AI
Monday, June 25, 2012 6:06:08 AM
Romney Financial Backers Feted, Then Pressed to Do More
Unidentified Romney retreat attendees Saturday in Park City, Utah.
Associated Press
By SARA MURRAY
June 24, 2012, 9:26 p.m. ET
PARK CITY, Utah—Mitt Romney's campaign used a weekend retreat in the mountains of Utah—with a diverse set of new supporters and veteran, million-dollar bundlers on hand—to rally its fundraising team to out-raise President Barack Obama.
More than 700 donors and fundraisers met with officials from Mr. Romney's campaign and Republican Party leaders to discuss campaign strategy and policy issues—as well as to hear an overarching plea that one donor summarized: "We've raised a lot; we need to raise a lot more."
Having spurned public financing, Messrs. Romney and Obama have built formidable fundraising machines for what is likely to be the most expensive election yet. The president and the Democratic National Committee had about $147 million on hand on May 31, compared with $107 million for Mr. Romney and the Republican National Committee.While Mr. Obama has drawn on Hollywood star power and has tried to re-energize a grass roots base that supported him in 2008, Mr. Romney has tapped into the angst of business executives who say the president has demonized their success.
Attendees described a broader and larger set of donors than the roughly 500 top fundraisers who made up the core of former President George W. Bush's network. Donors had to give a minimum $50,000 to be invited to the Utah event.
The weekend meetings, though private, offered some of the first glimpses of Mr. Romney's top backers. But the retreat, rich with images of GOP donors being ferried around in golf carts, also could hold some political risk for Mr. Romney—especially since he doesn't disclose the names of his bundlers, people who gather contributions from friends and associates.
"It's the broadest group of highly qualified and competent donors of any campaign I have ever seen," said Fred Malek, a GOP fundraiser who has been involved in campaigns since the 1980s.Many of the attendees work in finance or own their own businesses. "You had extremely well-heeled, wealthy, elderly businessmen. You had young entrepreneurs," said one donor.
David Reinke was emblematic of many of the newcomers. The chief executive of a computer-parts supplier and a real-estate investor from Madison, Wis., first donated to Mr. Romney in May, after writing checks during the GOP primaries to Newt Gingrich, then Herman Cain and then Rick Santorum. He found the setting both "comfortable and invigorating" but said he got no sensitive information about strategy, nor did he get one-on-one time with the man he's supporting. Mr. Reinke said he had been particularly interested in a discussion about the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul, which Mr. Romney has pledged to repeal. Still, "you're not necessarily going to hear things you don't already know," he said.
Ray Washburne said that "after a bruising primary where a lot of people were very active in other people's campaigns, this was a very unifying event." Added the Dallas restaurant-chain owner, "It was a good shot of adrenaline for everyone."
Some of Mr. Romney's earliest bundlers, including lobbyist Wayne Berman, attended the retreat. Also on hand were New York Jets owner Woody Johnson and oil man Harold Hamm, chairman of the candidate's energy policy advisory group. Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), former George W. Bush White House adviser Karl Rove and a handful of GOP governors attended, as well as some presumed to be on the shortlist of potential running mates.
Joe Canizaro, a bank chairman from New Orleans, originally donated to Rick Perry before writing a check to Mr. Romney. After the slate of events, he said he sensed added interest to work for Mr. Romney among "a lot of people that might not have been so interested before."
The campaign handed out colorful pledge cards where donors wrote their names, the amounts they vowed to raise or donate before Election Day and their signatures. Attendees sported pins based on their level of giving; those adorned with stars or stripes designated bundlers.
In a strategy briefing, top Romney staffers told supporters the Obama campaign has been spending more on advertising than has Mr. Romney, excluding ads from super PACs that support the candidates, attendees said. But the staffers questioned the Obama ads' effectiveness.
The Obama campaign declined to comment on their ads, but decried the Utah retreat. "The American people will never know who attended or what deals were cut in return for donations to the Romney campaign," said Danny Kanner, an Obama campaign spokesman.
Neil Newhouse, the campaign's pollster, highlighted the importance of winning Virginia and Ohio and flipping Indiana, states Mr. Obama won in 2008. Wisconsin may also be in play, staffers told donors.
"When we go out to raise money and we meet with respective donors, we need to know exactly what is going on," said Dr. Peter A. Wish, a retired psychologist. "Otherwise I would never feel comfortable going to someone to say, 'Hey, take out your checkbook.'"
Guests said former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice generated the most buzz by channeling the concerns of those who believe Mr. Obama is vilifying success and promoting an anti-business agenda with his attacks on Bain Capital, the private-equity firm Mr. Romney once led. "Barack Obama does not understand the narrative of America," she told the crowd, according to some who attended. "The narrative of America is not 'I am doing poorly because you are doing well.' The narrative of America is empowerment."
If the weekend's goal was to invigorate donors, its undercurrent was vice presidential gossip. Ms. Rice's brief appearance put her atop the list for some guests, though she has said she's not interested in the job. Potential running mates such as former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Ohio Sen. Rob Portman dined with donors.Even supporters who were new to the fold had a front-row seat for speculation. On Friday, Dennis Nixon, a Texas banker and former Rick Perry supporter, sat at the Chatueax Silver Lake's hotel bar, mingling with other guests. Nearby, Beth Myers, Mr. Romney's senior adviser who is overseeing the vice presidential selection process, socialized with staffers, as South Dakota Sen. John Thune, another rumored vice presidential possibility, sat just across the room.
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Washington Wire
Romney Revs Up Money Machine in Park City Weekend
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/06/24/romney-revs-up-money-machine-in-park-city-weekend/
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Copyright ©2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304458604577486982599450056.html [with comments]
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Romney’s Republicanpalooza: How about a guest list?
By Editorial Board, Published: June 22, 2012
ON FRIDAY, Mitt Romney [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/mitt-romney-2012-presidential-candidate/gIQANxIecO_topic.html ] — along with an entourage of his most important donors and fundraisers — arrived at the tony Utah ski resort of Deer Valley. Whether the presumptive presidential nominee or his 700 close friends at this so-called Republicanpalooza [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/us/politics/romneys-personal-touch-pays-off-with-donors.html?pagewanted=all ] are aware that the Works Progress Administration built the resort’s first ski trails in the mid-1930s is not known. Unfortunately, also unknown to most Americans are the identities of the “bundlers [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mr-romneys-secret-bundlers/2012/06/09/gJQAkAqkQV_story.html ]” present at this weekend fete, the fundraisers largely responsible for Mr. Romney’s unexpected outraising of President Obama [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/romneys-fundraising-outpaces-obamas-in-may/2012/06/07/gJQAlpxvLV_story.html ] in May.
Campaign finance laws don’t require candidates to release the names of their bundlers, except in the case of registered federal lobbyists. But the Romney campaign’s refusal to identify those who bring in a quarter-million dollars or more differentiates it not only from the Obama campaign but also from those of the past two Republican contenders for the White House, President George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.). Both released lists of their major fundraisers, along with the scale of their harvests.
In Mr. Romney’s case, big contributors have played an especially important role. In May, for instance, only 15 percent of donations were smaller than $200; the rest of the $76.8 million his campaign tallied in conjunction with the Republican National Committee was clearly bolstered by these bundlers and their connections. Why will Mr. Romney not disclose the names of these supporters to whom he’s most indebted? What is there to hide?
As for the weekend in Utah, the bundlers — whomever they may be — are certainly in for a treat. Some of the most luminous personalities in the Republican stratosphere are expected to attend, including former Florida governor Jeb Bush, former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and George W. Bush strategist Karl Rove. As The Post reported [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/romney-plans-posh-weekend-donor-retreat-featuring-rove-and-vp-hopefuls/2012/06/20/gJQApFYNqV_story.html ] this week, potential Romney running mates such as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Sen. John Thune (S.D.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.) are also likely to attend.
On the agenda is a cookout with a speech by Mr. Romney and, on Sunday, a round of golf. Maybe Ann Romney will serve some of her special homemade cookies, reported to have been so successful at donor gatherings.
Selling access has become nearly universal in political campaigns. Seeking to do so in secret sets Mr. Romney apart.
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More on this debate:
The Post’s View: Mr. Romney’s secret bundlers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mr-romneys-secret-bundlers/2012/06/09/gJQAkAqkQV_story.html
The Post’s View: Mitt Romney’s secret money
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mitt-romneys-secret-money/2011/12/23/gIQAbTZmHP_story.html
The Post’s View: Name those bundlers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2011/07/20/gIQA1nJhVI_story.html
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© 2012 The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/romneys-republicanpalooza-how-about-a-guest-list/2012/06/22/gJQAwoYlvV_story.html [with comments]
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Cash Rules at Romney Retreat While Condoleezza Rice Steals the Show
(Charles Dharapak/AP Photo)
Jun 24, 2012 12:39am
ABC’s Shushannah Walshe and Arlette Saenz report:
PARK CITY, Utah — If the majority of donors who attend this weekend’s gathering of hundreds [ http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/mitt-romney-donor-retreat-kicks-off-with-tote-bags-ski-jumpers-and-a-roast-from-ann/ ] of high dollar fundraisers go back home as fired up as Rodger Young, the Romney campaign will be in quite strong a financial position and the investment in time and effort for the event will be paid back many times over.
“I am going to bundle every penny I can bundle,” said Young, a donor at this weekend’s mixer for Romney donors, GOP stars, and Republican leaders.
Until this weekend, Young was merely a donor not a bundler, but that has now changed.
“I came here with the idea that we were all going to take on more financial responsibility and I am certainly prepared to do that for Gov. Romney and I think we can get this done,” Young told ABC News.
Hundreds of high dollar fundraisers turned out this weekend [ http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/romneys-great-utah-adventure-the-guest-list-and-schedule-leaks-out/ ] for a mixer for Romney campaign donors, GOP stars and Republican leaders, but among the faces at the retreat were other attendees who have the same goals of defeating Barack Obama, but whose roles in Republican politics lie in super PACs.
A man in a dark suit and purple pocket square was camped out in the lobby of the Chateaux at Silver Lake talking to what appeared to be lanyard-wearing donors. The man was Charlie Spies, the founder of the Mitt Romney-backing super PAC Restore Our Future.
He wasn’t attending any of the panels or discussions and didn’t even want to go in to get a cup of coffee, but the lobby is really the place to be, with attendees walking to and from meetings or gathering to talk.
Reporters were asked to leave the lobby after being spotted chatting with Sen. John Thune and his wife about Friday’s reception at Olympic Park, as well as with Florida Rep. Connie Mack.
It’s legal for Spies to be there, but “coordination” with the candidate is not, a rule that’s hard to enforce and explain.
He pleasantly wouldn’t answer questions about the propriety of him hobnobbing at the Romney Victory Leadership Retreat [ http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/partying-romneys-donors-utah/story?id=16627729 ], but he said, “Romney supporters are energized.”
“People here understand that the private sector is not doing fine and we need a president who understands how to create jobs and turn the economy around,” Spies told ABC News.
The Romney campaign said the super PAC members were in Park City on their own, and were not attendees of the event.
“ROF staff were not invited, nor did they attend or participate the retreat,” Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said. “As with members of the media, they may have been in public spaces, and the campaign did not control that. We are fully aware of the law and comply with it completely.”
But Spies wasn’t the only person affiliated with a GOP superPAC attending the confab.
Karl Rove, founder of American Crossroads and a former Bush strategist, was also on hand. He spoke on a “media insight” panel, and on another one examining Romney’s path to victory. Rove, dressed in a blue blazer, told reporters his panel was “damn good,” before whizzing away on a golf cart.
Attendees said the panel was engaging and humorous, with Rove swearing up a storm and regaling the crowd with funny stories.
Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz told reporters both Rove and GOP strategist Mary Matalin were making the crowd howl, telling them about when Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a friend with bird-shot pellets on a hunting trip.
“He was on full display,” Chaffetz said of Rove.
It wasn’t all joking, though. According to Young and his wife, Rove said, “We had to focus on some particular groups, such as some Republicans that didn’t vote in the last election,” including focusing on women. It’s unclear whether Rove was also soliciting donations as he mingled with attendees over the weekend.
Many of those same attendees said the star speaker of the weekend was former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who received and a standing ovation. Ambassador Charles Cobb, who served as ambassador to Iceland from 1989 to 1992, said Rice was “spectacular” and described her as a “very bright, sophisticated, articulate lady.”
Husband-and-wife donors from Los Angeles who did not want to be identified said Rice’s message was one of “America needing to take charge.”
“We can’t stand by and let things happen,” the wife said. “If we do, someone else will take that leadership role.”
They both described her address as an “impassioned plea” for the country to “stand up and take charge.”
Donor Kent Lucken, an international banker in Boston who moved back to his home state of Iowa for six weeks before the caucuses to help Romney, said “she rocked it.”
Attendees also heard from Sen. John McCain, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush [ http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/jeb-bush-praises-mitt-romney-says-he-has-common-ground-with-obama/ ], and many other GOP notables. The donors were also able to learn about what Chaffetz described as how “the Romney train runs on time.”
The attendees got to hear from the Romney senior staff, including campaign manager Matt Rhoades, senior strategist Stuart Stevens, and longtime adviser Beth Myers who is heading up the vice presidential selection process. They described the campaign’s “10 a.m. meeting,” according to Chaffetz and several donors.
“I think people were fascinated by that,” Chaffetz said. “They spent a good half hour showing them how they would do that, and what they would talk about and how they review the numbers and talk about messaging and develop that into a cohesive message that’s not only earned media but also paid media and other types of things. That was really different than I think that most people thought.”
Chaffetz added that they went through “the analysis of what’s going on in the media, looking at polling, looking at all the different facets.”
Another thing many attendees weren’t expecting? How up-close and personal they would get with many of the stars of the party. Chaffetz pointed out that he saw many donors excitedly taking their photo with possible vice presidential choices.
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman [ http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/rob-portman-laughs-off-all-the-vp-talk/ ], South Dakota Sen. John Thune, and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan were all on hand.
Larry Conti who came with his friend, a bundler from Los Angeles, as his plus-one describes himself as “a big Paul Ryan fan” and was thrilled to meet him. Conti thought he would impress his friend when he took a photo with Ryan, who introduced himself to him as “Paul,” but instead the friend told him he had just spent 10 minutes talking to Ryan in the bathroom.
Eugene Atkinson, a bundler from New York City, said he thanked House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and turned away only to have Cantor come back to him and ask him, “So how many years were you at Goldman Sachs?”
Atkinson spent almost 20 years at the bank (he is now the founder and managing director of Atkinson Capital), and Cantor’s wife used to work there.
And it’s also what these donors are leaving with, not just an enthusiasm to raise more money, as Young mentioned, but the impression that their guy is going to win.
Before he zoomed off in a golf cart with former Secretary of State James Baker, former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, who will also head up Romney’s transition if he is elected, said he came away from the panels with confidence that the Romney campaign has “a very impressive group of people supporting this campaign and we have a very good shot at winning.”
But with just under four months to go until election day, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus acted as a voice of reason for a campaign that is currently on top of the world.
“Everyone thinks we couldn’t be doing better. We are clicking on all cylinders. We couldn’t be raising more money, but it’s June,” Priebus said. “On our best day it will be close.”
Copyright © 2012 ABC News Internet Ventures. Yahoo! - ABC News Network
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/cash-rules-at-romney-retreat-while-condoleezza-rice-steals-the-show/ [with comments]
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Mitt Romney's Billionaire Backers
33 members of the Forbes billionaires list have donated money to “Restore Our Future,” the super PAC working to elect Mitt Romney president.
http://pinterest.com/pcactionfund/mitt-romney-s-billionaire-backers/
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For Wealthy Romney Donors, Up Close and Personal Access
Karl Rove was among the high-powered Republicans at a retreat for Mitt Romney fund-raisers in Utah this weekend.
Charles Dharapak/Associated Press
By MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: June 23, 2012
PARK CITY, Utah
They schmoozed with Mitt Romney [ http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/primaries/candidates/mitt-romney ] at a barbecue cookout at the Olympic Park, pressing him on labor regulations and the threat of a nuclear Iran as downhill skiers performed midair flips behind them.
They rubbed elbows with Beth Myers, who is running Mr. Romney’s vice-presidential search, in the packed lobby bar of the Chateaux at Silver Lake, over $15 glasses of Scotch.
And they mingled with Mr. Romney’s wife, Ann, during an intimate “Women for Romney victory tea,” held on an umbrella-shaded patio in this resort town.
The Romney campaign, whose fund-raising prowess has defied assumptions about President Obama’s financial advantages, offered wealthy donors and bundlers an extraordinary level of access to the candidate, his staff members, advisers and family this weekend at a three-day retreat that even seasoned political contributors said dwarfed previous presidential powwows.
Mr. Romney’s political operation seemed to all but shut down and relocate to the mountains of Utah. At least 15 senior campaign figures flew in for what blue-blazered guests from Texas, North Carolina and New York dubbed Republicanpalooza, delivering briefings on the effectiveness of Mr. Romney’s and Mr. Obama’s commercials and spinning them through the latest polling data, which they said showed the race as a dead heat.
“Everybody was completely accessible,” said Anthony Scaramucci, a New York financier and Romney fund-raiser who said the candidate took the time to warmly greet and thank him by his nickname, Mooch, at a dinner on the first night of the retreat.
Yet for all the political and financial firepower assembled here, the Romney confab was not the only, or necessarily the most exclusive, gathering of ultrarich Republicans this weekend. In a simultaneous demonstration of the party’s fund-raising might, the industrialist billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch held a conference for conservative megadonors at a resort outside San Diego. Over the past few years, their high-dollar strategy sessions have been the marquee events of the Republican campaign finance set.
The Koch conference touched off an unexpected — and for the Romney campaign, somewhat unwelcome — competition for top-flight moneyed supporters. While Mr. Romney’s campaign officials have made it clear that they appreciate the efforts of wealthy backers like the Kochs, there was consternation among some on his finance team that the brothers decided to move forward with their conference after Mr. Romney scheduled his for the same weekend. As one fund-raiser noted, Mr. Romney is, after all, the candidate.
The Romney campaign offered donors who gave $50,000 or raised $100,000 intimate seminars and discussions featuring leading Republican lights, past and present: Karl Rove, Condoleezza Rice, James Baker III, John McCain and Jeb Bush, whose presence represented a symbolic embrace of a candidate who struggled to win over the disparate elements of his party in the bruising primary.
“Everyone is coming here to rally around the Romney flagpole,” said Cheryl Halpern, a filmmaker who attended with her husband, Fred, a real estate developer from New Jersey. The pair went to a special Sabbath dinner at the retreat featuring kosher fare.
At times, the scene here at a compound of high-altitude ski lodges seemed like an imitation Republican National Convention. In the span of a few moments, William Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard, greeted Michael Chertoff, George. W. Bush’s secretary of homeland security, at an outdoor cafe as Mary Matalin, the conservative commentator, whizzed by in an extended-cab golf cart and Mr. Romney’s brother, Scott, approached in a pair of shiny black pants from Prada. (Guests noted that Scott Romney’s current and ex-wives were in attendance.)
Brenda LaGrange Johnson, a former United States ambassador to Jamaica who previously attended donor retreats held by President George W. Bush in Texas, said there was no comparison with Mr. Romney’s event here. “This is much more thorough,” she said. “This is much more extensive.”
Donors were unabashed about their desire to have face time with those who might constitute the brain trust in a Romney White House. David A. Wish, a Florida doctor and Romney fund-raiser, said that in order to sell the candidate to potential contributors, “we need one-on-one time with the people who make decisions.”
Soon after, Mr. Wish cornered Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior adviser, for a brief chat.
Mr. Romney, of course, is not alone in granting his donors special treatment. Mr. Obama has invited major contributors to state dinners, put them on his Job Council and, as visitor logs show, allowed them into the White House for meetings with advisers.
The Romney campaign took pains to personalize the experience. Arriving guests received beige Vineyard Vines canvas bags embroidered with the campaign slogan “Believe in America.” Inside was a Romney-branded navy blue baseball cap and pins that designated donation levels. The campaign’s fund-raising chief, Spencer Zwick, signed 450 welcoming letters.
Donors attended policy discussions and round tables (like “Innovation in America” co-hosted by Ken Langone, a founder of Home Depot) that were tailored to their interests, both political and financial. Representative Connie Mack of Florida spoke at a session on energy policy. Ms. Matalin talked about the media, humorously recalling her conversation with Vice President Dick Cheney after he accidentally shot a friend on a hunting trip. And Ms. Rice addressed the need for renewed American leadership around the world, in a speech several guests called “electrifying.”
At times, the discussions took on a partisan tone, as when Mr. McCain scolded the Obama administration for security leaks and its foreign policy toward Russia, attendees said.
“Mr. President, how many times are you going to hit that reset button on Russia?” Mr. Scaramucci, the New York fund-raiser, quoted Mr. McCain as saying in a speech.
At another seminar, Mr. Romney’s pollster, Neil Newhouse, disputed a recent Bloomberg News poll that said Mr. Obama had pulled well ahead of Mr. Romney, telling donors to look at different surveys instead.
Mr. Romney mixed with guests at an elaborate dinner at the foot of steep ski jumps and a winding bobsled course used in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. Over barbecued beef, chicken and salmon, guests whispered advice on swing states and asked him about his chances against Mr. Obama, whose name was employed in an acronym by several attendees — “A.B.O.,” anybody but Obama.
Mr. Baker, the secretary of state under the first President George Bush, said the retreat reminded him of a conference that Gerald Ford held in Vail, Colo., as he laid the groundwork for his campaign against Jimmy Carter in 1976.
“That’s what I see going on here,” Mr. Baker said in an interview. “We are going to have a different result. This year we are going to win.”
On Thursday night, Mr. Rove held court on a hotel balcony with about a half-dozen financial executives, who peppered him with questions about Mr. Romney’s chances.
“You have to focus on Northern Virginia,” a donor advised Mr. Rove, who is not working on the Romney campaign but has helped raise tens of millions of dollars and map out strategy for a pair of political groups attacking Mr. Obama.
Mr. Rove playfully mocked a Wall Street banker for his casual wardrobe: a baseball cap, gray hooded sweatshirt and a pair of worn bluejeans.
“You’re the most underdressed banker I’ve ever met,” Mr. Rove told him.
After Mr. Rove walked away, the gaggle of men excitedly recounted the conversation, reveling in their access.
“That’s the price of admission right there,” one donor said to another. “Your six minutes with Rove.”
Jim Rutenberg contributed reporting from New York.
© 2012 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/us/politics/for-wealthy-romney-donors-up-close-and-personal-access.html [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/us/politics/for-wealthy-romney-donors-up-close-and-personal-access.html?pagewanted=all ]
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Romney Donors Get Access, and Face Time, at Utah Retreat
Mitt Romney during day five of his bus trip in Holland State Park June 19, 2012 in Michigan.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
By Lisa Lerer - Jun 23, 2012 11:00 PM CT
In the first-class cabin of Delta Flight 832, the schmoozing began well before take-off.
Wayne Berman, a lobbyist for Blackstone Group LP, stood in the plane’s aisle, swapping stories with Rob Bishop, a U.S. House member from Utah, and Ron Kaufman, a senior adviser to Mitt Romney, over Biscoff cookies and complimentary cocktails.
All were headed to the same place: a weekend-long retreat in the mountain resort town of Park City, Utah, open only to the biggest contributors to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
More than 700 top fundraisers and their spouses attended the closed-door affair organized by the campaign to keep the money flowing as Romney heads into a heated fall election.
Fundraisers mingled with the candidate during an evening cook-out at Utah Olympic Park, watching freestyle skiers practice aerial tricks. At the Chateaux at Silver Lake, an Alpine-style resort nestled amid green mountains, they were whisked in golf carts to afternoon briefings with former secretaries of state and senators. And at night, in the hotel bars, they offered advice to campaign manager Matt Rhoades and other top strategists.
The price tag for this level of access: a donation of $50,000 or a fundraising total of $250,000 for Romney’s campaign.
‘Final Push’
“It’s a coming together for all the folks who have supported Governor Romney for a long time,” said Kerry Healey, who served under Romney as lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. “We’re coming together for the final push.”
These kinds of retreats have become a trademark of the Romney political operation. Over the past two years, Romney has hosted donors for lunch and boat rides at his home on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire and toured Israel with fundraisers.
Campaign finance advocates say the unique level of access given to wealthy donors by the campaign illustrates the failures of current federal election rules. Hotel security closed off meeting rooms during the weekend, refusing to allow journalists any closer than the sidewalk outside the hotel.
“The presidential election and ultimately the presidency are back on the auction block, going to the highest bidders and the richest people,” said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a Washington-based campaign-finance overhaul advocacy group.
Crucial Tool
Romney’s campaign sees the event as a crucial tool to build the arsenal necessary for the final five months of the campaign. The openness to donors is the mark of a man who spent years as a private equity executive persuading wealthy investors to part with their money.
“The personal contact makes all the difference,” said Dave Phillips, who served as U.S. ambassador to Estonia under George W. Bush and now heads Romney’s fundraising efforts in North Carolina.
Romney, 65, greeted donors by name at the evening barbecue, mingled with them after a breakfast speech by Arizona Senator John McCain, and answered their questions after industry panels on finance, foreign policy and health care.
The event was part pep rally, part family reunion.
Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus, former Bush White House aide Mary Matalin and Weekly Standard editor and co-founder Bill Kristol raced up hills on golf carts to policy briefings.
Running Mates?
Three men rumored to be on the vice presidential short list -- U.S. Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Governor Bob McDonnell of Virginia and U.S. Senator John Thune of South Dakota -- sat on a panel titled “Innovation in America.”
And Republican strategist Karl Rove, now advising two outside political groups supporting Romney, described the state of the electorate in a talk peppered with jokes and colorful language.
With most national polls showing the contest in a near-dead heat, party strategists and officials could barely contain their excitement about the state of the race. Former Secretary of State James Baker III said the weekend reminded him of a meeting of backers of Gerald R. Ford in Aspen, Colorado, before the 1976 election -- with one significant difference.
“This year we’re going to win,” he said.
Stellar Speakers
Donors marveled at the array of speakers and attendees assembled by the campaign.
“James Baker has always been one of my heroes,” said Kirk Jowers, director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics and Federal Relations at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and a long-time Romney supporter. “It’s like Jim Baker or Bono.”
For Bill Brady, who runs a hotel supply company in Las Vegas, the highlight was a lunchtime speech by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who explained her support for Romney and stressed the need for America to reemerge as a leader in the world. Audience members jumped to their feet with applause, prompting some to wonder whether Rice ought to be considered as Romney’s running mate.
“It was one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard,” Brady said.
Victory Path
Fundraisers, carrying tote bags embossed with a special campaign logo, shuttled to and from lectures on Israel, health care and media strategy. A “Women for Romney victory tea” featured the candidate’s wife, Ann, and former Olympic figure skater Dorothy Hamill.
Political director Rich Beeson taught a quick lesson on the Electoral College, laying out several pathways to the 270 votes needed for victory. Chief strategist Stuart Stevens played several recent ads to illustrate how the slogan “Believe in America” was reflected in the campaign. Pollster Neil Newhouse disputed a recent Bloomberg News poll showing Obama with a 13- point lead, using a series of slides detailing a number of other polls showing a tighter race.
For most donors, the highlight of the weekend was the chance to talk with the candidate at the Utah Olympic Park, a subtle reminder of Romney’s success as head of the 2002 Winter Games. As the sun set against the mountains, they stood in a tent adorned with chandeliers and listened to Romney and his family deliver a more personal version of their campaign message.
With four of his five sons watching, Romney spoke emotionally about his role as a father and grandfather and thanked those present for their support, according to donors.
“His remarks were very moving,” said Bobbie Kilberg, a chairwoman of the Northern Virginia Technology Council in Herndon, Virginia. “They gave you a really good glimpse at the personal Mitt Romney.”
Family Members
Romney family members roamed the retreat grounds, mixing with health care investors from Greenwich, Connecticut, and insurance executives from Los Angeles.
One of the candidate’s nieces, Kristen Romney Hubbs, carried a large black-and-white painting of Romney’s face against the backdrop of an American flag. The flag, she said, helped draw out her uncle’s “emotional energy.”
Scott Romney, the candidate’s brother, walked out of the hotel lobby in a puffy jacket bearing the logo of Solamere Capital LLC, the private equity firm founded by Mitt Romney’s son Tagg and campaign fundraiser Spencer Zwick. Scott’s ex-wife, Ronna, talked with donors and reporters about her still-close relationship with Ann Romney.
The close encounters only went so far, though. Just before midnight, Beth Myers, a longtime Romney aide charged with vetting potential running mates, sat with other campaign workers and donors in the hotel bar. At the next table was Thune, the South Dakota senator considered to be a top prospect for the position.
Those two were not mingling.
To contact the reporter on this story: Lisa Lerer in Washington at llerer@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jeanne Cummings at jcummings21@bloomberg.net
©2012 BLOOMBERG L.P.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-24/romney-donors-get-access-and-face-time-at-utah-retreat.html [with comments]
===
Romney to Jewish donors: ‘I get Israeli briefings’
By Ron Kampeas · June 24, 2012
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Mitt Romney told donors attending his campaign's Utah retreat that he is briefed on the Middle East by Israeli government officials.
About 50 of the 700 donors who attended the retreat this weekend in Park City were Jewish, according to one in attendance.
Many of these attended a breakout session Friday afternoon on the U.S.-Israel relationship, although between half and three quarters of the 100 donors attending the session were not Jewish.
Romney dropped in on the session, and said he had just been briefed by the Israeli ambassador, Michael Oren, speaking about, among other issues, the situation in Syria, the elections in Egypt and the effort to isolate Iran.
Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and the Republican presidential nominee, said he has such conversations with Israeli officials to be kept up to date on the region.
Such briefings are not an unusual once it becomes clear who the major party candidates are.
Romney also spoke about where he believed he and Obama differed on Iran; Romney said he would be doing more to keep Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
The Obama administration is currently part of major power talks with Iran to make its suspected nuclear weapons program more transparent, and is also encouraging the international community to intensify sanctions.
It has also made representations to Israel to dial back threats of military action, although Obama administration officials have said that all options will be used to keep Iran from acquiring a bomb. Republicans have said that making clear such threats is the likeliest avenue to an Iranian retreat on the matter.
Addressing the U.S.-Israel session were William Kristol, a founder of the Emergency Committee for Israel which recently ran ads accusing Obama of not doing enough to stop Iran; Michael Chertoff, the Bush administration Homeland Security Secretary, who is Jewish; and Norm Coleman, the former U.S. senator from Minnesota, who is also Jewish.
To attend the retreat, donors either had to have donated $50,000 to the campaign or had to have raised $250,000.
GOP stars such as tactician Karl Rove, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Sen Jon Thune (R-S.D.) and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the U.S. House of Representatives majority leader, were in attendance, a sign of a unified front after a rough primaries campaign.
There was kosher food on hand, and a Shabbat dinner for Jewish attendees.
Park City was the site of the 2002 Winter Olympics, the event that Romney turned around into a success after early signs of a possible fiasco, and that shot him to national fame.
© JTA
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/06/24/3099041/romney-to-jewish-donors-i-get-israeli-briefings
===
Weekend of secrecy for big GOP donors
Charles and David Koch.
(Credit: Koch Industries/MIT)
By Brian Montopoli
June 22, 2012 5:00 AM
(CBS News) It's going to be a big weekend in the world of big conservative money: Both Mitt Romney and billionaire industrialist brothers David and Charles Koch are holding hush-hush events with wealthy donors designed to keep the dollars coming in.
Romney's three-day retreat, which is being held at the Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah, is an opportunity for about 700 Romney's biggest fundraisers to get some face time with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. (Many of them are "bundlers" - wealthy and well-connected individuals who call on their family, friends and associates to max out their contributions to Romney and the GOP - who have raised in the area of $250,000 for Romney.) Some of the biggest names in the Republican Party, and many of the top contenders to be Romney's running mate, are also coming to Park City: CBS News has confirmed that attendees will include former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, South Dakota Sen. John Thune, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, Republican strategist Karl Rove, former Reagan chief of staff James Baker, Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone and Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker.
Republican strategist Mary Matalin, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol and former Utah governor Mike Leavitt are among the other big names expected to attend. The Romney campaign would not discuss who is attending the retreat, which is not open to the press. Spokespersons for two top contenders for the vice presidential slot - Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie - told CBS News the politicians were invited but would not attend for scheduling reasons. CBS News has also confirmed that Olympic champion figure skater Dorothy Hamill, who participated in the Romney-run 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, will attend.
Romney was not expected to compete in terms of fundraising with President Obama, who broke records in raising nearly $750 million in the 2008 cycle. But he has largely kept pace thanks in part to his personal engagement with wealthy donors, which has come in the form of dozens of intimate meetings around the country and, as the New York Times notes [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/us/politics/romneys-personal-touch-pays-off-with-donors.html ], invitations to his summer home at New Hampshire's Lake Winnipesaukee. The Romney campaign, which has garnered a reputation for aggressive and prompt engagement with potential donors, outraised the Obama campaign $78.6 million to $60 million in May [ http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57448783-503544/romney-tops-obama-in-may-fundraising/ ].
While Romney and his Republican allies are busy cultivating donors in Utah, the Koch brothers will be in San Diego holding a convention designed to help them generate hundreds of millions of dollars to advance conservative causes. At least we think they will: The event is shrouded in secrecy, and neither representatives for Koch Industries nor a number of expected attendees contacted by CBS News would even confirm that it is taking place.
Word got out last week that it was indeed happening, when Minnesota television station owner Stanley Hubbard confirmed its existence [ http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=2D316FDA-68AB-4826-A61A-20A870506921 ] - and San Diego location - to Politico. In an apparent attempt to head off protesters and potential infiltrators, organizers and attendees will not say exactly where the convention will be held; a San Diego alternative newspaper is holding a "Find the Koch Brothers Confab" contest [ http://obrag.org/?p=62472 ] in order to figure it out. (CBS News' attempts to confirm the venue have thus far been fruitless, though we have our suspicions.) Liberals have their own version of the Koch brothers' confab called The Democracy Alliance, where security is similarly strict; both events are awash in security personnel looking to escort uninvited guests (such as reporters) off the premises.
Organizations tied to the Koch brothers are reportedly planning to spend nearly $400 million on the 2012 campaign cycle, and their conferences are largely designed to garner contributions to the cause. Last year, Mother Jones infiltrated a Koch conference in Vail where Christie was a speaker and recorded Charles Koch thanking donors who had given more than $1 million; the list, which is here, includes more than thirty names. According to a leaked invitation, Koch conferences have attracted conservative heavy hitters such as Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, Govs. Jindal and Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Sens. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Rep. Ryan, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.
The semi-secrecy of the Romney retreat and extreme secrecy of the Koch conference mirror the secrecy that currently exists in the world of campaign financing. The Romney campaign, unlike the Obama campaign, refuses to disclose its bundlers, which makes it more difficult for the public to assess what his biggest donors might expect in exchange for their money. The Koch brothers funnel money into groups like Americans for Prosperity, a non-profit "social welfare organization" that does not need to disclose its donors because it is incorporated as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit with the Internal Revenue Service. (More on that here [ http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57456466-503544/explainer-how-big-money-flows-into-politics/ ].) And while the super PACs that the Supreme Court freed up to spend unlimited amounts to influence the election do have to disclose their donors, they can simply funnel donations through 501(c)(4) groups - which in many cases are their sister organizations - effectively allowing the super PACs to get around that pesky disclosure requirement. (There is also anonymity on the other side of the spectrum: The Federal Election Commission does not require the campaigns to identify donors who give less than $200 in an election cycle.)
In this election cycle, the Republicans appear to have a significant advantage when it comes to outside group spending - though because 501(c)(4)s and related organizations only have to file with the IRS once per year, it's impossible to know exactly how much money is flowing into the system. The Obama campaign, which says it expects to be outspent overall, estimated Wednesday that Romney, the Republican National Committee and the outside groups will spend $1.225 billion on ads alone before November.
Meanwhile, Romney and Mr. Obama continue to spend much of their time traveling the country to attend fundraisers, many of them closed to the press. CBS News' Mark Knoller reported earlier this month that the president has participated in 160 fundraisers since filing for re-election last April, and he has a number scheduled for next week; Romney, whose campaign frequently holds fundraisers it doesn't let the media know about, plans to follow his weekend retreat with his big donors in Utah by heading to Phoenix, Arizona for another fundraiser on Monday.
Caroline Horn, Rebecca Kaplan, Laura Strickler, Jenna Gibson and Chris Leyden contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2012 CBS Interactive Inc. (emphasis added)
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57458337-503544/weekend-of-secrecy-for-big-gop-donors/ [with comments]
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Billionaires at play
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-billionaires-at-play-20120608,0,481863.photo
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Romney Gives Donors Added Access
BY SARA MURRAY AND NEIL KING JR.
Updated June 21, 2012, 8:34 a.m. ET
Major donors to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign say that when they call, a response comes quickly. Emails are answered right away. Donors, many of them from the business world, are kept in the loop with weekly conference calls and special access to campaign strategists.
A prime example of the Romney team's embrace of its biggest donors comes this weekend, when 300 or more of the campaign's "founding members"—those who have given at least $50,000—gather in Park City, Utah, for two days of meetings with the candidate and his top campaign and policy advisers.
[...]
On Friday evening, guests will attend dinner and reception with Mr. Romney and his wife, Ann, at the Utah Olympic Park. The following day, Mrs. Romney will host a "Women for Romney Victory Tea" alongside figure skating champion Dorothy Hamill.
Sunday is reserved for a golf outing at Red Ledges, a private community that boasts: "Here you can live a life others have only heard about."
Copyright ©2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304441404577479033228432556.html [with comments] [last two paras per/from the evidently pre-update version at http://thepoliticalsnitch.blogspot.com/2012/06/romney-gives-donors-added-access-wall.html (no WSJ sub here)]
===
Romney’s Personal Touch Pays Off With Campaign Donors
Mitt Romney's biggest donors and fund-raisers are descending on Utah's exclusive Deer Valley resort this weekend.
Erik Szylard Daenitz for The New York Times
Several supporters recalled receiving all-hours phone calls and e-mails from Spencer Zwick, Mr. Romney’s fund-raising chief.
Mary Altaffer/Associated Press
By MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: June 20, 2012
Mitt Romney’s biggest donors and fund-raisers are descending on Utah’s exclusive Deer Valley resort this weekend for what invitees are calling Republicanpalooza: a two-day retreat featuring Karl Rove, Condoleezza Rice, Jeb Bush and John McCain.
But the highlight for the 700 guests, who either contributed $50,000 or raised $250,000 for the campaign, will be unfettered access to Mr. Romney himself, who will deliver a speech and mingle at a cookout beside the ski jumps at Olympic Park.
Mr. Romney, who survived a prolonged and cash-draining Republican primary process, has accomplished what many once thought impossible: he is keeping pace with President Obama’s vaunted fund-raising operation, which demolished records four years ago.
To a remarkable degree, interviews with donors, fund-raisers and staff members show, that financial haul has hinged on Mr. Romney’s clout in the business world and his relentless personal cultivation of contributors, a political ritual for which Mr. Obama has shown little enthusiasm and Mr. McCain, the last Republican presidential nominee, displayed outright disdain.
Mr. Romney has repeatedly invited top-flight donors to his home on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire for intimate gatherings where he serves cookies baked by his wife, Ann. He has spent hours meeting one-on-one with wealthy would-be backers from Cincinnati to Los Angeles who remain on the fence. And he has held seminars on issues that animate supporters, like Israel, education and energy.
The result: an infusion of high-dollar donations, which account for the vast majority of Mr. Romney’s campaign contributions and helped him out-raise Mr. Obama over the past two months, a symbolic and psychological milestone that set off alarms within the Democratic political world.
On Thursday, new campaign finance reports showed that in May Mr. Romney and the Republican National Committee, fueled by big donors, raised about $78 million for the candidate, in contrast to $60 million from Mr. Obama’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
Mr. Romney, it turns out, is a thoroughbred fund-raiser. After spending years as a private equity executive talking the wealthy into parting with their money, he has had little trouble persuading contributors, especially entrepreneurs, to invest in his vision of a Romney White House that is pro-business and antitax.
“He has a tremendous aptitude for this,” said Woody Johnson, owner of the New York Jets and one of Mr. Romney’s earliest financial bakers.
The campaign’s reliance, however, on wealthy donors and its refusal to disclose the identity of his bundlers, as the Obama campaign has done, has drawn criticism from advocates of campaign finance reform, and reinforced Mr. Romney’s image as a candidate whose greatest appeal is with America’s elite.
Not long ago, Mr. Romney visited the Park Avenue office of Kenneth G. Langone, a co-founder of the Home Depot who had called for Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey to run for president this year. After an hour, Mr. Romney had won over his fellow businessman.
“I didn’t look or talk to him any differently than a guy coming in here pitching me on a start-up company,” Mr. Langone said. “They are exactly the same. I am investing in a person.”
Mr. Obama, of course, is an adroit fund-raiser, whose team pioneered — and still dominates — Web-based outreach to small donors. He has used the mechanisms of incumbency to his advantage, inviting donors to state dinners and appointing them to his Jobs Council. But the president’s discomfort with stroking donors is well known, prompting some to complain that he can be chilly and inattentive.
Democrats express grudging admiration for Mr. Romney’s fund-raising prowess. “He has shown a great ability to listen to his donors and show he is engaged with them,” said Robert Zimmerman, a Democratic National Committee member and an Obama fund-raiser. “The fund — raising strategy is about building relationships, not just about raising money.”
Now, as top-tier donors and bundlers like Mr. Langone reach their legal limits, Mr. Romney is pursuing a new breed of donors — midlevel millionaires far from the corners of finance, who run dry cleaning chains and small industrial companies and share the candidate’s small-government ideology.
The campaign recently held a conference call for 30 car dealership owners in which Mr. Romney’s fund-raising chief emphasized the importance of family-owned businesses. The dealers have since become a reliable source of donations.
Sprawling campaigns have long struggled to keep up with the demands of their donors, many of whom feel entitled to instant responses to questions and requests for access.
The Romney campaign, by contrast, has flooded them with communications. There are daily and weekly conference calls, many featuring senior campaign members who offer updates on strategy and policy, and a software system that encourages friendly competition by allowing donors to monitor giving from friends whom they recruited. Several supporters recalled receiving all-hours phone calls and e-mails from Spencer Zwick, Mr. Romney’s fund-raising chief, who has a 24-hour rule: all messages are returned within a day.
“I keep hearing from people who are shocked at the follow up and follow through,” said Jack Oliver, who oversaw fund-raising for George W. Bush’s presidential campaigns and is close to the Romney campaign.
It is the attention from Mr. Romney, however, that has left the deepest impression on donors, who said they felt like extended members of the family, much in the way Mr. Bush embraced contributors. Mr. Bush became famed for immersing donors in his Texas life during retreats in Austin and following up with handwritten thank yous.
“This is the Bush operation on steroids,” said Anthony Scaramucci, a New York financier who has raised more than $1 million for Mr. Romney.
Mr. Scaramucci said he relished his time at Mr. Romney’s house in New Hampshire, where the candidate gave a slide show about campaign strategy and spoke with guests on a deck overlooking the lake. “People love being able to say they went to Romney’s house,” Mr. Scaramucci said. “It’s an attractive magnetron for the campaign.”
The campaign has organized much of its outreach around issues that energize contributors, like Israel. In May, it held a daylong series of policy discussions with donors at Mr. Romney’s headquarters in Boston, ending with an appearance by the candidate himself.
Philip Rosen, a Romney donor active in Jewish causes, said the presence of the candidate “shows he cares personally, which is something we know, but it’s important to see. For those who did not have a personal relationship with him, it’s essential.”
There is a harder edge to the operation, whose corporate-style punctiliousness and accountability is an extension of the candidate himself. Fund-raisers who repeatedly miss goals are quietly but firmly eased out of state chairmanships, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The campaign has been criticized for tying donations of $50,000 or more to guest packages for the Republican National Convention.
Mr. Johnson, the Jets owner, played down the issue.
“I don’t have the feeling at all that any of this gets you any special access to anything untoward,” he said.
Mr. Romney has bolstered outreach to smaller donors, online and through lotteries to have lunch with him and his wife. But such donors will not be invited to Utah this weekend, where Mr. Rove and Fred Barnes, executive editor of The Weekly Standard, will host a panel on the news media’s role in presidential politics, and Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Meg Whitman, the chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, will discuss the government’s impact on the economy.
Ray Washburne, a Romney fund-raiser attending the retreat, said the campaign had proved deft at “making donors feel like they are inside players.”
“We feel very appreciated,” he said.
*
Related in Opinion
Room for Debate
Can a Politician Win Without Wall Street?
How can candidates raise enough money to get elected, without becoming beholden to the rich?
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/06/07/can-a-politician-win-without-wall-street
*
© 2012 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/us/politics/romneys-personal-touch-pays-off-with-donors.html [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/us/politics/romneys-personal-touch-pays-off-with-donors.html?pagewanted=all ]
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Sen. McConnell: Political Donations Are Free Speech
by Peter Overby
June 18, 2012
Sunday was the 40th anniversary of the Watergate break-in — the opening act in a wide-ranging, White House scandal that was fueled by secret campaign money. Last week, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said it's time to roll back the Watergate-era requirement for public disclosure of campaign donors. He accused President Obama and liberals of trying to stifle the First Amendment rights of conservative donors.
Transcript:
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The Watergate break-in happened 40 years ago yesterday. Men working for the reelection of President Nixon burglarized offices of the Democratic Party. The investigation of that break-in uncovered a range of abuses, including abuses of campaign money, and lead to Nixon's resignation. It also prompted the passage of new campaign finance laws. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell now says it's time for some of those laws to go.
McConnell especially questions the ban on secret contributions, which he says stifles free speech. Some donors already avoid disclosure, as NPR's Peter Overby reports.
PETER OVERBY, BYLINE: Tens of millions of undisclosed dollars are flowing into the presidential race, and here's one measure of just how much: In six weeks this spring, so-called social welfare organizations on the Republican side were able to outspend presumptive nominee Mitt Romney's own campaign on TV more than five to one. The media blitz was completely financed by anonymous donors. Speaking at the venerable conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, Senator McConnell said this kind of anonymity is good for democracy.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL: That's the whole point of my speech today. We don't need the government micromanaging in this country who gets to speak and who doesn't.
OVERBY: And he compared the Obama administration with the Watergate administration of Richard Nixon.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
MCCONNELL: We don't need the government targeting people. We don't need the administration - this is not the first administration - some of us are old enough to remember the Nixon administration making up enemies lists, using the power of the government to go after people, to shut them up, to sit them down.
OVERBY: Allegations like these are at the forefront of a conservative drive to undermine and roll back the transparency laws for political money. The effort picked up energy in 2010, when the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling and other legal developments made it possible for seven and eight-figure contributions to directly influence federal elections. Up till then, Republicans, including McConnell, had embraced full disclosure as they argued against contribution limits. Here's McConnell on NPR's TALK OF THE NATION in 2003.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED AUDIO)
MCCONNELL: Money is essential in politics, and not something that we should feel squeamish about, provided the donations are limited and disclosed, everyone knows who's supporting everyone else.
OVERBY: But there was a nuance. Last week, he made it clear that disclosure roles should only cover donors to candidates and parties, and not the outside groups.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
MCCONNELL: I don't think everybody else in the country ought to have to pay that price as a condition for speaking out and being involved in causes that they feel strongly about.
OVERBY: Fred Wertheimer is an advocate for campaign finance disclosure and limits. He says McConnell is wrong to suggest that the constitutionality of mandatory disclosure is up for grabs.
FRED WERTHEIMER: Up until 2010, for 35 years, there was a consensus among Democrats and Republicans alike that campaign finance disclosure was the essential element of campaign finance laws.
OVERBY: And he cites a conservative hero, Justice Antonin Scalia.
WERTHEIMER: Justice Scalia said requiring people to stand up in public for their political acts fosters civic courage, without which democracy is doomed.
OVERBY: McConnell said this is one place where he and Scalia part ways.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
MCCONNELL: I don't think that regular citizens should have to experience any political courage at all.
OVERBY: The Supreme Court endorsed disclosure in Citizens United. Only one justice, Clarence Thomas, dissented. McConnell said he agrees with Thomas. Peter Overby, NPR News, Washington.
Copyright © 2012 National Public Radio®
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/18/155263978/sen-mcconnell-political-donations-are-free-speech [with embedded audio of the segment, and comments]
===
Just like us: Why Republicans worry about corporate feelings
US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) hold a news conference at the Capitol in Washington in this December 2010 file photo. In a recent speech, Senator McConnell defended the rights of private companies to keep their campaign spending habits hidden.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
In the upside-down world of regressive Republicanism, Senator Mitch McConnell thinks proposed legislation requiring companies to disclose their campaign spending would stifle their free speech, a concept Robert Reich finds "bonkers."
By Robert Reich, Guest blogger / June 19, 2012
Perhaps you’d expect no more from the Republican leader of the Senate who proclaimed three years ago that the GOP’s first priority was to get Obama out of the White House. But Senator Mitch McConnell’s speech Friday at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington is simply bonkers.
The only reason I bring it up is because it offers an inside look at how the Republican goal of getting rid of Obama is inextricably linked to the Republican Supreme Court’s decision equating corporations with people under the First Amendment, and to the Republican’s current determination to keep Americans in the dark about which corporations contribute what.
In the upside-down world of regressive Republicanism, McConnell thinks proposed legislation requiring companies to disclose their campaign spending would stifle their free speech.
He describes the current push to disclose the sources behind campaign contributions as a “political weapon,” used by the Democrats, “to expose its critics to harassment and intimidation.”
Harassment and intimidation? It used to be called accountability to shareholders and consumers.
Five members of the Supreme Court think corporations are people. Mitt Romney agrees. And now the minority leader of the Senate – the highest-ranking Republican official in America – takes this logic to its absurd conclusion: If corporations are people, they must be capable of feeling harassed and intimidated if their shareholders or consumers don’t approve of their political expenditures.
Hell, they might even throw a tantrum. Or cry. Corporations have feelings.
This isn’t just whacko. It also defies law and logic. What are corporations anyway, separate and apart from their shareholders and consumers? Legal fictions, pieces of paper.
And whom do corporations exist for if not the people who legally own them and those who purchase the products and services they sell?
Clearly, McConnell doesn’t want corporations to be forced to disclose their political contributions because he and other Republicans worry that some shareholders and consumers would react badly if they knew – and thereby constrain such giving.
And the reason McConnell and other Republicans don’t want any constraint on corporate political giving is most CEOs are Republicans who want to use their firms – and the money their shareholders legally own – as secret slush funds for the Republican Party, funneled through front groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Crossroads GPS.
Such nonprofits have spent significantly more than Super PACs on elections since 2010, according to the Center for Public Integrity and Center for Responsive Politics. Nonprofits have spent $95 million on elections since 2010, while Super PACs, which are required to disclose their donors, have spent $65 million, the Centers found.
Crossroads GPS has disclosed on its tax returns that 23 donors to it have each given $1 million or more to finance its campaign activities so far this year. But Crossroads claims status as a nonprofit under IRS rules – a “social welfare” organization” that doesn’t have to disclose its donors – even though anyone with half a brain knows its overriding purpose is to influence elections.
McConnell and other Republicans conveniently forget secret campaign money was at the heart of the Watergate scandals forty years ago. And that even the Supreme Court in its heinous “Citizens United” decision upheld the constitutionality of disclosure requirements on corporations and other outside groups.
Mitch McConnell wants to give some cover to his Republican colleagues who will be voting later this month or early next month on the bill to force full disclosure of corporate political expenses. But his speech at the American Enterprise Institute doesn’t provide cover. It cloaks the whole Republican enterprise in hypocrisy.
*
RELATED: How skewed is American inequality? Take our quiz!
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2012/0612/How-skewed-is-America-s-income-inequality-Take-our-quiz
*
© The Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Robert-Reich/2012/0619/Just-like-us-Why-Republicans-worry-about-corporate-feelings
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McCain Attacks Romney Super PAC, Says ‘Corporations Are Not People’
By Josh Israel on Jun 15, 2012 at 11:47 am
Though he has been one of Mitt Romney’s most visible supporters, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) took aim yesterday at both Romney’s Super PAC and one Romney’s most controversial talking points. In an interview on PBS’s NewsHour, McCain told Judy Woodruff that because casino billionaire [ http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/04/27/472735/gop-billionaire-casino-mogul-sheldon-adelson-to-keep-future-political-spending-secret/ ] Sheldon Adelson [ http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/12/21/393391/sheldon-adelson-the-deep-pockets-behind-newt-gingrich/ ] makes a huge portion of his profits from a casino in Macau [ http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertolsen/2012/04/11/adelson-launches-4-4-billion-macau-casino/ ], his massive spending in support of Mitt Romney [ http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/06/14/499513/billionaire-adelson-pledges-unlimited-campaign-contributions-to-mitt-romney/ ] and other right-wing candidates is a form of foreign money influencing American elections:
WOODRUFF: This question of campaign money, highlighted today by the announcement that there’s a huge amount of money coming in from one donor in the state of Nevada.
MCCAIN: Mmmm hmmm. Mr. Adeleson, who gave large amounts of money to the Gingrich campaign and much of Mr. Adeleson’s casino profits, that go to him, come from this casino in Macau.
WOODRUFF: Which says what?
MCCAIN: This which says that obviously, maybe in a round-about way, foreign money is coming into an American campaign, political campaigns.
WOODRUFF: Because of the profits that the casinos in Macau…
MCCAIN: Yes, that is a great deal of money. And, again, we need a level playing field and we need to go back to the realization that Teddy Roosevelt had that we have to have a limit on the flow of money and that corporations are not people. That’s why we have different laws that govern corporations than govern individual citizens. And so to say that corporations are people, again, flies in the face of all the traditional Supreme Court decisions that we have made — that have been made in the past.
Watch the video [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JeaDwyW224 (embedded)]:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/06/15/500435/mccain-corporations-not-people/ [with comments]
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McCain Says Adelson is Putting ‘Foreign Money’ Into Campaign
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
June 15, 2012, 11:51 am
Senator John McCain of Arizona suggested in an interview posted online on Friday [ http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june12/mccain_06-14.html ] that a “super PAC” backing Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, may have provided a conduit for foreign money to enter the presidential race.
Mr. McCain, his party’s 2008 presidential nominee and one of Mr. Romney’s most prominent surrogates, was asked in the interview about recent contributions [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/us/politics/sheldon-adelson-sets-new-standard-as-campaign-aid-surges-into-8-figures.html ] of $10 million to the super PAC, called Restore our Future, from Sheldon Adelson [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/us/politics/sheldon-adelson-a-billionaire-gives-gingrich-a-big-lift.html ], a billionaire casino owner, and his wife, Miriam. Mr. McCain noted that Mr. Adelson’s casino empire draws much of its revenue from overseas casinos, including major properties in Macau.
“Obviously, maybe in a roundabout way, foreign money is coming into an American campaign,” Mr. McCain said in the interview, which was with PBS.
Foreign citizens are prohibited from making political contributions in the United States. Corporations, individuals, and unions are permitted to make unlimited contributions to super PACs, political committees that are nominally independent of candidates but often closely tied to them. The Adelsons’ contributions to Restore Our Future followed a May meeting between Mr. Romney, who is not allowed to solicit super PAC contributions, and Mr. Adelson, whose family had previously contributed more than $20 million to a super PAC backing Newt Gingrich.
Mr. McCain also blasted the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, calling the 2010 ruling — which paved the way for super PACs that have since spent tens of millions of dollars in federal elections “the most misguided, naive, uninformed, egregious decision of the United States Supreme Court I think in the 21st century.”
“To somehow view money as not having an effect on election, a corrupting effect on election, flies in the face of reality,” Mr. McCain added of the court’s 5-to-4 decision, authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy. “I just wish one of them had run for county sheriff.”
© 2012 The New York Times Company
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/15/mccain-says-adelson-is-putting-foreign-money-into-campaign/ [with the full PBS video of the interview with McCain embedded, and comments]
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Sheldon Adelson To Lavish $71 Million In Casino Money On GOP Super PACS, Nonprofits
Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson speaks at a news conference for the Sands Cotai Central in Macau Wednesday, April 12, 2012.
(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Peter H. Stone
Posted: 06/16/2012 12:24 am Updated: 06/16/2012 5:22 pm
WASHINGTON -- Casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, whose net worth makes him one of the world's richest men, is on a check-writing spree that will soon bring his total political contributions in this election cycle to at least $71 million, according to sources familiar with his spending. That money is spread across the spectrum of GOP super PACs, which are required to disclose donors, and nonprofits, which are not.
Adelson and his wife, Miriam, along with other family donations, have already reached $36 million, including $10 million to the Romney-backing super PAC Restore Our Future that was reported this week. But two GOP fundraisers familiar with his plans say that Adelson has given or pledged at least $35 million more to three conservative nonprofit groups: the Karl Rove-linked Crossroads GPS, another with ties to billionaires Charles and David Koch and a third with links to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.).
Adelson [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/15/sheldon-adelson-nevada_n_1601276.html ], 78, is a staunch supporter of the Israeli right and a strong foe of American unions. In recent years, Adelson has been a major financier of GOP-allied groups, but has emerged this year as the consummate super donor in the wake of 2010 court rulings that permitted corporations, unions and individuals to supply unlimited amounts of money, sometimes anonymously, to independent groups that can advocate directly for candidates.
Adelson has told friends that he might give as much as $100 million in donations this year in support of GOP candidates and conservative issues. That target now seems easily within reach and could be surpassed, say the two GOP fundraisers with ties to the casino magnate.
Crossroads GPS -- founded by GOP consultants Rove and Ed Gillespie in 2010 alongside the super PAC American Crossroads -- could wind up as the major recipient of the casino titan's largess, due to Adelson's longstanding and close ties to Rove. Crossroads GPS has already received one $10 million cash infusion this cycle from Adelson, who, according to the two GOP fundraisers, recently committed to another donation of the same amount.
The fundraisers said that Adelson also recently committed to sending $10 million to a nonprofit with links to the billionaires Charles and David Koch. In January, Adelson for the first time attended one of the semi-annual conferences that the billionaire brothers host for wealthy conservatives to tout their favorite political projects. It's not known which of several Koch-affiliated nonprofits Adelson is expected to support, but the two biggest this year are expected to be the Koch-founded group Americans for Prosperity and the Arizona-based Center to Protect Patient Rights, which in 2010 was used as a conduit to send tens of millions to other conservative bastions, according to tax records filed with the IRS.
Additionally, Adelson has committed $5 million to the Young Guns Network, a nonprofit group set up by former aides to Cantor, with whom Adelson is close and who, like the casino magnate, is a high-profile player in conservative Jewish circles. Adelson gave another $5 million earlier this spring to super PAC the Congressional Leadership Fund, which has ties to House Speaker John Boehner and whose intent is to ensure that the GOP keeps control of the House.
The two fundraisers who spoke with The Huffington Post requested anonymity because they're not authorized to discuss publicly the donations of Adelson, whose net worth is just shy of $25 billion according to Forbes, placing him at number eight on the list of the richest Americans and 14th richest in the world.
Adelson is chairman of the Las Vegas Sands, a sprawling casino empire with a hugely lucrative gambling operation on the Chinese island of Macau, the only legal hub for gambling in that country.
The Sands reported in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission early last year that it was under investigation [ http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/08/us-usa-campaign-adelson-idUSTRE8172DS20120208 ] by both the agency and the Department of Justice for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars bribery to win business overseas.
A spokesman for the Las Vegas Sands and Adelson did not return several calls seeking comment about Adelson's political contributions. A Sands spokesman told this reporter for articles written for the Center for Public Integrity that it was cooperating with federal officials and that the company did nothing improper or illegal.
According to an interview with Forbes several months ago, Adelson's huge political investment [ http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2012/02/21/billionaire-sheldon-adelson-says-he-might-give-100m-to-newt-gingrich-or-other-republican/ ] this year has been driven heavily by his dislike for President Barack Obama's policies, both economic and foreign, especially those pertaining to the Middle East.
After weeks of speculation about when Adelson would help Romney-affiliated super PAC Restore Our Future, Adelson and his wife came through this week with a $10 million cash infusion, making the casino mogul the largest backer of the independent committee, which prior to his contribution had raised over $50 million.
In late May, Romney met with Adelson privately when the candidate was in Las Vegas to attend a fundraiser hosted by real estate mogul Donald Trump.
Adelson's support for Romney comes after he and his family spent some $21.5 million on the super PAC Winning Our Future in support of his favored GOP presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich, who withdrew from the race in early May. Adelson had initially backed Gingrich, an old friend who shared his hawkish views on the Middle East and other issues, and the casino baron early on suggested that Romney was not as decisive in his views as the Georgian. But as the odds of a Gingrich nomination dimmed, Adelson sent strong signals [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/04/nevada-caucus-2012_n_1253871.html ] that he would back Romney with major funding for his super PAC.
Although the latest big donation to the Romney super PAC is public information (the group is required to report its funding to the Federal Election Commission), Adelson has indicated to GOP colleagues that he plans to give the lion's share of his contributions to nonprofits like Crossroads GPS, which can legally keep donations secret because they're classified by the IRS as social welfare organizations.
Adelson is well known for his deliberative, hands-on style in making big donations, a trait that has sometimes frustrated would-be suitors. The recent $10 million donation to the Romney super PAC came after a lengthy courtship by the candidate, who by law is not allowed to solicit unlimited funds, but only up to $5,000, as campaigns and outside groups are barred from coordinating their activities.
GOP fundraisers say that pilgrimages and conference calls to Las Vegas by prominent politicos and groups seeking large donations from Adelson have been frequent this year. Recently the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been talking with Adelson about a sizable cash infusion as part of an effort to raise at least $50 million for ads in support of GOP congressional candidates.
Other groups are also banking on Adelson for major contributions, such as the nonprofit Republican Jewish Coalition, which has in recent years received millions of dollars from Adelson, say GOP fundraisers. Matt Brooks, the executive director of the RJC, told this reporter in late 2011 for an article for the Center for Public Integrity that the group expects to spend about $5 million this year on ads and other efforts in state races, such as the Ohio Senate race in which State Treasurer Josh Mandel, who is also Jewish, is vying to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.
Meanwhile, Adelson has dropped big checks on others of this year's major state-level battles. Adelson donated $250,000 to help Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) defeat a recall vote that was seen as a testing ground for GOP efforts in the fall. And Adelson also kicked in $250,000 to a political committee tied to Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), who is fighting Washington over his state's efforts to purge non-citizens from its voting rolls.
In his Forbes interview [ http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2012/06/13/exclusive-adelsons-pro-romney-donations-will-be-limitless-could-top-100m/ ], Adelson gave a glimpse into his conservative political views, declaring that "what scares me is the continuation of the socialist-style economy we've been experiencing for almost four years."
"I'm against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections," he said. "But as long as it's doable, I'm going to do it."
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. (emphasis added)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/16/sheldon-adelson-to-lavish_n_1600149.html [with comments]
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The Adelson Effect
Photograph by Mike Clark/AFP/Getty Images.
Posted by Amy Davidson
June 14, 2012
Who is Sheldon Adelson? He has about twenty-five billion dollars to his name, he owns casinos, he cares about Israel, and he thinks Barack Obama is close to a socialist. (Connie Bruck has written about his money and his causes [ http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/30/080630fa_fact_bruck ].) He almost single-handedly kept the Republican primaries spinning when he and his wife gave more than twenty million dollars in the Newt Gingrich campaign. For that reason, if things had turned out differently, the information above might one day have been engraved on a titanium plaque affixed to the Adelson Elementary School on our lunar colony. But Newt won’t be able to get us to the moon, or get Adelson to any state dinners, and so this week, the Adelsons gave ten million dollars to Restore our Future, a Super PAC supporting Mitt Romney.
That money, though, seems to be only a down payment—a way to ante up. Forbes quoted [ http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2012/06/13/exclusive-adelsons-pro-romney-donations-will-be-limitless-could-top-100m/ ] “a well placed source in the Adelson camp” saying that the donations, to prevent the “socialization” of America, might be “limitless.” Is it well-socialized to ask how much limitless costs? Adelson recently mentioned a hundred-million-dollar figure to Forbes. It is hard to imagine how a campaign could resist bending to the pull of that money.
But Adelson’s saving grace may be his crude bluntness. One of the few pieces of useful information to emerge from the Republican primaries was how easy it can be, due to the alchemy of Citizens United and our existing campaign-finance laws, for a great deal of money to be given in secret. There will be attempts to keep an eye on the Presidential campaign—the Democrats, too, are looking for billionaires—but there are many races at every level, and a lot of money to distort them. (See Jane Mayer on the Koch Brothers [ http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer ] and Art Pope [ http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/10/111010fa_fact_mayer ].) Nick Confessore, in the Times [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/us/politics/sheldon-adelson-sets-new-standard-as-campaign-aid-surges-into-8-figures.html ], notes that the Adelsons have also given “several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of $2,500 checks directly to federal candidates,” and twice as much this cycle as the next-biggest donor—or, at least, as the next-biggest doner that we know of now.
Sheldon Adelson is, in some senses, inimitable; but he could be anyone, and anyone with cash can have a screeching degree of influence on the Presidency. (“Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter,” which I wrote about at Daily Comment this week [ http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/06/abe-lincoln-vampire-hunter.html ], takes this idea to an absurd extreme.) We’re going to need to watch closely for Adelson ads, Adelson policies, Adelson amendments, and, if Romney actually gets elected, Adelson appointments to courts or embassies or regulatory boards whose names we don’t even know. But we’re also going to need to watch for other Adelsons—and that may be far harder to do.
© 2012 Condé Nast
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/closeread/2012/06/sheldon-adelson-mitt-romney-campaign.html [with comments]
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Obama’s Lawyer Demands Information on Group’s Donors
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
June 19, 2012, 2:19 pm
6:29 p.m. | Updated
The lawyer for President Obama demanded on Tuesday that Crossroads GPS [ http://www.crossroadsgps.org/ ] disclose its donors, saying in a complaint to the Federal Election Commission that the group is plainly a “political committee” subject to federal reporting requirements.
In the complaint [ http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/370370-obama-lawyers-letter-to-crossroads.html (also embedded in a Scribd-type form)], obtained by The New York Times, Robert F. Bauer, the campaign’s chief counsel, writes that the group — founded by Karl Rove, among others — can no longer shield the identity of its donors by defining itself as a “social welfare” organization.
“Crossroads seems to believe that it can run out the clock and spend massive sums of money in this election without accounting for a trace of its funding,” Mr. Bauer wrote in the complaint, filed Tuesday. “Now, a federal appellate court has issued a ruling that makes clear that Crossroads is out of time.”
The case Mr. Bauer cites is “Real Truth About Obama v. FEC,” in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that the government must determine the “major purpose” of groups like Crossroads.
In a letter to Mr. Rove and Steven Law, the president of Crossroads, Mr. Bauer urges them to immediately disclose their donors.
“Will Crossroads fight this out, knowing that disclosure is inevitable but looking to delay until after the election?” Mr. Bauer wrote.
Jonathan Collegio, a spokesman for Crossroads, questioned Mr. Bauer’s motivation, saying that the president’s lawyers only seem to take issue with groups that benefit Republicans. He noted that Mr. Obama’s campaign has embraced Priorities USA Action, a Democratic group.
“They send cabinet members to raise money for Priorities,” Mr. Collegio said. “Issue ads are apparently evil — unless they’re run by liberal groups, in which case Obama thinks they’re O.K.”
Mr. Collegio said that unless Mr. Obama’s campaign sends a similar letter to Priorities, people “will clearly see this for the dog and pony show that it is.”
So far this year, Democrats have been severely out-raised by groups like Crossroads GPS, which have tapped millionaires and billionaires to build war chests for the coming Congressional and presidential campaigns.
Official “super PACs” that openly back candidates are required to disclose their donors. But there is no disclosure requirement for groups that are formed as educational groups under a special part of the tax code.
Those organizations can raise unlimited sums from wealthy individuals without ever disclosing where the money came from. It is information from those groups that Mr. Obama’s campaign is hoping to pry open with the complaint.
But even if the election commission were to agree with the Democratic position, the argument would likely end up in court, where it could take months before a decision would be rendered — possibly after the 2012 campaign were over.
That would provide little comfort to Mr. Obama or his Democratic allies who may have found themselves buried by an avalanche of negative advertising financed by groups like Crossroads.
Rick Hasen, an election-law expert and professor at University of California, Irvine, said the court decision makes it clearer that groups like Crossroads are violating campaign finance laws by refusing to disclose their donors. But he added that, “I don’t expect the F.E.C. to move that quickly, because the F.E.C. never moves that quickly.”
© 2012 The New York Times Company
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/obamas-lawyer-demands-information-on-groups-donors/ [with comments]
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Romney’s Love Fest With Business Is Sometimes a Mismatch
By Albert R. Hunt
Jun 24, 2012 10:01 AM CT
U.S. big business is returning to its political roots by embracing the Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, in this year’s contest.
This reflects dissatisfaction with President Barack Obama’s regulatory policies and positions on tax increases, along with a natural fondness for one of their own, a former business executive.
Romney plays to this constituency. The Obama administration, he says, too often views business as “the bad guys.” By contrast, he told a recent Business Roundtable lunch that “you’re the good guys.” Earlier, at a fundraiser at a Tampa country club attended by many business contributors, he went further: “I love you.”
There are some important areas, however, where Romney is out of sync with much of big business, as his political calculations changed some long-held views. These include:
CHINA: Most large U.S. companies favor economic engagement with China and abhor any possibility of a trade war. Although it isn’t unusual for a presidential candidate to bash China during the campaign, Romney has taken this sport to a new level and may be more serious.
Currency Manipulator
He has vowed to declare China a currency manipulator on his first day in office; he has labeled the Chinese as “cheaters” and vowed, if necessary, to slap stiff tariffs on their exports. The candidate’s chief policy adviser, Lanhee Chen [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/meet-lanhee-chen-romneys-top-wonk/2012/05/21/gIQADdCofU_blog.html ], recently declared that a “robust” willingness to confront China is the distinguishing element of Romney’s economic plan. “Here’s a place where Governor Romney is really calling for a different approach,” Chen said.
That view is shared by some top political advisers. Getting tough with China is a staple of Romney’s early general-election ads; in a commercial directed at Ohio voters this week, the candidate says his initial act as president would be to “stand up to China.”
Romney is a recent convert to this position. As a successful business executive and former Massachusetts governor he was a proponent of free trade and greater engagement with China and showed no protectionist proclivities; when he headed the 2002 Winter Olympics, he opposed punitive actions against China for human-rights abuses.
To be sure, some multinational companies, intimidated by the Chinese, privately welcome tough talk from Washington; Chinese trade and business policies are heavy handed. Yet some experts and business leaders acknowledge that this ultimately is a bluff because the U.S. is dependent on China’s purchases of Treasuries. They predict that, if elected, Romney would quickly revert to what he really believes. People in the Romney camp say that’s wrong.
IMMIGRATION: Here, many major U.S. businesses are looking for a solution; they especially would like to increase the pool of highly skilled immigrants, and are willing to back comprehensive immigration reform as way to do so.
Romney once held this position, too. Until the early stages of his 2008 presidential campaign he expressed sympathy for immigration reform that created a pathway to citizenship for those in the U.S. illegally -- the approach championed by former President George W. Bush and Senators John McCain and the late Edward M. Kennedy.
In an apparent response to the anti-immigration sentiments of the Republican political base, Romney then adopted a tough line. He raised the stakes in his party’s primaries this year, embracing a controversial Arizona law and attacking Texas Governor Rick Perry and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as being too soft on immigration.
Hispanic Vote
Some supporters of the Republican nominee say he’s already starting to soften his posture as he pivots to the general election and courts the Hispanic vote. Still, the anti- immigration base in the Republican Party will make it hard to change his position much once he’s in the White House.
DEFICT REDUCTION: There is strong support in the business community for a big deficit-reduction plan. All the bipartisan and independent recommendations are along the lines of those put forth by a majority of both Democrats and Republicans on the Bowles-Simpson panel. It calls for a $4 trillion deficit reduction over 10 years; 35 percent of that amount would be achieved through tax increases and 65 percent through spending cuts, especially of entitlements.
Romney praises the concept of Bowles-Simpson [ http://www.fiscalcommission.gov/ ] and rejects the plan, insisting he wouldn’t support even $1 of tax increases for every $10 of spending cuts. Deficit-reduction plans that focus almost exclusively on spending won’t attract Democratic support and probably are politically unpalatable because they would require draconian Medicare cuts.
The Republican nominee also has insisted that his huge tax- cut proposal -- he would reduce the top individual rate to 28 percent from the current 35 percent, lower capital gains and dividend taxes and eliminate the estate tax -- could be financed by limiting tax preferences for the wealthy, who would benefit from his tax cuts.
Erskine Bowles, the Democratic co-chairman of the committee, said Romney is wrong; his plan would require middle- class tax increases, too. “It’s just not enough money there in getting rid of the tax expenditures that only affect the upper- income people,” he said in a recent interview on Bloomberg Television.
Romney also is to the right of some top executives on social issues. A number of big businesses have supported gay marriage; Paul Singer, the New York hedge fund magnate and Romney backer, has been a major donor to this cause.
Obama backs gay marriage; Romney backs a federal law banning it. Many of the gains for the gay and lesbian community in the past few years have resulted from executive actions by the president; a Republican in the White House, given the party’s social-conservative base, might reverse some of those.
There always are trade-offs in backing a presidential candidate. Some private-equity executives support the president, who has criticized that industry, even though Romney, a former head of Bain Capital LLC, used to be one of them. Singer, the pro-gay rights, pro-Romney magnate, vehemently opposes much of the Dodd-Frank financial-regulation measure as well as higher taxes on the wealthy, putting him in line with the Republican nominee.
(Albert R. Hunt is Washington editor at Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the writer of this column: Albert Hunt in Washington at ahunt1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this column: Max Berley at mberley@bloomberg.net
©2012 BLOOMBERG L.P.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-24/romney-s-love-fest-with-business-is-sometimes-a-mismatch.html [with comments]
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Romney's confounding position on carried interest
Mitt Romney and his campaign have offered only muddled statements on carried interest.
Video [embedded]
Buffett: Obama beats Romney on economy
By Charles Riley
June 18, 2012: 7:17 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- What does Mitt Romney really think about carried interest?
The tax break, which benefits private equity partners, continues to save the Republican presidential candidate millions of dollars in taxes after a pioneering career at Bain Capital.
Romney has, in the past, explicitly called for keeping the tax benefit in place. But this election cycle, even when asked directly, the candidate has not clearly articulated a position.
Campaign staffers have added to confusion over the candidate's position, occasionally suggesting that Romney would, once elected, consider rolling back the tax break. At other times, the campaign has walked those suggestions back.
The tax treatment of carried interest, an obscure compensation method used primarily in high-stakes finance, has long been a hot topic in Washington and on Wall Street.
Carried interest benefits hedge fund managers, venture capitalists and private equity specialists, who are awarded a share of fund profits as compensation. The profits, which often make up a substantial share of a manager's income, are taxed at the capital gains rate of 15%.
Ordinary income, which salaried workers receive in the form of a paycheck, is taxed at a top rate of 35%.
The discrepancy has long attracted critics [ http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/03/02/andreessen-change-carried-interest-tax/ ] who argue that carried interest amounts to nothing more than ordinary compensation for services and should be taxed as such.
Supporters counter that carried interest is investment income and derives from activities that carry significant risk. A lower tax rate is needed to encourage entrepreneurial activity and investment, they say.
The Obama administration, for its part, has proposed raising the tax rate [ http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/12/news/economy/obama_taxes/index.htm ] on carried interest.
It is not clear exactly how much Romney has benefited from the tax break in dollar terms, but two years of tax returns released by his campaign indicate the tax treatment likely played a large role in amassing a fortune possibly worth more than $200 million.
Romney made $42.7 million in 2010 and 2011, according to the returns. Of that, $12.9 million was carried interest. Over the two years, Romney's effective tax rate -- the percentage of his income that he owed in federal income taxes -- was 14.5%.
The low tax rate quickly became fodder for Romney's political opponents, including other Republicans, who sought to portray the former Massachusetts governor as an out-of-touch financier.
But Romney's position on carried interest, the tax break that helped keep that tax rate low, escaped scrutiny for the most part.
During Romney's failed campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2007, there was no mystery about Romney's thoughts on carried interest.
"With regard to carried interest associated with venture capital, real estate, private equity, I do not believe in raising taxes," Romney told an interviewer [ http://techcrunch.com/2007/11/01/mitt-romney/ ].
"It is a capital gain because those individuals do make an investment," Romney said. "I would treat capital gains as capital gains instead of trying to re-categorize them as normal income."
The candidate's position is much less clear this cycle.
Lanhee Chen, Romney's policy director, told reporters during a January conference call that the candidate might be willing to reconsider his position on carried interest, provided the tax increase was part of comprehensive tax reform.
But that same day, the Wall Street Journal [ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203806504577180811581675618.html ] reported that campaign advisers walked back Chen's remarks, saying that Romney "didn't want to raise anyone's taxes."
Exactly one month later, the Romney campaign held another conference call to reveal a new plan to cut marginal tax rates by 20%. During the call's question-and-answer session, Romney economic adviser Glenn Hubbard, a professor at Columbia University, once again suggested the candidate might be willing to modify the tax treatment of carried interest.
Should he become president, Hubbard said, Romney would instruct his Treasury secretary to study the issue to determine if a higher rate was appropriate.
Hubbard's comments fell short of a full reversal of Romney's position, but suggested the candidate was open to the idea of hiking taxes on carried interest.
But given the campaign's previous denunciation of similar comments by a staffer, it was difficult to determine just how serious the candidate was about the course of action suggested by Hubbard.
In March, Romney himself was asked about carried interest during a live interview broadcast on CNBC [ http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000077220 ], but his answer shed little light [ http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/03/07/romney-again-punts-on-carried-interest/ ] on his plans for the tax break.
"I think you have to look at each dimension of our income streams and ask, is this a true capital gain or is it ordinary income" Romney said before calling for a consistent application of the tax code.
But Romney also said the court system and the Internal Revenue Service should determine what constitutes investment income, suggesting he believes that tinkering with the tax code is outside the executive's purview.
"I don't believe that it's Congress' job or an Administration's job to go through and say 'hey these people are making too much money, let's change their tax rate to make them less able to be financially successful,' " Romney said.
Both the Romney campaign and an outside economic adviser did not respond to repeated calls and e-mails from CNNMoney seeking clarification of the candidate's position.
The campaign's lack of specificity on carried interest underscores a trend running through much of the candidate's tax plan [ http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/22/news/economy/romney_taxes/index.htm ].
Romney is campaigning on the promise of large tax cuts, and says he will make up for the lost revenue by limiting deductions, exemptions and credits currently available to top-level income earners.
But he has yet to lift the curtain [ http://economy.money.cnn.com/2012/04/16/romney-hints-at-tax-changes-2/ ] on which deductions he is planning to curtail.
*
Related: Murdoch calls carried interest a 'racket'
http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/20/news/economy/murdoch_carried_interest/index.htm
*
© 2012 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company
http://money.cnn.com/2012/06/18/news/economy/romney-carried-interest/ [with comments]
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Cramer Manipulation
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Unidentified Romney retreat attendees Saturday in Park City, Utah.
Associated Press
By SARA MURRAY
June 24, 2012, 9:26 p.m. ET
PARK CITY, Utah—Mitt Romney's campaign used a weekend retreat in the mountains of Utah—with a diverse set of new supporters and veteran, million-dollar bundlers on hand—to rally its fundraising team to out-raise President Barack Obama.
More than 700 donors and fundraisers met with officials from Mr. Romney's campaign and Republican Party leaders to discuss campaign strategy and policy issues—as well as to hear an overarching plea that one donor summarized: "We've raised a lot; we need to raise a lot more."
Having spurned public financing, Messrs. Romney and Obama have built formidable fundraising machines for what is likely to be the most expensive election yet. The president and the Democratic National Committee had about $147 million on hand on May 31, compared with $107 million for Mr. Romney and the Republican National Committee.While Mr. Obama has drawn on Hollywood star power and has tried to re-energize a grass roots base that supported him in 2008, Mr. Romney has tapped into the angst of business executives who say the president has demonized their success.
Attendees described a broader and larger set of donors than the roughly 500 top fundraisers who made up the core of former President George W. Bush's network. Donors had to give a minimum $50,000 to be invited to the Utah event.
The weekend meetings, though private, offered some of the first glimpses of Mr. Romney's top backers. But the retreat, rich with images of GOP donors being ferried around in golf carts, also could hold some political risk for Mr. Romney—especially since he doesn't disclose the names of his bundlers, people who gather contributions from friends and associates.
"It's the broadest group of highly qualified and competent donors of any campaign I have ever seen," said Fred Malek, a GOP fundraiser who has been involved in campaigns since the 1980s.Many of the attendees work in finance or own their own businesses. "You had extremely well-heeled, wealthy, elderly businessmen. You had young entrepreneurs," said one donor.
David Reinke was emblematic of many of the newcomers. The chief executive of a computer-parts supplier and a real-estate investor from Madison, Wis., first donated to Mr. Romney in May, after writing checks during the GOP primaries to Newt Gingrich, then Herman Cain and then Rick Santorum. He found the setting both "comfortable and invigorating" but said he got no sensitive information about strategy, nor did he get one-on-one time with the man he's supporting. Mr. Reinke said he had been particularly interested in a discussion about the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul, which Mr. Romney has pledged to repeal. Still, "you're not necessarily going to hear things you don't already know," he said.
Ray Washburne said that "after a bruising primary where a lot of people were very active in other people's campaigns, this was a very unifying event." Added the Dallas restaurant-chain owner, "It was a good shot of adrenaline for everyone."
Some of Mr. Romney's earliest bundlers, including lobbyist Wayne Berman, attended the retreat. Also on hand were New York Jets owner Woody Johnson and oil man Harold Hamm, chairman of the candidate's energy policy advisory group. Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), former George W. Bush White House adviser Karl Rove and a handful of GOP governors attended, as well as some presumed to be on the shortlist of potential running mates.
Joe Canizaro, a bank chairman from New Orleans, originally donated to Rick Perry before writing a check to Mr. Romney. After the slate of events, he said he sensed added interest to work for Mr. Romney among "a lot of people that might not have been so interested before."
The campaign handed out colorful pledge cards where donors wrote their names, the amounts they vowed to raise or donate before Election Day and their signatures. Attendees sported pins based on their level of giving; those adorned with stars or stripes designated bundlers.
In a strategy briefing, top Romney staffers told supporters the Obama campaign has been spending more on advertising than has Mr. Romney, excluding ads from super PACs that support the candidates, attendees said. But the staffers questioned the Obama ads' effectiveness.
The Obama campaign declined to comment on their ads, but decried the Utah retreat. "The American people will never know who attended or what deals were cut in return for donations to the Romney campaign," said Danny Kanner, an Obama campaign spokesman.
Neil Newhouse, the campaign's pollster, highlighted the importance of winning Virginia and Ohio and flipping Indiana, states Mr. Obama won in 2008. Wisconsin may also be in play, staffers told donors.
"When we go out to raise money and we meet with respective donors, we need to know exactly what is going on," said Dr. Peter A. Wish, a retired psychologist. "Otherwise I would never feel comfortable going to someone to say, 'Hey, take out your checkbook.'"
Guests said former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice generated the most buzz by channeling the concerns of those who believe Mr. Obama is vilifying success and promoting an anti-business agenda with his attacks on Bain Capital, the private-equity firm Mr. Romney once led. "Barack Obama does not understand the narrative of America," she told the crowd, according to some who attended. "The narrative of America is not 'I am doing poorly because you are doing well.' The narrative of America is empowerment."
If the weekend's goal was to invigorate donors, its undercurrent was vice presidential gossip. Ms. Rice's brief appearance put her atop the list for some guests, though she has said she's not interested in the job. Potential running mates such as former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Ohio Sen. Rob Portman dined with donors.Even supporters who were new to the fold had a front-row seat for speculation. On Friday, Dennis Nixon, a Texas banker and former Rick Perry supporter, sat at the Chatueax Silver Lake's hotel bar, mingling with other guests. Nearby, Beth Myers, Mr. Romney's senior adviser who is overseeing the vice presidential selection process, socialized with staffers, as South Dakota Sen. John Thune, another rumored vice presidential possibility, sat just across the room.
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Washington Wire
Romney Revs Up Money Machine in Park City Weekend
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/06/24/romney-revs-up-money-machine-in-park-city-weekend/
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Copyright ©2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304458604577486982599450056.html [with comments]
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Romney’s Republicanpalooza: How about a guest list?
By Editorial Board, Published: June 22, 2012
ON FRIDAY, Mitt Romney [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/mitt-romney-2012-presidential-candidate/gIQANxIecO_topic.html ] — along with an entourage of his most important donors and fundraisers — arrived at the tony Utah ski resort of Deer Valley. Whether the presumptive presidential nominee or his 700 close friends at this so-called Republicanpalooza [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/us/politics/romneys-personal-touch-pays-off-with-donors.html?pagewanted=all ] are aware that the Works Progress Administration built the resort’s first ski trails in the mid-1930s is not known. Unfortunately, also unknown to most Americans are the identities of the “bundlers [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mr-romneys-secret-bundlers/2012/06/09/gJQAkAqkQV_story.html ]” present at this weekend fete, the fundraisers largely responsible for Mr. Romney’s unexpected outraising of President Obama [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/romneys-fundraising-outpaces-obamas-in-may/2012/06/07/gJQAlpxvLV_story.html ] in May.
Campaign finance laws don’t require candidates to release the names of their bundlers, except in the case of registered federal lobbyists. But the Romney campaign’s refusal to identify those who bring in a quarter-million dollars or more differentiates it not only from the Obama campaign but also from those of the past two Republican contenders for the White House, President George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.). Both released lists of their major fundraisers, along with the scale of their harvests.
In Mr. Romney’s case, big contributors have played an especially important role. In May, for instance, only 15 percent of donations were smaller than $200; the rest of the $76.8 million his campaign tallied in conjunction with the Republican National Committee was clearly bolstered by these bundlers and their connections. Why will Mr. Romney not disclose the names of these supporters to whom he’s most indebted? What is there to hide?
As for the weekend in Utah, the bundlers — whomever they may be — are certainly in for a treat. Some of the most luminous personalities in the Republican stratosphere are expected to attend, including former Florida governor Jeb Bush, former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and George W. Bush strategist Karl Rove. As The Post reported [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/romney-plans-posh-weekend-donor-retreat-featuring-rove-and-vp-hopefuls/2012/06/20/gJQApFYNqV_story.html ] this week, potential Romney running mates such as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Sen. John Thune (S.D.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.) are also likely to attend.
On the agenda is a cookout with a speech by Mr. Romney and, on Sunday, a round of golf. Maybe Ann Romney will serve some of her special homemade cookies, reported to have been so successful at donor gatherings.
Selling access has become nearly universal in political campaigns. Seeking to do so in secret sets Mr. Romney apart.
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The Post’s View: Mr. Romney’s secret bundlers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mr-romneys-secret-bundlers/2012/06/09/gJQAkAqkQV_story.html
The Post’s View: Mitt Romney’s secret money
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mitt-romneys-secret-money/2011/12/23/gIQAbTZmHP_story.html
The Post’s View: Name those bundlers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2011/07/20/gIQA1nJhVI_story.html
*
© 2012 The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/romneys-republicanpalooza-how-about-a-guest-list/2012/06/22/gJQAwoYlvV_story.html [with comments]
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Cash Rules at Romney Retreat While Condoleezza Rice Steals the Show
(Charles Dharapak/AP Photo)
Jun 24, 2012 12:39am
ABC’s Shushannah Walshe and Arlette Saenz report:
PARK CITY, Utah — If the majority of donors who attend this weekend’s gathering of hundreds [ http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/mitt-romney-donor-retreat-kicks-off-with-tote-bags-ski-jumpers-and-a-roast-from-ann/ ] of high dollar fundraisers go back home as fired up as Rodger Young, the Romney campaign will be in quite strong a financial position and the investment in time and effort for the event will be paid back many times over.
“I am going to bundle every penny I can bundle,” said Young, a donor at this weekend’s mixer for Romney donors, GOP stars, and Republican leaders.
Until this weekend, Young was merely a donor not a bundler, but that has now changed.
“I came here with the idea that we were all going to take on more financial responsibility and I am certainly prepared to do that for Gov. Romney and I think we can get this done,” Young told ABC News.
Hundreds of high dollar fundraisers turned out this weekend [ http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/romneys-great-utah-adventure-the-guest-list-and-schedule-leaks-out/ ] for a mixer for Romney campaign donors, GOP stars and Republican leaders, but among the faces at the retreat were other attendees who have the same goals of defeating Barack Obama, but whose roles in Republican politics lie in super PACs.
A man in a dark suit and purple pocket square was camped out in the lobby of the Chateaux at Silver Lake talking to what appeared to be lanyard-wearing donors. The man was Charlie Spies, the founder of the Mitt Romney-backing super PAC Restore Our Future.
He wasn’t attending any of the panels or discussions and didn’t even want to go in to get a cup of coffee, but the lobby is really the place to be, with attendees walking to and from meetings or gathering to talk.
Reporters were asked to leave the lobby after being spotted chatting with Sen. John Thune and his wife about Friday’s reception at Olympic Park, as well as with Florida Rep. Connie Mack.
It’s legal for Spies to be there, but “coordination” with the candidate is not, a rule that’s hard to enforce and explain.
He pleasantly wouldn’t answer questions about the propriety of him hobnobbing at the Romney Victory Leadership Retreat [ http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/partying-romneys-donors-utah/story?id=16627729 ], but he said, “Romney supporters are energized.”
“People here understand that the private sector is not doing fine and we need a president who understands how to create jobs and turn the economy around,” Spies told ABC News.
The Romney campaign said the super PAC members were in Park City on their own, and were not attendees of the event.
“ROF staff were not invited, nor did they attend or participate the retreat,” Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said. “As with members of the media, they may have been in public spaces, and the campaign did not control that. We are fully aware of the law and comply with it completely.”
But Spies wasn’t the only person affiliated with a GOP superPAC attending the confab.
Karl Rove, founder of American Crossroads and a former Bush strategist, was also on hand. He spoke on a “media insight” panel, and on another one examining Romney’s path to victory. Rove, dressed in a blue blazer, told reporters his panel was “damn good,” before whizzing away on a golf cart.
Attendees said the panel was engaging and humorous, with Rove swearing up a storm and regaling the crowd with funny stories.
Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz told reporters both Rove and GOP strategist Mary Matalin were making the crowd howl, telling them about when Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a friend with bird-shot pellets on a hunting trip.
“He was on full display,” Chaffetz said of Rove.
It wasn’t all joking, though. According to Young and his wife, Rove said, “We had to focus on some particular groups, such as some Republicans that didn’t vote in the last election,” including focusing on women. It’s unclear whether Rove was also soliciting donations as he mingled with attendees over the weekend.
Many of those same attendees said the star speaker of the weekend was former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who received and a standing ovation. Ambassador Charles Cobb, who served as ambassador to Iceland from 1989 to 1992, said Rice was “spectacular” and described her as a “very bright, sophisticated, articulate lady.”
Husband-and-wife donors from Los Angeles who did not want to be identified said Rice’s message was one of “America needing to take charge.”
“We can’t stand by and let things happen,” the wife said. “If we do, someone else will take that leadership role.”
They both described her address as an “impassioned plea” for the country to “stand up and take charge.”
Donor Kent Lucken, an international banker in Boston who moved back to his home state of Iowa for six weeks before the caucuses to help Romney, said “she rocked it.”
Attendees also heard from Sen. John McCain, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush [ http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/jeb-bush-praises-mitt-romney-says-he-has-common-ground-with-obama/ ], and many other GOP notables. The donors were also able to learn about what Chaffetz described as how “the Romney train runs on time.”
The attendees got to hear from the Romney senior staff, including campaign manager Matt Rhoades, senior strategist Stuart Stevens, and longtime adviser Beth Myers who is heading up the vice presidential selection process. They described the campaign’s “10 a.m. meeting,” according to Chaffetz and several donors.
“I think people were fascinated by that,” Chaffetz said. “They spent a good half hour showing them how they would do that, and what they would talk about and how they review the numbers and talk about messaging and develop that into a cohesive message that’s not only earned media but also paid media and other types of things. That was really different than I think that most people thought.”
Chaffetz added that they went through “the analysis of what’s going on in the media, looking at polling, looking at all the different facets.”
Another thing many attendees weren’t expecting? How up-close and personal they would get with many of the stars of the party. Chaffetz pointed out that he saw many donors excitedly taking their photo with possible vice presidential choices.
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman [ http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/rob-portman-laughs-off-all-the-vp-talk/ ], South Dakota Sen. John Thune, and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan were all on hand.
Larry Conti who came with his friend, a bundler from Los Angeles, as his plus-one describes himself as “a big Paul Ryan fan” and was thrilled to meet him. Conti thought he would impress his friend when he took a photo with Ryan, who introduced himself to him as “Paul,” but instead the friend told him he had just spent 10 minutes talking to Ryan in the bathroom.
Eugene Atkinson, a bundler from New York City, said he thanked House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and turned away only to have Cantor come back to him and ask him, “So how many years were you at Goldman Sachs?”
Atkinson spent almost 20 years at the bank (he is now the founder and managing director of Atkinson Capital), and Cantor’s wife used to work there.
And it’s also what these donors are leaving with, not just an enthusiasm to raise more money, as Young mentioned, but the impression that their guy is going to win.
Before he zoomed off in a golf cart with former Secretary of State James Baker, former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, who will also head up Romney’s transition if he is elected, said he came away from the panels with confidence that the Romney campaign has “a very impressive group of people supporting this campaign and we have a very good shot at winning.”
But with just under four months to go until election day, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus acted as a voice of reason for a campaign that is currently on top of the world.
“Everyone thinks we couldn’t be doing better. We are clicking on all cylinders. We couldn’t be raising more money, but it’s June,” Priebus said. “On our best day it will be close.”
Copyright © 2012 ABC News Internet Ventures. Yahoo! - ABC News Network
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/cash-rules-at-romney-retreat-while-condoleezza-rice-steals-the-show/ [with comments]
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Mitt Romney's Billionaire Backers
33 members of the Forbes billionaires list have donated money to “Restore Our Future,” the super PAC working to elect Mitt Romney president.
http://pinterest.com/pcactionfund/mitt-romney-s-billionaire-backers/
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For Wealthy Romney Donors, Up Close and Personal Access
Karl Rove was among the high-powered Republicans at a retreat for Mitt Romney fund-raisers in Utah this weekend.
Charles Dharapak/Associated Press
By MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: June 23, 2012
PARK CITY, Utah
They schmoozed with Mitt Romney [ http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/primaries/candidates/mitt-romney ] at a barbecue cookout at the Olympic Park, pressing him on labor regulations and the threat of a nuclear Iran as downhill skiers performed midair flips behind them.
They rubbed elbows with Beth Myers, who is running Mr. Romney’s vice-presidential search, in the packed lobby bar of the Chateaux at Silver Lake, over $15 glasses of Scotch.
And they mingled with Mr. Romney’s wife, Ann, during an intimate “Women for Romney victory tea,” held on an umbrella-shaded patio in this resort town.
The Romney campaign, whose fund-raising prowess has defied assumptions about President Obama’s financial advantages, offered wealthy donors and bundlers an extraordinary level of access to the candidate, his staff members, advisers and family this weekend at a three-day retreat that even seasoned political contributors said dwarfed previous presidential powwows.
Mr. Romney’s political operation seemed to all but shut down and relocate to the mountains of Utah. At least 15 senior campaign figures flew in for what blue-blazered guests from Texas, North Carolina and New York dubbed Republicanpalooza, delivering briefings on the effectiveness of Mr. Romney’s and Mr. Obama’s commercials and spinning them through the latest polling data, which they said showed the race as a dead heat.
“Everybody was completely accessible,” said Anthony Scaramucci, a New York financier and Romney fund-raiser who said the candidate took the time to warmly greet and thank him by his nickname, Mooch, at a dinner on the first night of the retreat.
Yet for all the political and financial firepower assembled here, the Romney confab was not the only, or necessarily the most exclusive, gathering of ultrarich Republicans this weekend. In a simultaneous demonstration of the party’s fund-raising might, the industrialist billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch held a conference for conservative megadonors at a resort outside San Diego. Over the past few years, their high-dollar strategy sessions have been the marquee events of the Republican campaign finance set.
The Koch conference touched off an unexpected — and for the Romney campaign, somewhat unwelcome — competition for top-flight moneyed supporters. While Mr. Romney’s campaign officials have made it clear that they appreciate the efforts of wealthy backers like the Kochs, there was consternation among some on his finance team that the brothers decided to move forward with their conference after Mr. Romney scheduled his for the same weekend. As one fund-raiser noted, Mr. Romney is, after all, the candidate.
The Romney campaign offered donors who gave $50,000 or raised $100,000 intimate seminars and discussions featuring leading Republican lights, past and present: Karl Rove, Condoleezza Rice, James Baker III, John McCain and Jeb Bush, whose presence represented a symbolic embrace of a candidate who struggled to win over the disparate elements of his party in the bruising primary.
“Everyone is coming here to rally around the Romney flagpole,” said Cheryl Halpern, a filmmaker who attended with her husband, Fred, a real estate developer from New Jersey. The pair went to a special Sabbath dinner at the retreat featuring kosher fare.
At times, the scene here at a compound of high-altitude ski lodges seemed like an imitation Republican National Convention. In the span of a few moments, William Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard, greeted Michael Chertoff, George. W. Bush’s secretary of homeland security, at an outdoor cafe as Mary Matalin, the conservative commentator, whizzed by in an extended-cab golf cart and Mr. Romney’s brother, Scott, approached in a pair of shiny black pants from Prada. (Guests noted that Scott Romney’s current and ex-wives were in attendance.)
Brenda LaGrange Johnson, a former United States ambassador to Jamaica who previously attended donor retreats held by President George W. Bush in Texas, said there was no comparison with Mr. Romney’s event here. “This is much more thorough,” she said. “This is much more extensive.”
Donors were unabashed about their desire to have face time with those who might constitute the brain trust in a Romney White House. David A. Wish, a Florida doctor and Romney fund-raiser, said that in order to sell the candidate to potential contributors, “we need one-on-one time with the people who make decisions.”
Soon after, Mr. Wish cornered Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior adviser, for a brief chat.
Mr. Romney, of course, is not alone in granting his donors special treatment. Mr. Obama has invited major contributors to state dinners, put them on his Job Council and, as visitor logs show, allowed them into the White House for meetings with advisers.
The Romney campaign took pains to personalize the experience. Arriving guests received beige Vineyard Vines canvas bags embroidered with the campaign slogan “Believe in America.” Inside was a Romney-branded navy blue baseball cap and pins that designated donation levels. The campaign’s fund-raising chief, Spencer Zwick, signed 450 welcoming letters.
Donors attended policy discussions and round tables (like “Innovation in America” co-hosted by Ken Langone, a founder of Home Depot) that were tailored to their interests, both political and financial. Representative Connie Mack of Florida spoke at a session on energy policy. Ms. Matalin talked about the media, humorously recalling her conversation with Vice President Dick Cheney after he accidentally shot a friend on a hunting trip. And Ms. Rice addressed the need for renewed American leadership around the world, in a speech several guests called “electrifying.”
At times, the discussions took on a partisan tone, as when Mr. McCain scolded the Obama administration for security leaks and its foreign policy toward Russia, attendees said.
“Mr. President, how many times are you going to hit that reset button on Russia?” Mr. Scaramucci, the New York fund-raiser, quoted Mr. McCain as saying in a speech.
At another seminar, Mr. Romney’s pollster, Neil Newhouse, disputed a recent Bloomberg News poll that said Mr. Obama had pulled well ahead of Mr. Romney, telling donors to look at different surveys instead.
Mr. Romney mixed with guests at an elaborate dinner at the foot of steep ski jumps and a winding bobsled course used in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. Over barbecued beef, chicken and salmon, guests whispered advice on swing states and asked him about his chances against Mr. Obama, whose name was employed in an acronym by several attendees — “A.B.O.,” anybody but Obama.
Mr. Baker, the secretary of state under the first President George Bush, said the retreat reminded him of a conference that Gerald Ford held in Vail, Colo., as he laid the groundwork for his campaign against Jimmy Carter in 1976.
“That’s what I see going on here,” Mr. Baker said in an interview. “We are going to have a different result. This year we are going to win.”
On Thursday night, Mr. Rove held court on a hotel balcony with about a half-dozen financial executives, who peppered him with questions about Mr. Romney’s chances.
“You have to focus on Northern Virginia,” a donor advised Mr. Rove, who is not working on the Romney campaign but has helped raise tens of millions of dollars and map out strategy for a pair of political groups attacking Mr. Obama.
Mr. Rove playfully mocked a Wall Street banker for his casual wardrobe: a baseball cap, gray hooded sweatshirt and a pair of worn bluejeans.
“You’re the most underdressed banker I’ve ever met,” Mr. Rove told him.
After Mr. Rove walked away, the gaggle of men excitedly recounted the conversation, reveling in their access.
“That’s the price of admission right there,” one donor said to another. “Your six minutes with Rove.”
Jim Rutenberg contributed reporting from New York.
© 2012 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/us/politics/for-wealthy-romney-donors-up-close-and-personal-access.html [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/us/politics/for-wealthy-romney-donors-up-close-and-personal-access.html?pagewanted=all ]
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Romney Donors Get Access, and Face Time, at Utah Retreat
Mitt Romney during day five of his bus trip in Holland State Park June 19, 2012 in Michigan.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
By Lisa Lerer - Jun 23, 2012 11:00 PM CT
In the first-class cabin of Delta Flight 832, the schmoozing began well before take-off.
Wayne Berman, a lobbyist for Blackstone Group LP, stood in the plane’s aisle, swapping stories with Rob Bishop, a U.S. House member from Utah, and Ron Kaufman, a senior adviser to Mitt Romney, over Biscoff cookies and complimentary cocktails.
All were headed to the same place: a weekend-long retreat in the mountain resort town of Park City, Utah, open only to the biggest contributors to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
More than 700 top fundraisers and their spouses attended the closed-door affair organized by the campaign to keep the money flowing as Romney heads into a heated fall election.
Fundraisers mingled with the candidate during an evening cook-out at Utah Olympic Park, watching freestyle skiers practice aerial tricks. At the Chateaux at Silver Lake, an Alpine-style resort nestled amid green mountains, they were whisked in golf carts to afternoon briefings with former secretaries of state and senators. And at night, in the hotel bars, they offered advice to campaign manager Matt Rhoades and other top strategists.
The price tag for this level of access: a donation of $50,000 or a fundraising total of $250,000 for Romney’s campaign.
‘Final Push’
“It’s a coming together for all the folks who have supported Governor Romney for a long time,” said Kerry Healey, who served under Romney as lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. “We’re coming together for the final push.”
These kinds of retreats have become a trademark of the Romney political operation. Over the past two years, Romney has hosted donors for lunch and boat rides at his home on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire and toured Israel with fundraisers.
Campaign finance advocates say the unique level of access given to wealthy donors by the campaign illustrates the failures of current federal election rules. Hotel security closed off meeting rooms during the weekend, refusing to allow journalists any closer than the sidewalk outside the hotel.
“The presidential election and ultimately the presidency are back on the auction block, going to the highest bidders and the richest people,” said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a Washington-based campaign-finance overhaul advocacy group.
Crucial Tool
Romney’s campaign sees the event as a crucial tool to build the arsenal necessary for the final five months of the campaign. The openness to donors is the mark of a man who spent years as a private equity executive persuading wealthy investors to part with their money.
“The personal contact makes all the difference,” said Dave Phillips, who served as U.S. ambassador to Estonia under George W. Bush and now heads Romney’s fundraising efforts in North Carolina.
Romney, 65, greeted donors by name at the evening barbecue, mingled with them after a breakfast speech by Arizona Senator John McCain, and answered their questions after industry panels on finance, foreign policy and health care.
The event was part pep rally, part family reunion.
Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus, former Bush White House aide Mary Matalin and Weekly Standard editor and co-founder Bill Kristol raced up hills on golf carts to policy briefings.
Running Mates?
Three men rumored to be on the vice presidential short list -- U.S. Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Governor Bob McDonnell of Virginia and U.S. Senator John Thune of South Dakota -- sat on a panel titled “Innovation in America.”
And Republican strategist Karl Rove, now advising two outside political groups supporting Romney, described the state of the electorate in a talk peppered with jokes and colorful language.
With most national polls showing the contest in a near-dead heat, party strategists and officials could barely contain their excitement about the state of the race. Former Secretary of State James Baker III said the weekend reminded him of a meeting of backers of Gerald R. Ford in Aspen, Colorado, before the 1976 election -- with one significant difference.
“This year we’re going to win,” he said.
Stellar Speakers
Donors marveled at the array of speakers and attendees assembled by the campaign.
“James Baker has always been one of my heroes,” said Kirk Jowers, director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics and Federal Relations at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and a long-time Romney supporter. “It’s like Jim Baker or Bono.”
For Bill Brady, who runs a hotel supply company in Las Vegas, the highlight was a lunchtime speech by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who explained her support for Romney and stressed the need for America to reemerge as a leader in the world. Audience members jumped to their feet with applause, prompting some to wonder whether Rice ought to be considered as Romney’s running mate.
“It was one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard,” Brady said.
Victory Path
Fundraisers, carrying tote bags embossed with a special campaign logo, shuttled to and from lectures on Israel, health care and media strategy. A “Women for Romney victory tea” featured the candidate’s wife, Ann, and former Olympic figure skater Dorothy Hamill.
Political director Rich Beeson taught a quick lesson on the Electoral College, laying out several pathways to the 270 votes needed for victory. Chief strategist Stuart Stevens played several recent ads to illustrate how the slogan “Believe in America” was reflected in the campaign. Pollster Neil Newhouse disputed a recent Bloomberg News poll showing Obama with a 13- point lead, using a series of slides detailing a number of other polls showing a tighter race.
For most donors, the highlight of the weekend was the chance to talk with the candidate at the Utah Olympic Park, a subtle reminder of Romney’s success as head of the 2002 Winter Games. As the sun set against the mountains, they stood in a tent adorned with chandeliers and listened to Romney and his family deliver a more personal version of their campaign message.
With four of his five sons watching, Romney spoke emotionally about his role as a father and grandfather and thanked those present for their support, according to donors.
“His remarks were very moving,” said Bobbie Kilberg, a chairwoman of the Northern Virginia Technology Council in Herndon, Virginia. “They gave you a really good glimpse at the personal Mitt Romney.”
Family Members
Romney family members roamed the retreat grounds, mixing with health care investors from Greenwich, Connecticut, and insurance executives from Los Angeles.
One of the candidate’s nieces, Kristen Romney Hubbs, carried a large black-and-white painting of Romney’s face against the backdrop of an American flag. The flag, she said, helped draw out her uncle’s “emotional energy.”
Scott Romney, the candidate’s brother, walked out of the hotel lobby in a puffy jacket bearing the logo of Solamere Capital LLC, the private equity firm founded by Mitt Romney’s son Tagg and campaign fundraiser Spencer Zwick. Scott’s ex-wife, Ronna, talked with donors and reporters about her still-close relationship with Ann Romney.
The close encounters only went so far, though. Just before midnight, Beth Myers, a longtime Romney aide charged with vetting potential running mates, sat with other campaign workers and donors in the hotel bar. At the next table was Thune, the South Dakota senator considered to be a top prospect for the position.
Those two were not mingling.
To contact the reporter on this story: Lisa Lerer in Washington at llerer@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jeanne Cummings at jcummings21@bloomberg.net
©2012 BLOOMBERG L.P.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-24/romney-donors-get-access-and-face-time-at-utah-retreat.html [with comments]
===
Romney to Jewish donors: ‘I get Israeli briefings’
By Ron Kampeas · June 24, 2012
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Mitt Romney told donors attending his campaign's Utah retreat that he is briefed on the Middle East by Israeli government officials.
About 50 of the 700 donors who attended the retreat this weekend in Park City were Jewish, according to one in attendance.
Many of these attended a breakout session Friday afternoon on the U.S.-Israel relationship, although between half and three quarters of the 100 donors attending the session were not Jewish.
Romney dropped in on the session, and said he had just been briefed by the Israeli ambassador, Michael Oren, speaking about, among other issues, the situation in Syria, the elections in Egypt and the effort to isolate Iran.
Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and the Republican presidential nominee, said he has such conversations with Israeli officials to be kept up to date on the region.
Such briefings are not an unusual once it becomes clear who the major party candidates are.
Romney also spoke about where he believed he and Obama differed on Iran; Romney said he would be doing more to keep Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
The Obama administration is currently part of major power talks with Iran to make its suspected nuclear weapons program more transparent, and is also encouraging the international community to intensify sanctions.
It has also made representations to Israel to dial back threats of military action, although Obama administration officials have said that all options will be used to keep Iran from acquiring a bomb. Republicans have said that making clear such threats is the likeliest avenue to an Iranian retreat on the matter.
Addressing the U.S.-Israel session were William Kristol, a founder of the Emergency Committee for Israel which recently ran ads accusing Obama of not doing enough to stop Iran; Michael Chertoff, the Bush administration Homeland Security Secretary, who is Jewish; and Norm Coleman, the former U.S. senator from Minnesota, who is also Jewish.
To attend the retreat, donors either had to have donated $50,000 to the campaign or had to have raised $250,000.
GOP stars such as tactician Karl Rove, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Sen Jon Thune (R-S.D.) and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the U.S. House of Representatives majority leader, were in attendance, a sign of a unified front after a rough primaries campaign.
There was kosher food on hand, and a Shabbat dinner for Jewish attendees.
Park City was the site of the 2002 Winter Olympics, the event that Romney turned around into a success after early signs of a possible fiasco, and that shot him to national fame.
© JTA
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/06/24/3099041/romney-to-jewish-donors-i-get-israeli-briefings
===
Weekend of secrecy for big GOP donors
Charles and David Koch.
(Credit: Koch Industries/MIT)
By Brian Montopoli
June 22, 2012 5:00 AM
(CBS News) It's going to be a big weekend in the world of big conservative money: Both Mitt Romney and billionaire industrialist brothers David and Charles Koch are holding hush-hush events with wealthy donors designed to keep the dollars coming in.
Romney's three-day retreat, which is being held at the Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah, is an opportunity for about 700 Romney's biggest fundraisers to get some face time with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. (Many of them are "bundlers" - wealthy and well-connected individuals who call on their family, friends and associates to max out their contributions to Romney and the GOP - who have raised in the area of $250,000 for Romney.) Some of the biggest names in the Republican Party, and many of the top contenders to be Romney's running mate, are also coming to Park City: CBS News has confirmed that attendees will include former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, South Dakota Sen. John Thune, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, Republican strategist Karl Rove, former Reagan chief of staff James Baker, Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone and Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker.
Republican strategist Mary Matalin, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol and former Utah governor Mike Leavitt are among the other big names expected to attend. The Romney campaign would not discuss who is attending the retreat, which is not open to the press. Spokespersons for two top contenders for the vice presidential slot - Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie - told CBS News the politicians were invited but would not attend for scheduling reasons. CBS News has also confirmed that Olympic champion figure skater Dorothy Hamill, who participated in the Romney-run 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, will attend.
Romney was not expected to compete in terms of fundraising with President Obama, who broke records in raising nearly $750 million in the 2008 cycle. But he has largely kept pace thanks in part to his personal engagement with wealthy donors, which has come in the form of dozens of intimate meetings around the country and, as the New York Times notes [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/us/politics/romneys-personal-touch-pays-off-with-donors.html ], invitations to his summer home at New Hampshire's Lake Winnipesaukee. The Romney campaign, which has garnered a reputation for aggressive and prompt engagement with potential donors, outraised the Obama campaign $78.6 million to $60 million in May [ http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57448783-503544/romney-tops-obama-in-may-fundraising/ ].
While Romney and his Republican allies are busy cultivating donors in Utah, the Koch brothers will be in San Diego holding a convention designed to help them generate hundreds of millions of dollars to advance conservative causes. At least we think they will: The event is shrouded in secrecy, and neither representatives for Koch Industries nor a number of expected attendees contacted by CBS News would even confirm that it is taking place.
Word got out last week that it was indeed happening, when Minnesota television station owner Stanley Hubbard confirmed its existence [ http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=2D316FDA-68AB-4826-A61A-20A870506921 ] - and San Diego location - to Politico. In an apparent attempt to head off protesters and potential infiltrators, organizers and attendees will not say exactly where the convention will be held; a San Diego alternative newspaper is holding a "Find the Koch Brothers Confab" contest [ http://obrag.org/?p=62472 ] in order to figure it out. (CBS News' attempts to confirm the venue have thus far been fruitless, though we have our suspicions.) Liberals have their own version of the Koch brothers' confab called The Democracy Alliance, where security is similarly strict; both events are awash in security personnel looking to escort uninvited guests (such as reporters) off the premises.
Organizations tied to the Koch brothers are reportedly planning to spend nearly $400 million on the 2012 campaign cycle, and their conferences are largely designed to garner contributions to the cause. Last year, Mother Jones infiltrated a Koch conference in Vail where Christie was a speaker and recorded Charles Koch thanking donors who had given more than $1 million; the list, which is here, includes more than thirty names. According to a leaked invitation, Koch conferences have attracted conservative heavy hitters such as Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, Govs. Jindal and Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Sens. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Rep. Ryan, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.
The semi-secrecy of the Romney retreat and extreme secrecy of the Koch conference mirror the secrecy that currently exists in the world of campaign financing. The Romney campaign, unlike the Obama campaign, refuses to disclose its bundlers, which makes it more difficult for the public to assess what his biggest donors might expect in exchange for their money. The Koch brothers funnel money into groups like Americans for Prosperity, a non-profit "social welfare organization" that does not need to disclose its donors because it is incorporated as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit with the Internal Revenue Service. (More on that here [ http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57456466-503544/explainer-how-big-money-flows-into-politics/ ].) And while the super PACs that the Supreme Court freed up to spend unlimited amounts to influence the election do have to disclose their donors, they can simply funnel donations through 501(c)(4) groups - which in many cases are their sister organizations - effectively allowing the super PACs to get around that pesky disclosure requirement. (There is also anonymity on the other side of the spectrum: The Federal Election Commission does not require the campaigns to identify donors who give less than $200 in an election cycle.)
In this election cycle, the Republicans appear to have a significant advantage when it comes to outside group spending - though because 501(c)(4)s and related organizations only have to file with the IRS once per year, it's impossible to know exactly how much money is flowing into the system. The Obama campaign, which says it expects to be outspent overall, estimated Wednesday that Romney, the Republican National Committee and the outside groups will spend $1.225 billion on ads alone before November.
Meanwhile, Romney and Mr. Obama continue to spend much of their time traveling the country to attend fundraisers, many of them closed to the press. CBS News' Mark Knoller reported earlier this month that the president has participated in 160 fundraisers since filing for re-election last April, and he has a number scheduled for next week; Romney, whose campaign frequently holds fundraisers it doesn't let the media know about, plans to follow his weekend retreat with his big donors in Utah by heading to Phoenix, Arizona for another fundraiser on Monday.
Caroline Horn, Rebecca Kaplan, Laura Strickler, Jenna Gibson and Chris Leyden contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2012 CBS Interactive Inc. (emphasis added)
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57458337-503544/weekend-of-secrecy-for-big-gop-donors/ [with comments]
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Billionaires at play
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-billionaires-at-play-20120608,0,481863.photo
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Romney Gives Donors Added Access
BY SARA MURRAY AND NEIL KING JR.
Updated June 21, 2012, 8:34 a.m. ET
Major donors to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign say that when they call, a response comes quickly. Emails are answered right away. Donors, many of them from the business world, are kept in the loop with weekly conference calls and special access to campaign strategists.
A prime example of the Romney team's embrace of its biggest donors comes this weekend, when 300 or more of the campaign's "founding members"—those who have given at least $50,000—gather in Park City, Utah, for two days of meetings with the candidate and his top campaign and policy advisers.
[...]
On Friday evening, guests will attend dinner and reception with Mr. Romney and his wife, Ann, at the Utah Olympic Park. The following day, Mrs. Romney will host a "Women for Romney Victory Tea" alongside figure skating champion Dorothy Hamill.
Sunday is reserved for a golf outing at Red Ledges, a private community that boasts: "Here you can live a life others have only heard about."
Copyright ©2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304441404577479033228432556.html [with comments] [last two paras per/from the evidently pre-update version at http://thepoliticalsnitch.blogspot.com/2012/06/romney-gives-donors-added-access-wall.html (no WSJ sub here)]
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Romney’s Personal Touch Pays Off With Campaign Donors
Mitt Romney's biggest donors and fund-raisers are descending on Utah's exclusive Deer Valley resort this weekend.
Erik Szylard Daenitz for The New York Times
Several supporters recalled receiving all-hours phone calls and e-mails from Spencer Zwick, Mr. Romney’s fund-raising chief.
Mary Altaffer/Associated Press
By MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: June 20, 2012
Mitt Romney’s biggest donors and fund-raisers are descending on Utah’s exclusive Deer Valley resort this weekend for what invitees are calling Republicanpalooza: a two-day retreat featuring Karl Rove, Condoleezza Rice, Jeb Bush and John McCain.
But the highlight for the 700 guests, who either contributed $50,000 or raised $250,000 for the campaign, will be unfettered access to Mr. Romney himself, who will deliver a speech and mingle at a cookout beside the ski jumps at Olympic Park.
Mr. Romney, who survived a prolonged and cash-draining Republican primary process, has accomplished what many once thought impossible: he is keeping pace with President Obama’s vaunted fund-raising operation, which demolished records four years ago.
To a remarkable degree, interviews with donors, fund-raisers and staff members show, that financial haul has hinged on Mr. Romney’s clout in the business world and his relentless personal cultivation of contributors, a political ritual for which Mr. Obama has shown little enthusiasm and Mr. McCain, the last Republican presidential nominee, displayed outright disdain.
Mr. Romney has repeatedly invited top-flight donors to his home on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire for intimate gatherings where he serves cookies baked by his wife, Ann. He has spent hours meeting one-on-one with wealthy would-be backers from Cincinnati to Los Angeles who remain on the fence. And he has held seminars on issues that animate supporters, like Israel, education and energy.
The result: an infusion of high-dollar donations, which account for the vast majority of Mr. Romney’s campaign contributions and helped him out-raise Mr. Obama over the past two months, a symbolic and psychological milestone that set off alarms within the Democratic political world.
On Thursday, new campaign finance reports showed that in May Mr. Romney and the Republican National Committee, fueled by big donors, raised about $78 million for the candidate, in contrast to $60 million from Mr. Obama’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
Mr. Romney, it turns out, is a thoroughbred fund-raiser. After spending years as a private equity executive talking the wealthy into parting with their money, he has had little trouble persuading contributors, especially entrepreneurs, to invest in his vision of a Romney White House that is pro-business and antitax.
“He has a tremendous aptitude for this,” said Woody Johnson, owner of the New York Jets and one of Mr. Romney’s earliest financial bakers.
The campaign’s reliance, however, on wealthy donors and its refusal to disclose the identity of his bundlers, as the Obama campaign has done, has drawn criticism from advocates of campaign finance reform, and reinforced Mr. Romney’s image as a candidate whose greatest appeal is with America’s elite.
Not long ago, Mr. Romney visited the Park Avenue office of Kenneth G. Langone, a co-founder of the Home Depot who had called for Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey to run for president this year. After an hour, Mr. Romney had won over his fellow businessman.
“I didn’t look or talk to him any differently than a guy coming in here pitching me on a start-up company,” Mr. Langone said. “They are exactly the same. I am investing in a person.”
Mr. Obama, of course, is an adroit fund-raiser, whose team pioneered — and still dominates — Web-based outreach to small donors. He has used the mechanisms of incumbency to his advantage, inviting donors to state dinners and appointing them to his Jobs Council. But the president’s discomfort with stroking donors is well known, prompting some to complain that he can be chilly and inattentive.
Democrats express grudging admiration for Mr. Romney’s fund-raising prowess. “He has shown a great ability to listen to his donors and show he is engaged with them,” said Robert Zimmerman, a Democratic National Committee member and an Obama fund-raiser. “The fund — raising strategy is about building relationships, not just about raising money.”
Now, as top-tier donors and bundlers like Mr. Langone reach their legal limits, Mr. Romney is pursuing a new breed of donors — midlevel millionaires far from the corners of finance, who run dry cleaning chains and small industrial companies and share the candidate’s small-government ideology.
The campaign recently held a conference call for 30 car dealership owners in which Mr. Romney’s fund-raising chief emphasized the importance of family-owned businesses. The dealers have since become a reliable source of donations.
Sprawling campaigns have long struggled to keep up with the demands of their donors, many of whom feel entitled to instant responses to questions and requests for access.
The Romney campaign, by contrast, has flooded them with communications. There are daily and weekly conference calls, many featuring senior campaign members who offer updates on strategy and policy, and a software system that encourages friendly competition by allowing donors to monitor giving from friends whom they recruited. Several supporters recalled receiving all-hours phone calls and e-mails from Spencer Zwick, Mr. Romney’s fund-raising chief, who has a 24-hour rule: all messages are returned within a day.
“I keep hearing from people who are shocked at the follow up and follow through,” said Jack Oliver, who oversaw fund-raising for George W. Bush’s presidential campaigns and is close to the Romney campaign.
It is the attention from Mr. Romney, however, that has left the deepest impression on donors, who said they felt like extended members of the family, much in the way Mr. Bush embraced contributors. Mr. Bush became famed for immersing donors in his Texas life during retreats in Austin and following up with handwritten thank yous.
“This is the Bush operation on steroids,” said Anthony Scaramucci, a New York financier who has raised more than $1 million for Mr. Romney.
Mr. Scaramucci said he relished his time at Mr. Romney’s house in New Hampshire, where the candidate gave a slide show about campaign strategy and spoke with guests on a deck overlooking the lake. “People love being able to say they went to Romney’s house,” Mr. Scaramucci said. “It’s an attractive magnetron for the campaign.”
The campaign has organized much of its outreach around issues that energize contributors, like Israel. In May, it held a daylong series of policy discussions with donors at Mr. Romney’s headquarters in Boston, ending with an appearance by the candidate himself.
Philip Rosen, a Romney donor active in Jewish causes, said the presence of the candidate “shows he cares personally, which is something we know, but it’s important to see. For those who did not have a personal relationship with him, it’s essential.”
There is a harder edge to the operation, whose corporate-style punctiliousness and accountability is an extension of the candidate himself. Fund-raisers who repeatedly miss goals are quietly but firmly eased out of state chairmanships, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The campaign has been criticized for tying donations of $50,000 or more to guest packages for the Republican National Convention.
Mr. Johnson, the Jets owner, played down the issue.
“I don’t have the feeling at all that any of this gets you any special access to anything untoward,” he said.
Mr. Romney has bolstered outreach to smaller donors, online and through lotteries to have lunch with him and his wife. But such donors will not be invited to Utah this weekend, where Mr. Rove and Fred Barnes, executive editor of The Weekly Standard, will host a panel on the news media’s role in presidential politics, and Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Meg Whitman, the chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, will discuss the government’s impact on the economy.
Ray Washburne, a Romney fund-raiser attending the retreat, said the campaign had proved deft at “making donors feel like they are inside players.”
“We feel very appreciated,” he said.
*
Related in Opinion
Room for Debate
Can a Politician Win Without Wall Street?
How can candidates raise enough money to get elected, without becoming beholden to the rich?
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/06/07/can-a-politician-win-without-wall-street
*
© 2012 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/us/politics/romneys-personal-touch-pays-off-with-donors.html [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/us/politics/romneys-personal-touch-pays-off-with-donors.html?pagewanted=all ]
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Sen. McConnell: Political Donations Are Free Speech
by Peter Overby
June 18, 2012
Sunday was the 40th anniversary of the Watergate break-in — the opening act in a wide-ranging, White House scandal that was fueled by secret campaign money. Last week, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said it's time to roll back the Watergate-era requirement for public disclosure of campaign donors. He accused President Obama and liberals of trying to stifle the First Amendment rights of conservative donors.
Transcript:
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The Watergate break-in happened 40 years ago yesterday. Men working for the reelection of President Nixon burglarized offices of the Democratic Party. The investigation of that break-in uncovered a range of abuses, including abuses of campaign money, and lead to Nixon's resignation. It also prompted the passage of new campaign finance laws. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell now says it's time for some of those laws to go.
McConnell especially questions the ban on secret contributions, which he says stifles free speech. Some donors already avoid disclosure, as NPR's Peter Overby reports.
PETER OVERBY, BYLINE: Tens of millions of undisclosed dollars are flowing into the presidential race, and here's one measure of just how much: In six weeks this spring, so-called social welfare organizations on the Republican side were able to outspend presumptive nominee Mitt Romney's own campaign on TV more than five to one. The media blitz was completely financed by anonymous donors. Speaking at the venerable conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, Senator McConnell said this kind of anonymity is good for democracy.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL: That's the whole point of my speech today. We don't need the government micromanaging in this country who gets to speak and who doesn't.
OVERBY: And he compared the Obama administration with the Watergate administration of Richard Nixon.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
MCCONNELL: We don't need the government targeting people. We don't need the administration - this is not the first administration - some of us are old enough to remember the Nixon administration making up enemies lists, using the power of the government to go after people, to shut them up, to sit them down.
OVERBY: Allegations like these are at the forefront of a conservative drive to undermine and roll back the transparency laws for political money. The effort picked up energy in 2010, when the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling and other legal developments made it possible for seven and eight-figure contributions to directly influence federal elections. Up till then, Republicans, including McConnell, had embraced full disclosure as they argued against contribution limits. Here's McConnell on NPR's TALK OF THE NATION in 2003.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED AUDIO)
MCCONNELL: Money is essential in politics, and not something that we should feel squeamish about, provided the donations are limited and disclosed, everyone knows who's supporting everyone else.
OVERBY: But there was a nuance. Last week, he made it clear that disclosure roles should only cover donors to candidates and parties, and not the outside groups.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
MCCONNELL: I don't think everybody else in the country ought to have to pay that price as a condition for speaking out and being involved in causes that they feel strongly about.
OVERBY: Fred Wertheimer is an advocate for campaign finance disclosure and limits. He says McConnell is wrong to suggest that the constitutionality of mandatory disclosure is up for grabs.
FRED WERTHEIMER: Up until 2010, for 35 years, there was a consensus among Democrats and Republicans alike that campaign finance disclosure was the essential element of campaign finance laws.
OVERBY: And he cites a conservative hero, Justice Antonin Scalia.
WERTHEIMER: Justice Scalia said requiring people to stand up in public for their political acts fosters civic courage, without which democracy is doomed.
OVERBY: McConnell said this is one place where he and Scalia part ways.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
MCCONNELL: I don't think that regular citizens should have to experience any political courage at all.
OVERBY: The Supreme Court endorsed disclosure in Citizens United. Only one justice, Clarence Thomas, dissented. McConnell said he agrees with Thomas. Peter Overby, NPR News, Washington.
Copyright © 2012 National Public Radio®
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/18/155263978/sen-mcconnell-political-donations-are-free-speech [with embedded audio of the segment, and comments]
===
Just like us: Why Republicans worry about corporate feelings
US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) hold a news conference at the Capitol in Washington in this December 2010 file photo. In a recent speech, Senator McConnell defended the rights of private companies to keep their campaign spending habits hidden.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
In the upside-down world of regressive Republicanism, Senator Mitch McConnell thinks proposed legislation requiring companies to disclose their campaign spending would stifle their free speech, a concept Robert Reich finds "bonkers."
By Robert Reich, Guest blogger / June 19, 2012
Perhaps you’d expect no more from the Republican leader of the Senate who proclaimed three years ago that the GOP’s first priority was to get Obama out of the White House. But Senator Mitch McConnell’s speech Friday at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington is simply bonkers.
The only reason I bring it up is because it offers an inside look at how the Republican goal of getting rid of Obama is inextricably linked to the Republican Supreme Court’s decision equating corporations with people under the First Amendment, and to the Republican’s current determination to keep Americans in the dark about which corporations contribute what.
In the upside-down world of regressive Republicanism, McConnell thinks proposed legislation requiring companies to disclose their campaign spending would stifle their free speech.
He describes the current push to disclose the sources behind campaign contributions as a “political weapon,” used by the Democrats, “to expose its critics to harassment and intimidation.”
Harassment and intimidation? It used to be called accountability to shareholders and consumers.
Five members of the Supreme Court think corporations are people. Mitt Romney agrees. And now the minority leader of the Senate – the highest-ranking Republican official in America – takes this logic to its absurd conclusion: If corporations are people, they must be capable of feeling harassed and intimidated if their shareholders or consumers don’t approve of their political expenditures.
Hell, they might even throw a tantrum. Or cry. Corporations have feelings.
This isn’t just whacko. It also defies law and logic. What are corporations anyway, separate and apart from their shareholders and consumers? Legal fictions, pieces of paper.
And whom do corporations exist for if not the people who legally own them and those who purchase the products and services they sell?
Clearly, McConnell doesn’t want corporations to be forced to disclose their political contributions because he and other Republicans worry that some shareholders and consumers would react badly if they knew – and thereby constrain such giving.
And the reason McConnell and other Republicans don’t want any constraint on corporate political giving is most CEOs are Republicans who want to use their firms – and the money their shareholders legally own – as secret slush funds for the Republican Party, funneled through front groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Crossroads GPS.
Such nonprofits have spent significantly more than Super PACs on elections since 2010, according to the Center for Public Integrity and Center for Responsive Politics. Nonprofits have spent $95 million on elections since 2010, while Super PACs, which are required to disclose their donors, have spent $65 million, the Centers found.
Crossroads GPS has disclosed on its tax returns that 23 donors to it have each given $1 million or more to finance its campaign activities so far this year. But Crossroads claims status as a nonprofit under IRS rules – a “social welfare” organization” that doesn’t have to disclose its donors – even though anyone with half a brain knows its overriding purpose is to influence elections.
McConnell and other Republicans conveniently forget secret campaign money was at the heart of the Watergate scandals forty years ago. And that even the Supreme Court in its heinous “Citizens United” decision upheld the constitutionality of disclosure requirements on corporations and other outside groups.
Mitch McConnell wants to give some cover to his Republican colleagues who will be voting later this month or early next month on the bill to force full disclosure of corporate political expenses. But his speech at the American Enterprise Institute doesn’t provide cover. It cloaks the whole Republican enterprise in hypocrisy.
*
RELATED: How skewed is American inequality? Take our quiz!
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2012/0612/How-skewed-is-America-s-income-inequality-Take-our-quiz
*
© The Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Robert-Reich/2012/0619/Just-like-us-Why-Republicans-worry-about-corporate-feelings
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McCain Attacks Romney Super PAC, Says ‘Corporations Are Not People’
By Josh Israel on Jun 15, 2012 at 11:47 am
Though he has been one of Mitt Romney’s most visible supporters, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) took aim yesterday at both Romney’s Super PAC and one Romney’s most controversial talking points. In an interview on PBS’s NewsHour, McCain told Judy Woodruff that because casino billionaire [ http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/04/27/472735/gop-billionaire-casino-mogul-sheldon-adelson-to-keep-future-political-spending-secret/ ] Sheldon Adelson [ http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/12/21/393391/sheldon-adelson-the-deep-pockets-behind-newt-gingrich/ ] makes a huge portion of his profits from a casino in Macau [ http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertolsen/2012/04/11/adelson-launches-4-4-billion-macau-casino/ ], his massive spending in support of Mitt Romney [ http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/06/14/499513/billionaire-adelson-pledges-unlimited-campaign-contributions-to-mitt-romney/ ] and other right-wing candidates is a form of foreign money influencing American elections:
WOODRUFF: This question of campaign money, highlighted today by the announcement that there’s a huge amount of money coming in from one donor in the state of Nevada.
MCCAIN: Mmmm hmmm. Mr. Adeleson, who gave large amounts of money to the Gingrich campaign and much of Mr. Adeleson’s casino profits, that go to him, come from this casino in Macau.
WOODRUFF: Which says what?
MCCAIN: This which says that obviously, maybe in a round-about way, foreign money is coming into an American campaign, political campaigns.
WOODRUFF: Because of the profits that the casinos in Macau…
MCCAIN: Yes, that is a great deal of money. And, again, we need a level playing field and we need to go back to the realization that Teddy Roosevelt had that we have to have a limit on the flow of money and that corporations are not people. That’s why we have different laws that govern corporations than govern individual citizens. And so to say that corporations are people, again, flies in the face of all the traditional Supreme Court decisions that we have made — that have been made in the past.
Watch the video [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JeaDwyW224 (embedded)]:
© 2012 Center for American Progress Action Fund (emphasis in original)
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/06/15/500435/mccain-corporations-not-people/ [with comments]
===
McCain Says Adelson is Putting ‘Foreign Money’ Into Campaign
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
June 15, 2012, 11:51 am
Senator John McCain of Arizona suggested in an interview posted online on Friday [ http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june12/mccain_06-14.html ] that a “super PAC” backing Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, may have provided a conduit for foreign money to enter the presidential race.
Mr. McCain, his party’s 2008 presidential nominee and one of Mr. Romney’s most prominent surrogates, was asked in the interview about recent contributions [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/us/politics/sheldon-adelson-sets-new-standard-as-campaign-aid-surges-into-8-figures.html ] of $10 million to the super PAC, called Restore our Future, from Sheldon Adelson [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/us/politics/sheldon-adelson-a-billionaire-gives-gingrich-a-big-lift.html ], a billionaire casino owner, and his wife, Miriam. Mr. McCain noted that Mr. Adelson’s casino empire draws much of its revenue from overseas casinos, including major properties in Macau.
“Obviously, maybe in a roundabout way, foreign money is coming into an American campaign,” Mr. McCain said in the interview, which was with PBS.
Foreign citizens are prohibited from making political contributions in the United States. Corporations, individuals, and unions are permitted to make unlimited contributions to super PACs, political committees that are nominally independent of candidates but often closely tied to them. The Adelsons’ contributions to Restore Our Future followed a May meeting between Mr. Romney, who is not allowed to solicit super PAC contributions, and Mr. Adelson, whose family had previously contributed more than $20 million to a super PAC backing Newt Gingrich.
Mr. McCain also blasted the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, calling the 2010 ruling — which paved the way for super PACs that have since spent tens of millions of dollars in federal elections “the most misguided, naive, uninformed, egregious decision of the United States Supreme Court I think in the 21st century.”
“To somehow view money as not having an effect on election, a corrupting effect on election, flies in the face of reality,” Mr. McCain added of the court’s 5-to-4 decision, authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy. “I just wish one of them had run for county sheriff.”
© 2012 The New York Times Company
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/15/mccain-says-adelson-is-putting-foreign-money-into-campaign/ [with the full PBS video of the interview with McCain embedded, and comments]
===
Sheldon Adelson To Lavish $71 Million In Casino Money On GOP Super PACS, Nonprofits
Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson speaks at a news conference for the Sands Cotai Central in Macau Wednesday, April 12, 2012.
(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Peter H. Stone
Posted: 06/16/2012 12:24 am Updated: 06/16/2012 5:22 pm
WASHINGTON -- Casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, whose net worth makes him one of the world's richest men, is on a check-writing spree that will soon bring his total political contributions in this election cycle to at least $71 million, according to sources familiar with his spending. That money is spread across the spectrum of GOP super PACs, which are required to disclose donors, and nonprofits, which are not.
Adelson and his wife, Miriam, along with other family donations, have already reached $36 million, including $10 million to the Romney-backing super PAC Restore Our Future that was reported this week. But two GOP fundraisers familiar with his plans say that Adelson has given or pledged at least $35 million more to three conservative nonprofit groups: the Karl Rove-linked Crossroads GPS, another with ties to billionaires Charles and David Koch and a third with links to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.).
Adelson [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/15/sheldon-adelson-nevada_n_1601276.html ], 78, is a staunch supporter of the Israeli right and a strong foe of American unions. In recent years, Adelson has been a major financier of GOP-allied groups, but has emerged this year as the consummate super donor in the wake of 2010 court rulings that permitted corporations, unions and individuals to supply unlimited amounts of money, sometimes anonymously, to independent groups that can advocate directly for candidates.
Adelson has told friends that he might give as much as $100 million in donations this year in support of GOP candidates and conservative issues. That target now seems easily within reach and could be surpassed, say the two GOP fundraisers with ties to the casino magnate.
Crossroads GPS -- founded by GOP consultants Rove and Ed Gillespie in 2010 alongside the super PAC American Crossroads -- could wind up as the major recipient of the casino titan's largess, due to Adelson's longstanding and close ties to Rove. Crossroads GPS has already received one $10 million cash infusion this cycle from Adelson, who, according to the two GOP fundraisers, recently committed to another donation of the same amount.
The fundraisers said that Adelson also recently committed to sending $10 million to a nonprofit with links to the billionaires Charles and David Koch. In January, Adelson for the first time attended one of the semi-annual conferences that the billionaire brothers host for wealthy conservatives to tout their favorite political projects. It's not known which of several Koch-affiliated nonprofits Adelson is expected to support, but the two biggest this year are expected to be the Koch-founded group Americans for Prosperity and the Arizona-based Center to Protect Patient Rights, which in 2010 was used as a conduit to send tens of millions to other conservative bastions, according to tax records filed with the IRS.
Additionally, Adelson has committed $5 million to the Young Guns Network, a nonprofit group set up by former aides to Cantor, with whom Adelson is close and who, like the casino magnate, is a high-profile player in conservative Jewish circles. Adelson gave another $5 million earlier this spring to super PAC the Congressional Leadership Fund, which has ties to House Speaker John Boehner and whose intent is to ensure that the GOP keeps control of the House.
The two fundraisers who spoke with The Huffington Post requested anonymity because they're not authorized to discuss publicly the donations of Adelson, whose net worth is just shy of $25 billion according to Forbes, placing him at number eight on the list of the richest Americans and 14th richest in the world.
Adelson is chairman of the Las Vegas Sands, a sprawling casino empire with a hugely lucrative gambling operation on the Chinese island of Macau, the only legal hub for gambling in that country.
The Sands reported in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission early last year that it was under investigation [ http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/08/us-usa-campaign-adelson-idUSTRE8172DS20120208 ] by both the agency and the Department of Justice for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars bribery to win business overseas.
A spokesman for the Las Vegas Sands and Adelson did not return several calls seeking comment about Adelson's political contributions. A Sands spokesman told this reporter for articles written for the Center for Public Integrity that it was cooperating with federal officials and that the company did nothing improper or illegal.
According to an interview with Forbes several months ago, Adelson's huge political investment [ http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2012/02/21/billionaire-sheldon-adelson-says-he-might-give-100m-to-newt-gingrich-or-other-republican/ ] this year has been driven heavily by his dislike for President Barack Obama's policies, both economic and foreign, especially those pertaining to the Middle East.
After weeks of speculation about when Adelson would help Romney-affiliated super PAC Restore Our Future, Adelson and his wife came through this week with a $10 million cash infusion, making the casino mogul the largest backer of the independent committee, which prior to his contribution had raised over $50 million.
In late May, Romney met with Adelson privately when the candidate was in Las Vegas to attend a fundraiser hosted by real estate mogul Donald Trump.
Adelson's support for Romney comes after he and his family spent some $21.5 million on the super PAC Winning Our Future in support of his favored GOP presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich, who withdrew from the race in early May. Adelson had initially backed Gingrich, an old friend who shared his hawkish views on the Middle East and other issues, and the casino baron early on suggested that Romney was not as decisive in his views as the Georgian. But as the odds of a Gingrich nomination dimmed, Adelson sent strong signals [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/04/nevada-caucus-2012_n_1253871.html ] that he would back Romney with major funding for his super PAC.
Although the latest big donation to the Romney super PAC is public information (the group is required to report its funding to the Federal Election Commission), Adelson has indicated to GOP colleagues that he plans to give the lion's share of his contributions to nonprofits like Crossroads GPS, which can legally keep donations secret because they're classified by the IRS as social welfare organizations.
Adelson is well known for his deliberative, hands-on style in making big donations, a trait that has sometimes frustrated would-be suitors. The recent $10 million donation to the Romney super PAC came after a lengthy courtship by the candidate, who by law is not allowed to solicit unlimited funds, but only up to $5,000, as campaigns and outside groups are barred from coordinating their activities.
GOP fundraisers say that pilgrimages and conference calls to Las Vegas by prominent politicos and groups seeking large donations from Adelson have been frequent this year. Recently the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been talking with Adelson about a sizable cash infusion as part of an effort to raise at least $50 million for ads in support of GOP congressional candidates.
Other groups are also banking on Adelson for major contributions, such as the nonprofit Republican Jewish Coalition, which has in recent years received millions of dollars from Adelson, say GOP fundraisers. Matt Brooks, the executive director of the RJC, told this reporter in late 2011 for an article for the Center for Public Integrity that the group expects to spend about $5 million this year on ads and other efforts in state races, such as the Ohio Senate race in which State Treasurer Josh Mandel, who is also Jewish, is vying to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.
Meanwhile, Adelson has dropped big checks on others of this year's major state-level battles. Adelson donated $250,000 to help Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) defeat a recall vote that was seen as a testing ground for GOP efforts in the fall. And Adelson also kicked in $250,000 to a political committee tied to Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), who is fighting Washington over his state's efforts to purge non-citizens from its voting rolls.
In his Forbes interview [ http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2012/06/13/exclusive-adelsons-pro-romney-donations-will-be-limitless-could-top-100m/ ], Adelson gave a glimpse into his conservative political views, declaring that "what scares me is the continuation of the socialist-style economy we've been experiencing for almost four years."
"I'm against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections," he said. "But as long as it's doable, I'm going to do it."
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. (emphasis added)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/16/sheldon-adelson-to-lavish_n_1600149.html [with comments]
===
The Adelson Effect
Photograph by Mike Clark/AFP/Getty Images.
Posted by Amy Davidson
June 14, 2012
Who is Sheldon Adelson? He has about twenty-five billion dollars to his name, he owns casinos, he cares about Israel, and he thinks Barack Obama is close to a socialist. (Connie Bruck has written about his money and his causes [ http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/30/080630fa_fact_bruck ].) He almost single-handedly kept the Republican primaries spinning when he and his wife gave more than twenty million dollars in the Newt Gingrich campaign. For that reason, if things had turned out differently, the information above might one day have been engraved on a titanium plaque affixed to the Adelson Elementary School on our lunar colony. But Newt won’t be able to get us to the moon, or get Adelson to any state dinners, and so this week, the Adelsons gave ten million dollars to Restore our Future, a Super PAC supporting Mitt Romney.
That money, though, seems to be only a down payment—a way to ante up. Forbes quoted [ http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2012/06/13/exclusive-adelsons-pro-romney-donations-will-be-limitless-could-top-100m/ ] “a well placed source in the Adelson camp” saying that the donations, to prevent the “socialization” of America, might be “limitless.” Is it well-socialized to ask how much limitless costs? Adelson recently mentioned a hundred-million-dollar figure to Forbes. It is hard to imagine how a campaign could resist bending to the pull of that money.
But Adelson’s saving grace may be his crude bluntness. One of the few pieces of useful information to emerge from the Republican primaries was how easy it can be, due to the alchemy of Citizens United and our existing campaign-finance laws, for a great deal of money to be given in secret. There will be attempts to keep an eye on the Presidential campaign—the Democrats, too, are looking for billionaires—but there are many races at every level, and a lot of money to distort them. (See Jane Mayer on the Koch Brothers [ http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer ] and Art Pope [ http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/10/111010fa_fact_mayer ].) Nick Confessore, in the Times [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/us/politics/sheldon-adelson-sets-new-standard-as-campaign-aid-surges-into-8-figures.html ], notes that the Adelsons have also given “several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of $2,500 checks directly to federal candidates,” and twice as much this cycle as the next-biggest donor—or, at least, as the next-biggest doner that we know of now.
Sheldon Adelson is, in some senses, inimitable; but he could be anyone, and anyone with cash can have a screeching degree of influence on the Presidency. (“Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter,” which I wrote about at Daily Comment this week [ http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/06/abe-lincoln-vampire-hunter.html ], takes this idea to an absurd extreme.) We’re going to need to watch closely for Adelson ads, Adelson policies, Adelson amendments, and, if Romney actually gets elected, Adelson appointments to courts or embassies or regulatory boards whose names we don’t even know. But we’re also going to need to watch for other Adelsons—and that may be far harder to do.
© 2012 Condé Nast
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/closeread/2012/06/sheldon-adelson-mitt-romney-campaign.html [with comments]
===
Obama’s Lawyer Demands Information on Group’s Donors
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
June 19, 2012, 2:19 pm
6:29 p.m. | Updated
The lawyer for President Obama demanded on Tuesday that Crossroads GPS [ http://www.crossroadsgps.org/ ] disclose its donors, saying in a complaint to the Federal Election Commission that the group is plainly a “political committee” subject to federal reporting requirements.
In the complaint [ http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/370370-obama-lawyers-letter-to-crossroads.html (also embedded in a Scribd-type form)], obtained by The New York Times, Robert F. Bauer, the campaign’s chief counsel, writes that the group — founded by Karl Rove, among others — can no longer shield the identity of its donors by defining itself as a “social welfare” organization.
“Crossroads seems to believe that it can run out the clock and spend massive sums of money in this election without accounting for a trace of its funding,” Mr. Bauer wrote in the complaint, filed Tuesday. “Now, a federal appellate court has issued a ruling that makes clear that Crossroads is out of time.”
The case Mr. Bauer cites is “Real Truth About Obama v. FEC,” in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that the government must determine the “major purpose” of groups like Crossroads.
In a letter to Mr. Rove and Steven Law, the president of Crossroads, Mr. Bauer urges them to immediately disclose their donors.
“Will Crossroads fight this out, knowing that disclosure is inevitable but looking to delay until after the election?” Mr. Bauer wrote.
Jonathan Collegio, a spokesman for Crossroads, questioned Mr. Bauer’s motivation, saying that the president’s lawyers only seem to take issue with groups that benefit Republicans. He noted that Mr. Obama’s campaign has embraced Priorities USA Action, a Democratic group.
“They send cabinet members to raise money for Priorities,” Mr. Collegio said. “Issue ads are apparently evil — unless they’re run by liberal groups, in which case Obama thinks they’re O.K.”
Mr. Collegio said that unless Mr. Obama’s campaign sends a similar letter to Priorities, people “will clearly see this for the dog and pony show that it is.”
So far this year, Democrats have been severely out-raised by groups like Crossroads GPS, which have tapped millionaires and billionaires to build war chests for the coming Congressional and presidential campaigns.
Official “super PACs” that openly back candidates are required to disclose their donors. But there is no disclosure requirement for groups that are formed as educational groups under a special part of the tax code.
Those organizations can raise unlimited sums from wealthy individuals without ever disclosing where the money came from. It is information from those groups that Mr. Obama’s campaign is hoping to pry open with the complaint.
But even if the election commission were to agree with the Democratic position, the argument would likely end up in court, where it could take months before a decision would be rendered — possibly after the 2012 campaign were over.
That would provide little comfort to Mr. Obama or his Democratic allies who may have found themselves buried by an avalanche of negative advertising financed by groups like Crossroads.
Rick Hasen, an election-law expert and professor at University of California, Irvine, said the court decision makes it clearer that groups like Crossroads are violating campaign finance laws by refusing to disclose their donors. But he added that, “I don’t expect the F.E.C. to move that quickly, because the F.E.C. never moves that quickly.”
© 2012 The New York Times Company
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/obamas-lawyer-demands-information-on-groups-donors/ [with comments]
===
Romney’s Love Fest With Business Is Sometimes a Mismatch
By Albert R. Hunt
Jun 24, 2012 10:01 AM CT
U.S. big business is returning to its political roots by embracing the Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, in this year’s contest.
This reflects dissatisfaction with President Barack Obama’s regulatory policies and positions on tax increases, along with a natural fondness for one of their own, a former business executive.
Romney plays to this constituency. The Obama administration, he says, too often views business as “the bad guys.” By contrast, he told a recent Business Roundtable lunch that “you’re the good guys.” Earlier, at a fundraiser at a Tampa country club attended by many business contributors, he went further: “I love you.”
There are some important areas, however, where Romney is out of sync with much of big business, as his political calculations changed some long-held views. These include:
CHINA: Most large U.S. companies favor economic engagement with China and abhor any possibility of a trade war. Although it isn’t unusual for a presidential candidate to bash China during the campaign, Romney has taken this sport to a new level and may be more serious.
Currency Manipulator
He has vowed to declare China a currency manipulator on his first day in office; he has labeled the Chinese as “cheaters” and vowed, if necessary, to slap stiff tariffs on their exports. The candidate’s chief policy adviser, Lanhee Chen [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/meet-lanhee-chen-romneys-top-wonk/2012/05/21/gIQADdCofU_blog.html ], recently declared that a “robust” willingness to confront China is the distinguishing element of Romney’s economic plan. “Here’s a place where Governor Romney is really calling for a different approach,” Chen said.
That view is shared by some top political advisers. Getting tough with China is a staple of Romney’s early general-election ads; in a commercial directed at Ohio voters this week, the candidate says his initial act as president would be to “stand up to China.”
Romney is a recent convert to this position. As a successful business executive and former Massachusetts governor he was a proponent of free trade and greater engagement with China and showed no protectionist proclivities; when he headed the 2002 Winter Olympics, he opposed punitive actions against China for human-rights abuses.
To be sure, some multinational companies, intimidated by the Chinese, privately welcome tough talk from Washington; Chinese trade and business policies are heavy handed. Yet some experts and business leaders acknowledge that this ultimately is a bluff because the U.S. is dependent on China’s purchases of Treasuries. They predict that, if elected, Romney would quickly revert to what he really believes. People in the Romney camp say that’s wrong.
IMMIGRATION: Here, many major U.S. businesses are looking for a solution; they especially would like to increase the pool of highly skilled immigrants, and are willing to back comprehensive immigration reform as way to do so.
Romney once held this position, too. Until the early stages of his 2008 presidential campaign he expressed sympathy for immigration reform that created a pathway to citizenship for those in the U.S. illegally -- the approach championed by former President George W. Bush and Senators John McCain and the late Edward M. Kennedy.
In an apparent response to the anti-immigration sentiments of the Republican political base, Romney then adopted a tough line. He raised the stakes in his party’s primaries this year, embracing a controversial Arizona law and attacking Texas Governor Rick Perry and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as being too soft on immigration.
Hispanic Vote
Some supporters of the Republican nominee say he’s already starting to soften his posture as he pivots to the general election and courts the Hispanic vote. Still, the anti- immigration base in the Republican Party will make it hard to change his position much once he’s in the White House.
DEFICT REDUCTION: There is strong support in the business community for a big deficit-reduction plan. All the bipartisan and independent recommendations are along the lines of those put forth by a majority of both Democrats and Republicans on the Bowles-Simpson panel. It calls for a $4 trillion deficit reduction over 10 years; 35 percent of that amount would be achieved through tax increases and 65 percent through spending cuts, especially of entitlements.
Romney praises the concept of Bowles-Simpson [ http://www.fiscalcommission.gov/ ] and rejects the plan, insisting he wouldn’t support even $1 of tax increases for every $10 of spending cuts. Deficit-reduction plans that focus almost exclusively on spending won’t attract Democratic support and probably are politically unpalatable because they would require draconian Medicare cuts.
The Republican nominee also has insisted that his huge tax- cut proposal -- he would reduce the top individual rate to 28 percent from the current 35 percent, lower capital gains and dividend taxes and eliminate the estate tax -- could be financed by limiting tax preferences for the wealthy, who would benefit from his tax cuts.
Erskine Bowles, the Democratic co-chairman of the committee, said Romney is wrong; his plan would require middle- class tax increases, too. “It’s just not enough money there in getting rid of the tax expenditures that only affect the upper- income people,” he said in a recent interview on Bloomberg Television.
Romney also is to the right of some top executives on social issues. A number of big businesses have supported gay marriage; Paul Singer, the New York hedge fund magnate and Romney backer, has been a major donor to this cause.
Obama backs gay marriage; Romney backs a federal law banning it. Many of the gains for the gay and lesbian community in the past few years have resulted from executive actions by the president; a Republican in the White House, given the party’s social-conservative base, might reverse some of those.
There always are trade-offs in backing a presidential candidate. Some private-equity executives support the president, who has criticized that industry, even though Romney, a former head of Bain Capital LLC, used to be one of them. Singer, the pro-gay rights, pro-Romney magnate, vehemently opposes much of the Dodd-Frank financial-regulation measure as well as higher taxes on the wealthy, putting him in line with the Republican nominee.
(Albert R. Hunt is Washington editor at Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the writer of this column: Albert Hunt in Washington at ahunt1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this column: Max Berley at mberley@bloomberg.net
©2012 BLOOMBERG L.P.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-24/romney-s-love-fest-with-business-is-sometimes-a-mismatch.html [with comments]
===
Romney's confounding position on carried interest
Mitt Romney and his campaign have offered only muddled statements on carried interest.
Video [embedded]
Buffett: Obama beats Romney on economy
By Charles Riley
June 18, 2012: 7:17 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- What does Mitt Romney really think about carried interest?
The tax break, which benefits private equity partners, continues to save the Republican presidential candidate millions of dollars in taxes after a pioneering career at Bain Capital.
Romney has, in the past, explicitly called for keeping the tax benefit in place. But this election cycle, even when asked directly, the candidate has not clearly articulated a position.
Campaign staffers have added to confusion over the candidate's position, occasionally suggesting that Romney would, once elected, consider rolling back the tax break. At other times, the campaign has walked those suggestions back.
The tax treatment of carried interest, an obscure compensation method used primarily in high-stakes finance, has long been a hot topic in Washington and on Wall Street.
Carried interest benefits hedge fund managers, venture capitalists and private equity specialists, who are awarded a share of fund profits as compensation. The profits, which often make up a substantial share of a manager's income, are taxed at the capital gains rate of 15%.
Ordinary income, which salaried workers receive in the form of a paycheck, is taxed at a top rate of 35%.
The discrepancy has long attracted critics [ http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/03/02/andreessen-change-carried-interest-tax/ ] who argue that carried interest amounts to nothing more than ordinary compensation for services and should be taxed as such.
Supporters counter that carried interest is investment income and derives from activities that carry significant risk. A lower tax rate is needed to encourage entrepreneurial activity and investment, they say.
The Obama administration, for its part, has proposed raising the tax rate [ http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/12/news/economy/obama_taxes/index.htm ] on carried interest.
It is not clear exactly how much Romney has benefited from the tax break in dollar terms, but two years of tax returns released by his campaign indicate the tax treatment likely played a large role in amassing a fortune possibly worth more than $200 million.
Romney made $42.7 million in 2010 and 2011, according to the returns. Of that, $12.9 million was carried interest. Over the two years, Romney's effective tax rate -- the percentage of his income that he owed in federal income taxes -- was 14.5%.
The low tax rate quickly became fodder for Romney's political opponents, including other Republicans, who sought to portray the former Massachusetts governor as an out-of-touch financier.
But Romney's position on carried interest, the tax break that helped keep that tax rate low, escaped scrutiny for the most part.
During Romney's failed campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2007, there was no mystery about Romney's thoughts on carried interest.
"With regard to carried interest associated with venture capital, real estate, private equity, I do not believe in raising taxes," Romney told an interviewer [ http://techcrunch.com/2007/11/01/mitt-romney/ ].
"It is a capital gain because those individuals do make an investment," Romney said. "I would treat capital gains as capital gains instead of trying to re-categorize them as normal income."
The candidate's position is much less clear this cycle.
Lanhee Chen, Romney's policy director, told reporters during a January conference call that the candidate might be willing to reconsider his position on carried interest, provided the tax increase was part of comprehensive tax reform.
But that same day, the Wall Street Journal [ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203806504577180811581675618.html ] reported that campaign advisers walked back Chen's remarks, saying that Romney "didn't want to raise anyone's taxes."
Exactly one month later, the Romney campaign held another conference call to reveal a new plan to cut marginal tax rates by 20%. During the call's question-and-answer session, Romney economic adviser Glenn Hubbard, a professor at Columbia University, once again suggested the candidate might be willing to modify the tax treatment of carried interest.
Should he become president, Hubbard said, Romney would instruct his Treasury secretary to study the issue to determine if a higher rate was appropriate.
Hubbard's comments fell short of a full reversal of Romney's position, but suggested the candidate was open to the idea of hiking taxes on carried interest.
But given the campaign's previous denunciation of similar comments by a staffer, it was difficult to determine just how serious the candidate was about the course of action suggested by Hubbard.
In March, Romney himself was asked about carried interest during a live interview broadcast on CNBC [ http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000077220 ], but his answer shed little light [ http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/03/07/romney-again-punts-on-carried-interest/ ] on his plans for the tax break.
"I think you have to look at each dimension of our income streams and ask, is this a true capital gain or is it ordinary income" Romney said before calling for a consistent application of the tax code.
But Romney also said the court system and the Internal Revenue Service should determine what constitutes investment income, suggesting he believes that tinkering with the tax code is outside the executive's purview.
"I don't believe that it's Congress' job or an Administration's job to go through and say 'hey these people are making too much money, let's change their tax rate to make them less able to be financially successful,' " Romney said.
Both the Romney campaign and an outside economic adviser did not respond to repeated calls and e-mails from CNNMoney seeking clarification of the candidate's position.
The campaign's lack of specificity on carried interest underscores a trend running through much of the candidate's tax plan [ http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/22/news/economy/romney_taxes/index.htm ].
Romney is campaigning on the promise of large tax cuts, and says he will make up for the lost revenue by limiting deductions, exemptions and credits currently available to top-level income earners.
But he has yet to lift the curtain [ http://economy.money.cnn.com/2012/04/16/romney-hints-at-tax-changes-2/ ] on which deductions he is planning to curtail.
*
Related: Murdoch calls carried interest a 'racket'
http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/20/news/economy/murdoch_carried_interest/index.htm
*
© 2012 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company
http://money.cnn.com/2012/06/18/news/economy/romney-carried-interest/ [with comments]
===
Cramer Manipulation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMShFx5rThI
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Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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