top Republicans.

In addition to Adelson and the Kochs, New York investor Paul Singer, who gave $10.5 million to outside groups in 2014, remains uncommitted. Fellow Dallas businessman Deason gave $5 million. Perlmutter gave $2 million.

Exactly half of the $16 million raised by Sen.

Expense reports filed Friday by the political committees cataloged nearly anything a candidate might need to run a campaign – from luxury hotel room rentals and catering to pricey advertising campaigns, website development and office supplies.

The chairman of an Arkansas poultry producing business, Mountaire Corp., Cameron has ties to the Koch Brothers’ political network.

In Ohio, donors in the Cincinnati region were most generous to Republican candidates, giving $56,767; in central Ohio, which gave $43,822; and in the Cleveland area, which gave $40,676. Keep the Promise II received $15 million from the billionaire Texas fracking family of Farris, Jo Ann, Daniel and Staci Wilks. A collection of super PACs supporting Cruz raised $37 million, almost all of it from three families. The Ricketts family owns the Chicago Cubs.

Million dollar donations from retired banker Herbert Sandler, financier George Soros, Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and filmmaker Steven Spielberg were among the $8.8 million that came in the final week of that six month period.

Additionally, Texas Rangers owner Ray Davis donated $100,000.

The aggressiveness with which super PACs are raising funds also shows that the caution first displayed by campaigns after the 2010 decision has fallen away.

Jeb Bush is pitching himself as a clean-government reformer who rejects transactional politics.

The publicly traded, Fortune 200 company contributed more than $1 million to Right to Rise this year, according to records – not including cash from its top executive to Bush’s campaign. “Our expenditures for six months of… fundraising costs and fundraising events are minimal given the scale of our support from donors who have been drawn to Governor Bush’s conservative record of reform”. Because of that position, he’s legally restricted in what he can tell the super PAC.

But now, that group — which has indicated it would focus more on grass-roots engagement — seems to be faltering, having only raised $250,000 in the first half of 2015.

Priorities, at least, can measure its donations in the millions. Their money will be important in early primary states, but also would allow those with deep-pocket backers to campaign beyond Iowa and New Hampshire.

The super PAC supporting Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, for instance, reported the donation of the use of a chartered jet valued at $70,000 from billionaire supermarket owner John Catsimatidis. The charitable trust for the U.S. Sugar Corporation, a sugar-cane producer based in Florida, gave $505,000.

Florida healthcare mogul Mike Fernandez topped the list of major donors, with a $3 million contribution. One might look at the $14 million raised by Chris Christie’s super PAC, for example, and see that as a fairly impressive haul.