Thread: Who are the millionaires bankrolling the 2016 presidential race?

Who are the millionaires bankrolling the 2016 presidential race?

By DAVID LAUTER, MALOY MOORE, LILY MIHALIK, ANTHONY PESCE AND BEN WELSH
SEPT. 30, 2015


For three decades, federal laws restrained how much money rich people could pour into presidential campaigns. No more.

Because of a series of court decisions, the limits have effectively disappeared, and this election is the first to see the full effect.

Wealthy individuals — many of whom are executives in the financial services, energy, technology and entertainment industries — have given millions to the super PACs supporting candidates.

So far the names of 86 donors of $500,000 or more have been revealed in campaign disclosure forms. Here’s a look at who they are.

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Jeb Bush

As the son and brother of former presidents, the former Florida governor has an unrivaled, deep network of Republican donors, many from his own state, but also from Texas, California and New York.



Miguel Fernandez FLA.

$3.0 million

Chairman of MBF Healthcare Partners, a private equity firm that invests in healthcare companies.



William Oberndorf CALIF.

$1.5 million

Owner of a financial services firm who sits on the board of Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education.



Helen Schwab CALIF.

$1.5 million

Wife of Charles Schwab, the founder of brokerage firm Charles Schwab.



Nancy Kinder TEXAS

$1.0 million

Philanthropist and wife of energy magnate Richard Kinder.



Richard Kinder TEXAS

$1.0 million

Executive chairman of Kinder Morgan, an energy and pipeline company.

See 32 more



Hillary Rodham Clinton

The biggest donors to the former secretary of State include several with ties to California’s entertainment industry as well as longtime liberal stalwarts.



Barbara Lee MASS.

$1.1 million

Founder of the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, which aims to advance women's representation in politics.



George Soros N.Y.

$1.0 million

Chairman of an investment management firm and philanthropist.



Jeffrey Katzenberg CALIF.

$1.0 million

CEO of DreamWorks Animation.



Stephen Silberstein CALIF.

$1.0 million

Co-founder of Innovative Interfaces, which develops automated systems for libraries.



Cheryl Saban CALIF.

$1.0 million

Philanthropist and wife of Haim Saban.

See 10 more



Ted Cruz

The conservative Texas senator has drawn his biggest backers from the oil and gas industry in his home state and from hedge funds on Wall Street.



Robert Mercer N.Y.

$11.0 million

Co-CEO of Renaissance Technologies, a hedge fund.



Toby Neugebauer PUERTO RICO

$10.0 million

Co-founder of Quantum Energy Partners, an energy-focused private equity firm, and son of Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas).



Farris Wilks TEXAS

$5.0 million

Co-founder of Frac Tech, an oil fracking company, and husband of Jo Ann Wilks.



Jo Ann Wilks TEXAS

$5.0 million

Wife of Farris Wilks.



Dan Wilks TEXAS

$2.5 million

Co-founder of Frac Tech, an oil fracking company, and husband of Staci Wilks.


See 2 more



Marco Rubio

The Florida senator’s biggest donor is a longtime benefactor, but he has also gotten major contributions from a technology billionaire.



Norman Braman FLA.

$5.0 million

Owner of Florida car dealerships and former owner of the Philadelphia Eagles.



Larry Ellison CALIF.

$3.0 million

Co-founder of Oracle Corp.



Laura Perlmutter FLA.

$2.0 million

Wife of Isaac Perlmutter, the CEO of Marvel Entertainment.



James Rubright GA.

$0.5 million

Lead director of the board of directors of AGL Resources, a natural gas company.



Larry De George FLA.

$0.5 million

Former CEO of LPL Financial.




Chris Christie

As the governor of New Jersey, he has tapped into the financial industry based across the Hudson River in New York City.



Alexandra Cohen CONN.

$1.0 million

Philanthropist and wife of Steven Cohen.



Steven Cohen CONN.

$1.0 million

CEO of hedge fund Point72 Asset Management and husband of Alexandra Cohen.



Dan Gilbert MICH.

$0.8 million

Chairman of Quicken Loans and majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers.



Roberto Mignone N.Y.

$0.5 million

Founder of hedge fund Bridger Management.




Rand Paul

The senator from Kentucky has gotten major donations from wealthy individuals who also give heavily to libertarian causes.



Jeffrey Yass PA.

$2.3 million

Co-founder of investment firm Susquehanna International Group.



Scott Banister CALIF.

$1.3 million

Angel investor and co-founder of computer security company IronPort.



George Macricostas NEV.

$1.1 million

Founder of data center company RagingWire.




Lindsey Graham

The long-shot campaign of the South Carolina senator hasn’t attracted a lot of big donors of his own; his biggest backers have also given large contributions to other candidates.



Bob McNair TEXAS

$0.5 million

CEO of a Texas financial and real estate firm, founder of an energy company and owner of the Houston Texans.



Ronald Perelman N.Y.

$0.5 million

Businessman with investments in television, banks, groceries and more.




Mike Huckabee

The lion’s share of the former Arkansas governor’s money comes from a single donor – the owner of one of his state’s biggest poultry companies who has given heavily to conservative causes.



Ron Cameron ARK.

$3.0 million

Owner of Mountaire Corp., which sells feed and chicken products.



Sharon Herschend MO.

$0.5 million

Member of the Herschend family, which owns a theme park company.




Carly Fiorina

After strong performances in two debates gave her a boost in polls, the former Hewlett-Packard executive hopes to gain big-money donors to match her new prominence.



A. Jerrold Perenchio CALIF.

$1.6 million

Former chairman of Spanish broadcasting network Univision.




Bobby Jindal

The Louisiana governor’s campaign hasn’t taken off and hasn’t attracted a lot of big-money donations.



Gary Chouest LA.

$1.0 million

President of Edison Chouest Offshore, a marine transportation company.




Donald Trump

The New York real estate billionaire has said he doesn’t need other people’s money and has accused rivals of being beholden to their donors.



Donald Trump N.Y.

$1.0 million

Real estate developer, television personality and presidential candidate.


Illustration: David Horsey
Credits: Sahil Chinoy and Erin Rode
Footnote: The totals on this page include contributions to super PACs supporting candidates from Jan. 1 through the most recent Federal Election Commission filing cycle ending June 30.
Sources: Federal Election Commission, Times research

http://graphics.latimes.com/2016-election-big-donors/

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• Graphic: The money flooding the race for the White House
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It doesn't mention the monies hillary rec'd from Monsanto...Bill Gates, owns more than $23 million worth, or 500,000 Monsanto shares. He is one of the chief shareholders of Monsanto (Vanguard Investments is top shareholder) - Microsoft has supplied technology, a free app to help the tallying job for the caucus too. http://thehill.com/policy/technology/267586-microsoft-on-the-hot-seat-in-iowa
And Soros added 6m today to her campaign. Cruz taking 25m from frackers & gas, oil investors is a hint of his loyalties.

(excerpt from a petition for Monsanto details)
In 2014, Hillary Clinton received a $325,000 “speaking fee” for giving the keynote address to one of Monsanto’s main GMO lobbying front groups, Biotechnology International Organization (BIO), to help the industry address consumer fears over GMOs. This is an outrage! Tell her to give the money back!

While on the campaign trail in 2007, Hillary Clinton held a fundraiser at Monsanto's law firm in Washington DC titled "Rural Americans for Hillary" and even had the audacity to put a giant "Welcome Hillary" sign on the back of a soybean sprayer that sprays toxic chemicals like Monsanto's Roundup, which has been linked to cancer, on GMOs all across Iowa and the Midwest. Incredibly, Iowa has the highest rates of cancer in the Midwest and not surprisingly grows 97% GMO soy and 93% of GMO corn, which have been genetically engineered to survive being sprayed with massive doses of Monsanto's Roundup.

To top it off Hillary has Monsanto lobbyists raising millions of dollars in campaign contributions to return her to the White House. One lobbyist in particular, Jerry Crawford, is a close personal friend of the Clinton's and a top Democratic party fundraiser who's known as "Monsanto's Man in Iowa". Since 2010, when Crawford was hired by Monsanto to stop a DOJ-USDA investigation of Monsanto's abusive monopoly on seeds, Monsanto has paid him more than $1.6 million to push Monsanto's corrupt policies on the American public. What do you think Monsanto expects in return?
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/s....290684.gXQ3fK

It doesn't mention the monies hillary rec'd from Monsanto...

In 2014, Hillary Clinton received a $325,000 “speaking fee” . . .

The article is about donations to presidential campaigns.

Speaking fees are considered personal income so they probably wouldn't be included in this article.

Yes the article only mentions the few top contributors but Monsanto has contributed aside from speaking fee payments.
Article from July 17, 2015, 6 mths ago - the numbers could be more now. She hired a former Monsanto lobbyist & political fixer, Jerry Crawford, as adviser in April & to run her campaign in July '15.
Lobbyists for Monsanto, ExxonMobil Raise Money for Hillary Clinton

Registered lobbyists brought in more than $2 million in fundraising for the Clinton campaign, recent filings show.

Ben Brody @BenBrodyDC

July 17, 2015 — 4:50 AM EDT

When Barack Obama was running for the presidency in 2008—and later for reelection in 2012—he promised he wouldn't take money from registered lobbyists, not even as bundlers. In the race to succeed him, Hillary Clinton is not following in his footsteps.

The former secretary of state raised more than $2 million from 40 "bundlers"—fundraisers who get their contacts to give to campaigns—who were also lobbyists, according to financial forms released Wednesday by the Federal Election Commission. In all, the Clinton campaign raised $46.7 million between the beginning of April and the end of June.

Bundlers, who are often wealthy or well-connected individuals, do more than donate to campaigns. They put their social networks to work for favorite candidates, persuading (often equally wealthy and well-connected) family members, friends, colleagues, and other contacts to donate as well, effectively bringing in far more money than they could under the current legal donation limits. Individuals can contribute $2,700 to candidate committees (as opposed to super PACS) for the primary election and the same amount for the general election, for a total of $5,400 in a campaign cycle. Campaigns don't have to disclose their bundlers—unless those bundlers are also lobbyists.

Clinton's bundlers include some familiar names: Jerry Crawford, an outside lobbyist to Monsanto and Iowa kingmaker, put together another $35,000 or so. Tony Podesta, a mega-lobbyist who co-founded the Podesta Group and is the brother of Clinton's campaign chair John, bundled almost $75,000.

John Podesta himself previewed the open-for-lobbying-donations strategy back in April, telling PBS' Charlie Rose show, "I think that our judgment was we will take money if it's legal, obviously" because of how much opponents were raising. "So, we're going to raise the resources that are necessary," he said.

Other bundlers lobby for big companies including Microsoft (Fred Humphries) and Exxon Mobil (Theresa Fariello) or industry groups including the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (Daphna Peled). Another group includes former staffers for prominent Democratic politicians (including President Clinton) and politicians themselves, including former South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges. Lobbyist bundlers don't have to disclose their employers, but the names appear on both Clinton's disclosures and 2015 lobbyist registrations.

Clinton spokesman Josh Schwerin said in an email that 94 percent of the more than 250,000 donors to Clinton's campaign gave $250 or less. "Regardless of the size of their donation, the people who support Hillary’s campaign know that’s what she’s fighting for—working to ensure we have an economy that works for all Americans and not just those at the top, one that allows everyday Americans to get ahead and stay ahead," Schwerin wrote.

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/ar...illary-clinton