Perry's Bankrollers Are Some Seriously Rich-Ass Dudes (here you have a couple of them)

[texastoast]

Meet the Shady Dallas Mega-Billionaire Industrialist Harold Simmons Pouring Money into Rick Perry's Coffers

Most Americans have never heard of Harold Simmons, despite his fantastic wealth, because he wisely keeps his head low.

Like so many Republican officials of the tea party persuasion, Rick Perry despises the Environmental Protection Agency—a feeling he has expressed repeatedly in speeches, lawsuits, legislation and even a book titled “Fed Up!” Perhaps that is only natural for the governor of Texas, a “dirty energy” state where the protection of air, water and human health rank well below the defense of oil company profits for most politicians.

But Perry has at least one other reason for smacking down those bureaucrats so eagerly. When environmental regulators do their job properly, that can mean serious trouble for Perry’s largest political donors.

The outstanding example is Harold Simmons, a Dallas mega-billionaire industrialist who has donated well over a million dollars to Perry’s campaign committees recently. With Perry’s eager assistance—and despite warnings from Texas environmental officials—Simmons has gotten approval to build an enormous radioactive waste dump on top of a crucial underground water supply.

http://www.alternet.org/story/152216/meet_the_shady_dallas_mega-billionaire_industrialist_pouring_money_into_rick_perry%27s_coffers?akid=7490.272149.1t8m-l&rd=1&t=2



James Leininger
Paymaster of the Radical Republican Religious Right in Texas

These days, the emergence of Texas Governor Rick Perry as the frontrunner for the Republican Party's presidential nomination must be warming the cockles of Dr. James Leininger's heart.

Who is Dr. James Leininger, and why is he considered one of the Texas Governor's "most stalwart helpmates"?

Outside of Texas, Leininger is a relatively unknown multi-millionaire. Inside the second-largest U.S. state by both size and population, however, Leininger is known as the "Sugar Daddy" of the religious right.

http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/152330/the_religious_right_sugar-daddy_who_brought_us_rick_perry/