Naming names behind slew of super PAC ads

WASHINGTON – A Wyoming mutual fund manager and a Silicon Valley Internet pioneer are among the wealthy donors behind the blitzkrieg of ads driving the GOP presidential primaries, campaign-finance reports filed Tuesday show.


By Richard Ellis, Getty Images
Satirist Stephen Colbert, who started his own PAC as a comment on lax campaign finance laws, rallies with former GOP candidate Herman Cain at the College of Charleston on Jan. 20.
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By Richard Ellis, Getty Images
Satirist Stephen Colbert, who started his own PAC as a comment on lax campaign finance laws, rallies with former GOP candidate Herman Cain at the College of Charleston on Jan. 20.
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Super PACs, or political action committees, have barraged voters with television ads in early primary and caucus states for weeks — mostly anonymously. Tuesday's midnight filing deadline for campaign finance reports provides the first glimpse of who's behind those efforts.
Such groups are a new weapon in politics, unleashed by federal court rulings that allowed unlimited corporate and union spending to call for the election or defeat of a politician. PACs can't coordinate with candidates, but many are run by their close allies.
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An individual donor can't give more than $2,500 to a presidential candidate for a primary or general election, but can donate millions to a super PAC acting on his behalf. Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, donated $5 million apiece in January to Winning Our Future, a pro-Gingrich super PAC, to help keep his campaign afloat.
President Obama, meanwhile, is using an older fundraising tactic: bundling.
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His campaign voluntarily disclosed Tuesday the names of 446 individuals and couples who raised at least $74.4 million for his re-election, demonstrating his appeal among wealthy individuals who "bundle" contributions from family, friends and business associates.
Sixty-one of Obama's volunteer fundraisers collected at least $500,000 each, including former New Jersey governor Jon Corzine, the embattled former head of MF Global. Obama has returned Corzine's personal contributions, and he is no longer raising money, Obama officials said.
Famous faces among Obama's bundlers include actress Eva Longoria, who raised between $200,000 and $500,000.
Obama reports bundlers' activity only in broad ranges. His Republican rivals have not released full lists of fundraisers.
Bundlers accounted for a little more than half of the $139 million Obama raised for his re-election in 2011. The president ended December with $81.8 million in the bank for the general-election battle.