How The 0.01 Percent Underwrites, And Undermines, Politics
Paul Blumenthal
WASHINGTON -- Just four days after being named Mitt Romney's vice presidential running mate in August 2012, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) made a pilgrimage to Las Vegas to meet the man who had, overnight, become his biggest benefactor: casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.
Throughout the 2012 campaign, the octogenarian Adelson was both everywhere and nowhere -- perhaps the greatest example of an Oz-like wizard pulling the political strings behind the scenes. He appeared in public with Romney just once, at a fundraiser that Adelson hosted for the GOP nominee during a visit to Jerusalem. But he poured more than $150 million into a network of political groups that backed Republican candidates.
Adelson was not alone, however, among the small circle of Republican mega-donors. In June 2012, billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch invited dozens of the country's wealthiest individuals to their annual "donor" conference in San Diego. There they raised nearly $400 million in three days, money they would later churn through a web of conservative nonprofit groups -- shielding the identities of the donors in the process. Two weeks after the conference, David Koch held a fundraiser for Romney at his home in the Hamptons, which guests paid between $50,000 and $75,000 to attend.
Meanwhile, the reelection campaign of President Barack Obama sought to cast a populist sheen on its glitzy fundraisers by raffling off tickets to events hosted by the likes of Vogue editor Anna Wintour and actor George Clooney. Yet while he ultimately raised more money from small donors in 2012 than he had during his historic 2008 campaign, Obama also attended more high-dollar fundraisers than any previous sitting president.
more
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/24/inequality-campaign-finance_n_4653711.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
