Harold Simmons, a billionaire corporate raider from Texas, pulled out his checkbook Jan. 13 and gave $100,000 to a super PAC backing Mitt Romney, then donated $5 million more to another PAC stacked with Romney confidants.
But 11 days later, Simmons doled out $500,000 to a super PAC devoted to Newt Gingrich, who had just trounced Romney in a Republican presidential primary in South Carolina.
Simmons is part of a rarefied group of millionaires and billionaires acting as kingmakers in the GOP contest, often helping to decide, with a simple transfer of money, which candidate might survive another day.
The dominance of a handful of well-to-do donors has suddenly reshaped campaign finance, but it also could pose a political risk to candidates in both parties at a time of economic distress, particularly as President Barack Obama and his Republican rivals debate issues relating to tax fairness and income inequality ahead of the November election.
Although many of these mega-donors have long participated in politics, none was able to wield the kind of influence now possible under loosened campaign-finance regulations, which allow super PACs and other outside groups to spend unlimited amounts on political campaigns.
In January, just five donors gave a total of $19 million, a quarter of the money raised for the presidential race that month, according to a Washington Post analysis of new contribution data filed this week. Overall, 23 people have directed about $54 million to super PACs this cycle, bankrolling a tide of negative ads in primary-contest states.
“I’m against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections,” casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who is funding a pro-Gingrich super PAC, said in an interview published this week in Forbes magazine. “But as long as it’s doable, I’m going to do it.”
