Just as Jeb Bush signaled he’s a likely presidential contender, an outside political committee backing him for the Republican nomination revved up its high-dollar fundraising in a bid to blow away his rivals.
Bush has yet to formally declare his candidacy, but he is barnstorming the country, from Palm Springs, Calif., to Scottsdale, Ariz., to Lake Forest, Ill., to the nation’s capital in a fundraising blitz aimed at locking up financial backing from some of the nation’s wealthiest conservatives. During one event that he attended last month, the former Florida governor sought $100,000 checks at the New York home of billionaire Henry Kravis, a private equity guru.
On Tuesday, there’s another big-dollar reception, at the exclusive Sanctuary Camelback Mountain Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz., also sponsored by the Right to Rise super PAC, with Bush the featured guest.
Back in his home state of Florida on Monday, Bush is due to attend a reception seeking five- and six-figure donations at the Coral Gables home of Miguel and Constance Fernandez, according to invitations gathered by the Washington-based Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit watchdog group. Fernandez heads a private equity firm that invests in companies providing health care services.
“It’s shock and awe,” said Bill Allison, a senior fellow at Sunlight who tracks campaign finance issues. It appears that Bush is “trying to basically scare people like the Marco Rubios and Chris Christies from taking him on,” he said of two other possible Republican presidential candidates, Sen. Rubio of Florida and New Jersey Gov. Christie.
“The real important money race is the one that’s going on right now, to line up the billionaires and the millionaires,” Allison said. “Once you’ve done that, you can craft your message to the ordinary voter. It’s almost as if your policies have already been set. You’ve already made the pitch to the big donors about what you’re going to do in office. Then you try to appeal to the average Joe.”
On the Democratic side, where Hillary Clinton has yet to declare her presidential candidacy, a pro-Hillary super PAC that’s a holdover from President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign has lined up staff who know how to create billion-dollar fundraising juggernauts, too.
Harold Ickes, a former deputy White House chief of staff in the 1990s under President Bill Clinton and manager of Clinton’s victorious 1992 campaign, heads the Clinton super PAC known as Priorities USA.
A second super PAC, Ready for Hillary, has been more active in recent weeks, but not just in search of mega donations. Rather, the PAC has held fundraisers asking donors to give $20.16, attracting potential small donors to events where their names and contact information can be collected. Such an effort, Allison said, is likely aimed at amassing grassroots supporters who can be mined for millions of dollars in small donations as the campaign progresses.
So-called super PACs are a byproduct of a controversial 2010 Supreme Court ruling that obliterated core provisions of post-Watergate laws restraining the flow of corporate and individual money into federal election campaigns. Now political action committees can register to raise unlimited sums from companies and individuals.
As Washington fundraising goes, it’s all about knowing how to drive a truck through holes in the system.
While super PACS and candidates are barred from coordinating spending, candidates are allowed to urge prospective donors to contribute to super PACs. The candidates cannot ask for more than a $5,000 contribution, but the committees can seek amounts of any size.
Hence, when word circulated that Bush will run, the Right to Rise super PAC roared into action.
“Every candidate is going to have his own super PAC,” each hoping to garner the likes of conservative Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson or “somebody who can write checks as big as Sheldon Adelson’s,” Allison said.
Bush’s super PAC was created in early January at the same time that Bush formed a leadership political action committee with the same name, except its donations will be limited to $5,000. The money is expected to be used to cement support by spreading campaign donations among local Republican politicians in states with early primary elections, such as Iowa, whose early party caucuses usually begin the presidential election process, and then New Hampshire and South Carolina.
“From the perspective of limiting the influence of money in politics, that’s really over,” Allison said of the proliferation of virtually unregulated outside election spending.
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