George Allen Gets Super PAC Boost From Texas Millionaire

WASHINGTON -- One of the nation's biggest conservative donors has injected himself into the Senate race in Virginia by making a $1 million donation to a super PAC backing former Sen. George Allen's campaign to win back his old seat.

Texas homebuilder Bob Perry made $1 million in contributions to Independence Virginia PAC over the past three months, according to a report filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

Perry, the third biggest donor to super PACs in this election, is part of the large network of deep-pocketed Texas donors who helped fund former President George W. Bush's two presidential campaigns and was one of the primary donors to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, an independent political group that ran ads during the 2004 election attacking Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's military record.

The Virginia Senate race is currently the marquee contest for outside spending reported to the Federal Election Commission (the Ohio Senate race has seen more money spent through unreported "issue ads") with $21.5 million spent so far. Nearly $10 million of that has been spent by groups like Independence Virginia attacking Allen's Democratic opponent, former Gov. Tim Kaine. The super PAC has already spent more than $400,000 attacking Allen's opponent, former Gov. Tim Kaine.

This is the first contribution to a super PAC working in a Senate race outside of Texas that Perry has made in this election. Overall, he has donated $17 million to super PACs with the majority of that split between the pro-Mitt Romney Restore Our Future and the Karl Rove-founded American Crossroads.

The super PACs are seeking to minimize Kaine's fundraising advantage against Allen in the race. Through the end of September, Kaine had pulled in $15 million to Allen's $11.5 million.