Collectively, superdonor contributions have totaled more than $50
million this cycle, making them easily the most influential and
powerful political donors in politics today.
Last June, Harold C. Simmons, a wealthy Texas businessman, sent a
$100,000 check to Americans for Rick Perry, a "super PAC," or
political action committee, preparing for Perry's entry into the
presidential race.
A few months later, he donated $1 million through his company to
a different pro-Perry group. In December, as Perry's fortunes
waned, Simmons wrote yet another check, this one for $500,000,
to Winning Our Future, a super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich.
But Simmons was not done. In mid-January, as Gingrich was
headed toward a victory in the South Carolina primary, Simmons
wrote a $100,000 check to Restore Our Future, the super PAC
supporting Mitt Romney. And toward the end of the month, as Restore
Our Future used his money to help bludgeon Mr. Gingrich with attack
ads in Florida, Simmons sent yet another $500,000 check to
Gingrich's super PAC.
"He generally supports conservative Republican candidates," said
Chuck McDonald, a spokesman for Mr. Simmons. "I assume he was just
trying to be helpful."
Simmons's contributions -- all told, he has given more than
$14 million to Republican super PACs so far this cycle -- make him
the exemplar of a new breed of superdonor in presidential politics.
About two dozen individuals, couples or corporations have given $1
million or more to Republican super PACs this year, an exclusive
club empowered by the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision and
other rulings to pool their money into federal political committees
and pour it directly into this year's presidential campaign.
Collectively, their contributions have totaled more than $50
million this cycle, making them easily the most influential and
powerful political donors in politics today. They have relatively
few Democratic counterparts so far, with most of the leading liberal
donors from past years giving relatively small amounts -- or not at
all -- to the Democratic super PACs.
And unlike in past years, when wealthy donors of both parties
donated chiefly to groups that were active in the general election
campaign, the top Republican donors are contributing money far
earlier, in contests that will determine the party's presidential
nominee.
"What unites them? They're economic conservatives," said
Christopher J. LaCivita, a Republican strategist who helped advise
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a forerunner of this cycle's super
PACs, and who in 2008 co-founded another Republican advocacy group,
the American Issues Project, that ran advertisements against
President Obama.
"Most of these guys are serious business tycoons," LaCivita
added. "They've built something big -- usually something bigger than
themselves."
Some of the superdonors, like Mr. Simmons and Robert J. Perry, a
Texas homebuilder, are longtime backers of independent groups that
were active in past campaigns, like the Swift Boat group, which in
2004 challenged the Vietnam War record of Sen. John Kerry, the
Democratic presidential nominee.
Several attend the exclusive, secretive gatherings of wealthy
conservative donors hosted twice a year by the billionaire Koch
brothers. Many move in the same social or political circles: Sheldon
