photo credit: blogs.wsj.com
ConservativeTreehouse concludes that the January GOP debate will narrow the
field to six: Trump, Cruz, Rubio,
Carson, Bush, and Christie. As that
number is considerably more manageable, we can start to look more closely at the candidates' campaign funding sources. Starting with Christie, from the
factivist blog, a September 2014 New York Times article
featured a story about Chris Christie’s continued
refusal to include New Jersey in a regional anti-climate change partnership
that New Jersey itself helped found in 2005. The Regional Greenhouse Gas
Initiative (RGGI) is a multi-state entity that seeks to reduce emissions in
partner states to mitigate the damage of climate change. New Jersey’s
legislature has voted twice for the state to rejoin RGGI, and Christie has
vetoed that legislation both times – despite evidence that leaving the
partnership has cost
New Jersey more than $100 million.
Why?
Because the
Big Money donors like the Koch Brothers that bankrolled his efforts – and he
hopes will bankroll his presidential campaign – wanted him to.
Since
then, OpenSecrets identifies the America Leads PAC as Christie’s
biggest source of funds, over $11 million to date. What is the America Leads
PAC?
Open
Secrets has a list of all the major PACS here. Most of the names sound generic or innocuous, so one has to dig a bit more.
Fortunately, several major bloggers have been doing just that, and here’s what
we know from a Politico blog about America Leads PAC:
Donors to the America Leads PAC, which raised $11 million, were disclosed for the first time Friday.
Among them were several billionaires and several companies with million of
dollars in state contracts would have been barred from giving to Christie’s
gubernatorial campaigns.
Winecup-Gamble Inc., a Nevada ranch owned by former
Reebok CEO Paul Fireman, gave the group $1 million. Fireman, who lives outside
Boston, plans a massive, $4.6 billion casino in Jersey City if state voters
approve a constitutional amendment to allow gambling outside of Atlantic City.
Christie said in May that he favors letting voters
decide whether to allow gambling outside of Atlantic City, after he had
previously opposed allowing it. Fireman, who with his family has begun making
donations to many New Jersey candidates, made the donation to America Leads on
June 25.
Las Vegas casino mogul Stephen Wynn, who is not
currently involved in the New Jersey gambling industry, gave $25,000.
Hedge fund manager Steve Cohen and his wife Alexandra
were the super PAC's biggest backers, giving a combined $2 million.
Another major donor was Quicken Loans chairman Daniel
Gilbert, who gave $750,000.
Home Depot founder Ken Langone, who has been one of
Christie’s biggest backers, gave $250,000, and Anheuser-Busch heir August Busch
gave $100,000.
Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman chipped in $100,000. So
did Christie’s brother Todd.
Wrestling mogul Linda McMahon, who ran twice for the
U.S. Senate in Connecticut, donated $250,000.
George Harms Construction, which in 2014 had more than
$100 million in contracts with several state agencies, gave $25,000. Ferreira
Construction, which made more than $34 million from the New Jersey Turnpike
Authority in 2014, gave $100,000.
Public Service Enterprise Group, which as a regulated
utility also would have been barred from giving to Christie’s gubernatorial
campaign, gave $250,000.
The link to the FEC source,
hyperlinked above, is here.
Christie has almost no chance of
becoming the presidential candidate. According to Conservative Treehouse, his
role in the primary campaign is the same as the many of the remaining candidates
in the GOPe field (such as Fiorina, Huckabee, Kasich, Rubio) each of whose
role is to split GOP primary votes in particular states to lead to a Jeb! nomination.
To be continued…
