Our Democracy Is Doomed: Match the

Plutocrat to the GOP Candidate He Owns

The 2016 GOP race is expected to bring out billionaires bankrolling their
candidates.

By Evan McMurry / AlterNet May 14, 2015

Whether it's the Koch brothers or Soros on the left or Sheldon," former GOP
presidential candidate Newt Gingrich recently said, if you're going to have an election
process that radically favors billionaires and is discriminating against the middle class
which we now havethen billionaires are going to get a lot of attention.

Those are, pun intended, rich words coming from a man whose 2012 candidacy was almost
single-handedly bankrolled by a billionaire casino magnate. More than anybody, Gingrich
profited from the new limitless heights of election spending, as $15 million turned Gingrich
from a disgraced former speaker to a viable presidential contender, the first in four decades to
win South Carolina without taking the White House.
The 2012 GOP race was marked by the presence of billionaires anointing candidates with their
millions and gaining outsized influence over the outcome, duration, and policies of the GOP
primary. The 2016 race, only a couple months old, looks to be following the same course. Here
are the candidates the billionaires are looking at so far.
Sheldon Adelson
Adelson, the 12th richest man in America at an estimated $32 billion, may be the biggest single
figure in Republican politics. With seemingly endless amounts of money to spend and a
monomaniacal focus on neoconservative foreign policy, Adelson not only gains the attentions
of GOP candidates but also skews their policies. The right doesnt lack for pressure to support
Israel, but Adelson makes that support a dealbreaker.
Is there a more gauche way to put that? It is not complicated for Republican politicians to
come to the RJC and say theyll stand with Israel, said Senator Ted Cruz, speaking at
Adelsons summit in as Vegas recently. Unless youre a blithering idiot, thats what you say
when you come to the RJC. Yes, but usually thats the part you dont say out loud.
In 2012 Adelson spent $100 million, the most of any single donor, with $15 million ultimately
going to Gingrichs otherwise floppy campaign. This year hopefuls like Cruz, Rick Perry, and
Scott Walker, all of whom appeal to his fiscal conservatism, are auditioning for his fortunes.
But early reports have it that Marco Rubio, whos fashioned himself as the foreign policy
candidate of the 2016 field, has Adelsons eye. Adelsons attraction to Rubio is in no small

part centered on the Florida senators outspoken support for Israel, an issue near and dear to the
billionaires heart, Politico reported recently. Rubio has reached out to Adelson more often
than any other 2016 candidate, sources close to Adelson say, and has provided him with the
most detailed plan for how hed manage Americas foreign policy.
Its also been rumored that religious conservative candidate Mike Huckabee has gotten
Adelsons attention, in what could be a virtual repeat of Gingrichs candidacy. While Huckabee
doesnt boast the party-wide appeal to win more than Iowa and a couple of southern states, with
Adelsons war chest he could survive for much longer, pressing his aggressive evangelical
message along the way. Huckabee skipped 2012 due to a lack of funds and an expressed
disinterest in fundraising. But having won the Adelson Defender of Israel award last year, he
perhaps has an inside shot at the one donor who would solve that problem for him.
As has been pointed out, by dangling his wealth Adelson can influence without spending by
dragging candidates closer to his position. See Senator Rand Paul, whose non-interventionist
foreign policy views make him unique among the hawkish crowd, and also put him at odds
with the casino mogul. There were rumors that Adelson would fund a drive to stop Paul should
his candidacy gain momentum. With that in mind Paul met with Adelson when he was in
Washington, D.C. in March to attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus
controversial congressional address.
Paul reported a productive meeting between the two. And while he likely wont see any of
Adelsons moneyAdelsons theory that Iran should be nuked doesnt sit too well with Pauls
policieshe may have at least neutralized a very wealthy threat. Meanwhile, Adelson
influenced Pauls policies without spending a dime.
Foster Freiss
2012 candidate Rick Santorum owed most of his surprisingly successful campaign to financial

investor Foster Friess, who used his wealth to prolong Santorums run, as Adelson did for
Gingrich.
But unlike Gingrich, whose campaign sputtered over its own pointlessness, Santorum wound
up winning 11 primaries, forcing eventual nominee Mitt Romney to defend his conservative
flank and use up needed campaign funds, weakening him for the general election. The upshot:
Santorum and his socially conservative agenda were firmly established within the GOP.
Friess must have felt this a worthy payout for his $2 million: he recently announced he
would bankroll Santorum again in 2016. However, this time around, Santorum may find his
portion of the GOP field more crowded, with figures like Huckabee and Cruz trying to claim
the religious conservative mantle. And Friess has flirted with Walker in the past, donating to his
successful defeat of a recall campaign.
Robert Mercer
Just days after Ted Cruz became the first major GOP candidate to announce his campaign, he
reported a startling $31 million fundraising effort spread across four different PACs. According
to political watchers, this was a record for money raised in a single week, instantly establishing
Cruz as a serious primary contender.
So whos bankrolling Cruz? Robert Mercer. A hedge fund investor, Mercer appears to be
attracted to Cruzs near-comical devotion to fiscal conservatism, which includes a plan to
abolish the IRS. (Mercers troubles with the IRS might have something to do with
that.) Mother Jones has a good rundown of Mercers previous contributions totaling $40
million, which makes him one of the biggest donors of the 2014 cycle, for which he saw far
greater success than Adelson did in 2012.
Mercer and his wife were behind most of Cruzs $31 million haul. The pair has helped Cruz
found a bench of super PACs to which donors can donate for specific causes, whether its

competing in the early primary states, putting ads on the air, or investing in data and
analytics, per the National Review.
Koch Brothers
David and Charles Koch, a pair of hugely wealthy businessmen maniacally committed to
implementing a big-business libertarianism across the country, spent $400 million in 2012,
albeit with not much to show for it. According to their budget, they expect to more than double
that in 2016, planning to spend $889 million on a collection of electoral measures, state
candidates, and a presidential nominee.
That budget gives the Koch brothers a financial footprint equal to the two major political
parties. The constellation of 300-400 high-priced donors the Koch brothers have assembled
represent[s] the largest concentration of political money outside the party establishment.
Those several hundred donors route their contributions through a phalanx of funds, which
target everything from policy issues to state candidates. The Kochs expect to spend about a
third of its $900 million on the national race, a figure still comparative to what the major
parties spent last time around.
No wonder people are talking about the Koch Primary. Nearly every major potential GOP
candidate, from Cruz to Chris Christie, have paid private visits to the Kochs. Rand Paul has
golfed with them. Marco Rubio has made himself a regular speaker at Americans for Prosperity
events. Even longshot candidates like Indiana Governor Mike Pence have made their presence
known to the Kochs.
The brothers said recently they have narrowed their selections down to five
candidates, telling USA Today it is between Cruz, Paul, Rubio, Walker, and Bush. The Kochs
do not intend to make their pick soon, instead intimating they may support several candidates
initiallyand expect to hear a tailored message in return. "What we expect them to do is to

compete on who has a more positive message for America, rather than what's wrong with some
other candidate and did he smoke pot when he was 15 or whatever, Charles Koch said.
An early rumor said the Kochs were starry-eyed for Scott Walker, whom they have
supported since he first arrived on the scene in 2009, supporting the fight against Wisconsin
public sector unions that made Walker a nationwide figure and contributing millions to his
campaign to defeat a recall in response. The list of potential candidates the Koch brothers
released days after the Walker rumor suggest they were trying to tamp down the notion that
theyd already selected a candidate.
The Kochs are less interested in establishment candidates. Mitt Romney hasnt gotten an
invitation to the Kochs' annual retreat. Meanwhile, Jeb Bush, whose prolific early
fundraising gives him an independence his rival candidates lack, skipped this years Koch
retreat due to a scheduling conflicta sign hes flush enough with campaign cash not to be
beholden to any particular benefactor.

Evan McMurry is a political editor at Mediaite, interviews editor at Newfound: An

Inquiry of Place, a regular reviewer at Bookslut, and the founding editor ofA Flea In The
Fur of the Beast. Find him on Twitter or contact him atevanmcmurry@yahoo.com.