Super PACs To Release January Financials

WASHINGTON — A pair of "super" political action committees supporting top Republican presidential candidates spent nearly $24 million in January, drawing upon major gifts and repeat donations from wealthy business executives, according to financial reports the groups filed Monday with the government.

The super PACs – Mitt Romney-leaning Restore Our Future and Newt Gingrich-supportive Winning Our Future – raised a combined $17 million last month. That financial strength allowed the groups to hit the airwaves in key primary states with millions of dollars in expensive TV ads.

The groups' fundraising offers a periodic behind-the-scenes glimpse into the identities of the wealthy supporters who will help elect the next president, along with details on how the tens of millions of dollars they donated have been spent this election season. Restore Our Future, which spent $14 million last month, has been boosted by more than two dozen repeat donors. Winning Our Future, which spent $9.7 million, is largely supported by casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife.

The super PACs, as well as other groups supporting other candidates and the individual campaigns, were required to disclose how much they raised and the identities of their donors in reports filed with the Federal Election Commission by midnight Monday.

Those reports provided a snapshot of fundraising for President Barack Obama's early campaign and for Republican candidates as they battled during important primary elections in January. During the month, GOP candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum had briefly surged ahead of front-runner Mitt Romney but trailed the former Massachusetts governor in fundraising. Since then, Santorum has climbed remarkably in polls as support eroded just as stunningly for Gingrich following his disappointing showing in Florida.

Restore Our Future has been a boon for Romney, who has benefited greatly from the group's TV ads attacking Gingrich in particular. Such ads were purchased thanks to the financial help of repeat donors, including Marriott International Chairman J.W. Marriott Jr., who has given the super PAC $750,000 to date.

The super PAC also reported new donors, including Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman. Romney mentored Whitman, recently an unsuccessful candidate for California governor, during the 1980s at Boston-based Bain & Co., the private equity firm Romney headed. Whitman's $100,000 check to Restore Our Future came days after she joined Romney at a celebration of his victory in the New Hampshire primary.

Restore Our Future counted on continued support from at least 30 repeat donors who have given a combined $6.6 million in January, according to a review of the reports by The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, Winning Our Future's $11 million in contributions during the same period came almost exclusively from Adelson, a friend of Gingrich's and a staunch supporter of Israel. Adelson and his wife, Miriam, each gave $5 million to the super PAC in January – a move that helped keep Gingrich's struggling campaign alive.

Other GOP-leaning super PACs reported major contributions.

Endorse Liberty, the group supporting Texas Rep. Ron Paul, reported roughly $2.4 million in donations, including $1.7 from the billionaire founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel of San Francisco. Thiel, who runs a hedge fund, is a libertarian who has supported Republican causes and candidates and also has donated to California's marijuana legalization ballot measure.

Obama's campaign last Friday reported raising a combined $29.1 million in January among the campaign, the Democratic National Committee and other joint fundraising committees. The major super PAC backing Obama, Priorities USA Action, has yet to file its January report.

Romney raised $6.5 million last month for his presidential bid, while Gingrich's presidential campaign raised $5.5 million last month.

The reports likely will rekindle criticism of the groups, which were made possible under a 2010 Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United case. The super PACs must legally remain independent from the candidates they support, but many are staffed with former campaign aides who have intimate knowledge of the campaigns' strategies.

Late Friday, the Supreme Court put on hold a Montana case that bore striking similarities. Two justices said the newest case provides an opportunity for the court to reconsider whether the millions of dollars that millionaires and billionaires have poured into the presidential election should be allowed to continue.

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Follow Jack Gillum on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jackgillum

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Comments

[afreechild]

01:07 PM on 02/21/2012

Ordinary Americans cannot compete with the virtually unlimited resources of corporations, especially as these corporations support politicians who will legislate in favor of the corporate interests and against the interests of ordinary citizens. This vicious cycle cannot be stopped from the inside, because the established insiders benefit from the current system and want to maintain it. Sign the petition for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United ruling at www.democracyisforpeople.org.

[maigrey]

08:58 AM on 02/21/2012

The staggering amounts if cash being thrown around while people are unemployed or under employed is just bizarre. Paying for a mouthpiece has become quite a lucrative business. I didn't think elections were a business. Silly me, or silly supreme court justices!
Only time will tell.

[ethiopia1a]

08:52 AM on 02/21/2012

Obama should take all his campaigne money and use it to bring down the deficit. The GOP is out campaigning for him.

[justsayno]

08:23 AM on 02/21/2012

Fools

President Obama's campaign manager has a message for Wall Street: This time around, we'll lay off.

Jim Messina, Obama's campaign manager, told the hosts of a $38,500 per-plate fundraiser geared towards investment bankers and hedge fund managers that the president wouldn't make Wall Street look bad during his re-election campaign,

[banderson2]

08:22 AM on 02/21/2012

Say goodbye to your democracy and you can blame five conservative justices.

[huff reader]

08:41 AM on 02/21/2012

Don't forget W.

He brought us the 'unitary executive' and its corrollary of rounding up anyone and everyone and parking 'em in a concentration camp.

He brought illegal wiretaps to listen in on you and me.

He finished packing the Supreme Court, creating the Gang of Five of whom you speak, the most activist judges in history, and destroying the court's credibility.

[Lwayno]

07:59 AM on 02/21/2012

Is someone really making death threats on the Koch-Succoring GOPERS? How quaint! and they are not even Arizona congresswomen!

[ken derow]

07:50 AM on 02/21/2012

There may be legitimate advangtages to Super PACS but fairness, equity, and support of the spirit and intrent of our one-man-one-vote political philosophy is not one of them. Unlimited Super PAC money gives unlimited influence to the super wealthy to "control" the thoughts, beliefs and ultimately the votes of millions of unsuspecting voters through the advertising funded by their money. Political advertising, like product advertising, sells a message, a viewpoint that permeates the minds of those exposed in an unassuming but pervasive and powerful way, even among those of us that think or profess that ads have no influence on us-they do. Because we may not be aware of the power of such advertising it works all the better, as its influence and impact is not subject to our rational conscious brain filtering, this advertising becomes even more powerful. Voter be aware, your thoughts and maybe your vote may not be your own.

[chris hatala]

05:13 AM on 02/21/2012

I just cancelled my PayPal account.

[Juan Carlos Mescalero]

07:24 AM on 02/21/2012

Ebay owns Paypal. It's the founder who supports the loons.

[izabo]

03:40 AM on 02/21/2012

Pay Pal? Really? I had no idea, shoot now it looks like I'll to use another way of paying for my goods and now I know what hotel I WON'T ever be staying at. I hope that the Huff keeps up on who's donating these millions of dollars to these Super Pacs, both Republican and Democratic. Since it was my money that made some of these GOP millionaires filthy rich, I feel it's only sensible that I take that money and put it somewhere else and not use their products or services, that's the price you pay for getting invovled in politics Mr. Pay Pal and Mr. Marriot. I may be only one person but if there are more of me out there like I think there are, we may actually be able to make a difference by boycotting these donators. I can play the game too, let's not forget Netflix or Bank of America? I just need more pawns on my blue collar chess board.

[fgrammit]

01:57 AM on 02/21/2012

does it seem strange to anyone else that the supreme KOCH of the US is reconsidering their decision after Potus decided to use the super pac and raised 29 million $? since they were so clearly in the gop court on this issue i smell more KOCH a cola being passed around.

[frankieshoes1]

01:37 AM on 02/21/2012

The author names Marriot but fails to mention V/a/n/d/e/r/s/l/o/o/t/. A Romney national finance co-chair with lots of money and lots of hate.

[Lawyer13]

02:01 AM on 02/21/2012

I remember staying at a Marriot hotel and finding The Book of Mormon in my bed side draw, that says it all I think.

[frankieshoes1]

11:33 AM on 02/21/2012

I see it wasn't enough to keep you here. (lol)

[Rteefact]

12:19 AM on 02/21/2012

Have they drained the swamp to get the Wasilla Hillbillies cash? The more then spend the less they have. All the Super Pac money is doing is softening up the eventual sacrificial nominee, for President Obama.

[huff reader]

08:43 AM on 02/21/2012

Consider it 'shovel-ready stimulus'.

Works great!

That stuff getting shoveled, though....pppppppeeeewwwww!

[Robert A Alba]

12:07 AM on 02/21/2012

There's so much filthy money in politics that these campaigns are starting to take on the odor of raw sewage.

[Lawyer13]

02:03 AM on 02/21/2012

Never were truer words ever written. F & F from London England and good luck to you

[fairer]

11:37 PM on 02/20/2012

the USA is for sale---sad

[jsk013]

03:15 AM on 02/21/2012

this is no modern day eruption. Its older and deeply rooted. Corruption has always been with us, todays technology only makes it easier to discern.

[thomasdep]

11:32 PM on 02/20/2012

Breaking news! Todd Palin is throwing his hat in the ring?

[Lawyer13]

02:05 AM on 02/21/2012

You have just spoilt my day, but you get an F & F from London England

[thomasdep]

08:42 AM on 02/21/2012

With the clowns they got out there would it surprise you?