Wealthy Donors Rudder to 2012 Presidential Election

Oh, to be able to pull out the old checkbook and give one million dollars to any organization of my choice. That’s what about two dozen extremely wealthy donors have recently done to promote the presidential candidate of their choice through one of the new political action committees.

According to an Associated Press review of financial reports filed by the various campaigns, it was revealed that more than half of the $60 million generated by the PACs was donated by only 24 very wealthy supporters. “The super-sized checks amount to $33 million, and in some cases, the contributions of $1 million or more represent most of the money that several super PACs have collected” states the AP.

“Freed by the Citizens United case and other rulings that allowed unlimited donations with minimal disclosure, the mega-donors are pumping unprecedented amounts of cash to favored candidates. The lavish gifts are stoking negative campaign ad wars and making mega-donors essential to the tactics and operations of the super PACs,” explains the report.

So who are these big wigs that are supplying these immense amounts of funding? According to the Associated Press, the top five donors are as follows: Las Vegas casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson and his family have given $11 million to Winning Our Future, the group supporting former House Speaker Gingrich. Texas billionaire Harold Simmons so far has donated $12 million — both personally and through his firm, Contran — to American Crossroads, the Republican-leaning super PAC co-founded by Republican strategist Karl Rove.

The co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook, Peter Thiel, has given $2.6 million to Endorse Liberty, the group supporting Texas Rep. Paul. The chief executive at DreamWorks Animation, Jeffrey Katzenberg, has given $2 million to the group supporting Obama’s re-election, Priorities USA Action, which accounts for nearly half the group’s $4.5 million total. To round out the top five, hotel magnates and brothers Bill and Richard Marriott have given $1.5 million to Restore Our Future, the group supporting former Massachusetts Gov. Romney.

These are numbers that would make any nonprofit CEO’s head spin and I can’t help but wonder what effect this new system of political fundraising is going to have on the election. On one hand, you need money to reach the masses on the election trail. On the other hand, are these PACs garnering more support or alienating the average voter? Finally, is it better to have a large group of individual supporters via social media with a huge Facebook following, or just one big conglomerate donor? I guess we’ll find out soon enough come November.