Karl Rove
By Dan Christensen, BrowardBulldog.org
A “super PAC” backed by Republican strategist Karl Rove, and largely financed by a handful of mega-wealthy out-of-state businessmen, has reported spending nearly a quarter of a million dollars to support Florida Republican Senate candidate Marco Rubio.
Federal records filed Tuesday night show the money – $247,000 – was paid to an Austin-based direct marketing firm, Olsen & Shuvalov, whose website says that it specializes in helping Republican political campaigns and conservative causes.
So-called super PACS, legally known as “independent expenditure-only committees,” are a new breed of a 527 political organization that can raise unlimited amounts of money from corporations and individuals to support or oppose candidates.
Rubio is locked in a heated three-way race with Miami Democrat Rep. Kendrick Meek and independent candidate Gov. Charlie Crist. Election day is Nov. 2.
The non-profit Center for Responsive Politics reported earlier this month that American Crossroads raised more than $9.3 million between January and August. Among its other expenditures was $678,000 to oppose Senate Majority Leaders Harry Reid, D-Nevada.
Marco Rubio
Four billionaires, all on Forbes list of the world’s richest people, account for much of that money:
*Trevor Rees-Jones, president and chief executive of Dallas-based Chief Oil and Gas, $2 million.
*Robert Rowling, CEO of TRT Holdings in Irving, Texas, $2 million.
*Jerry Perenchio, Los Angeles-based former owner of Univision broadcasting, $1 million.
*Cincinnati-based American Financial Group, owned by 90-year-old Carl Linder, $400,000.
Another major contributor to American Crossroads – Orlando based defense contractor Daniels Manufacturing – is also a direct supporter of Rubio. The company received nearly $34 million in federal contracts in the last decade, according to data compiled by GovernmentContractsWon.com
Company owner George S. Daniels and company CEO James Vargo personally contributed over $7,000 to Rubio’s Senate campaign.
Rove, who owns a $900,000 home in Rosemary Beach in Florida’s Panhandle, is former chief strategist for President George Bush. Earlier this year, he teamed with former Bush White House attorney and Republican National Convention chairman Ed Gillespie to create American Crossroads.
American Crossroads is a tax-exempt 527 political organization, a name derived from the section of the U.S. tax code. It is registered with the Federal Election Commission an as independent organization whose purpose includes running advertisements for or against candidates.
trippi adams / October 1, 2010 12:33 pm
Why don’t we just hang a price tag around all the poles necks then the corporate types will know the price of all these puppets. The corporations own our Government and have for the last 50 years at least. Now that the Supreme Court has eliminated all caps on corporate contributions the Country is dommed to be bought and paid for. We need a Revolution “the tree of liberty must be bathed in the blood of patriots every now and then” THOMAS JEFFERSON
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Steve Stockmeyer / October 2, 2010 9:29 am
Just wondering when we can expect to see a similar documentation of the millions labor and wealthy liberals are pouring into the key Florida races?
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basketcase / October 4, 2010 10:35 am
Marco gets my vote. Not for what he’s done but for who he isn’t. He isn’t hugging commies, and he isn’t voting for the joke called “universal healthcare”.
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frank icanosty / October 6, 2010 12:48 pm
Shed a little more light on the villainous impact of mega-billionaire George Soros on elections both state and nation-wide as well as on his pet organizations like MoveOn.org, MediaMatters, etc. and perhaps I’ll care a little bit more about Carl Linder and Robert Rowling.
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one hand clapping / October 15, 2010 12:35 pm
I have read Mr Soros’ lectures on the Financial Times website
http://www.ft.com/indepth/soros-lectures
and they make a lot of sense to me. The fact that he is philosophically critical of a financial system that he has obviously mastered and understands intimately lends him immense credibility. In other words, anyone who takes as much heat as he does from both sides of the ideological spectrum must be on to something.
I can see why fundowacko wingnuts on both the extreme right and left find him so threatening. He has the temerity to suggest that the economic and political behavior of nations isn’t necessarily driven by paranoid conspiracies and sinister cabals, but by social and historical processes and the combined agendas of shifting alliances of interest groups.
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