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[Art Deco]

  [image: The New York Times] <http://www.nytimes.com/>


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February 23, 2012
Donors With Agendas

The presidential primary season is being brought to you by a handful of
multimillionaires and companies who have propped up the candidates with
enormous donations to their “super PACs.” Just *two dozen or so
individuals*<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/01/31/us/politics/super-pac-donors.html>,
couples and companies have given more than *80 percent* of the money
collected by super PACs, or $54 million, according to disclosure forms
released on Monday.

Freed of nearly all regulations or good sense by Citizens United and other
court decisions, the super PACs are raising money in ludicrously large
sums. The $10 million from Sheldon and Miriam Adelson to Winning Our
Future, which has sustained Newt Gingrich’s trailing campaign, is the
biggest single donation to a candidate. But every candidate now has his own
millionaire supporter, and the concentration of wealth in the campaign is
growing.

The people writing these outsize checks are committed to defeating
President Obama, but their interests don’t stop there. Many are involved in
businesses or ideological causes that have clear policy agendas with the
federal government. Their huge influence on individual candidates
demonstrates the potential for corruption inherent in the super PAC era.
Among the biggest givers:

¶Harold Simmons, a billionaire corporate raider, has given $1 million to
Mr. Gingrich’s political action committee, $1.1 million to Rick Perry’s
PAC, $100,000 to Mitt Romney’s PAC, and $10 million to American Crossroads,
the super PAC advised by Karl Rove that is supporting many Republican
candidates. Mr. Simmons’s companies make metals, paints and chemicals,
among other things, and have gotten into trouble over lead and uranium
emissions from previous decades. He also runs a radioactive waste dump in
Texas that has clashed with environmental regulators over its proximity to
a nearby aquifer. He controls Waste Control Specialists, which has
contracts to clean up federal hazardous waste sites, including emissions
from other companies he controls.

¶Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and an outspoken libertarian, gave
$2.6 million to Ron Paul’s PAC. In 2009, he
wrote<http://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/the-education-of-a-libertarian/>that
the 1920s were the last decade when one could be optimistic about
American politics, lamenting the subsequent rise of the welfare state that
he blamed in part on giving women the right to vote.

¶Foster Friess, who gave $1 million to Rick Santorum’s Red White and Blue
PAC, is a mutual fund manager who recently declared that aspirin used to be
an effective contraceptive when women put it between their knees. He is a
former president of the Council for National Policy, a secretive
club<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/28/politics/campaign/28conserve.html>of
some of the country’s most powerful conservatives, which opposes
unions,
same-sex marriage and government regulation.

In addition, six-figure checks were given to Mr. Romney by seven executives
at hedge funds or investment firms. Leaders of this industry are interested
in fewer regulations and a low tax rate for their type of income.

President Obama’s super PAC, Priorities USA Action, received only two
seven-figure checks last year, one from the Service Employees International
Union for $1 million, and one from the movie executive Jeffrey Katzenberg
for $2 million. (Mr. Katzenberg said last month that he was disappointed
with Mr. Obama’s opposition to antipiracy legislation but would continue to
raise money for him.)

Until a few weeks ago, the president might have credibly campaigned against
the undue influence of special interests on his Republican rivals. He can
no longer make the case because, after his PAC received only $58,816 last
month, Mr. Obama invited donors to give without limits. And all but the
most privileged Americans will pay the price if the nation’s wealthiest can
buy elections.


-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
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