Meet The Money Behind Rick Perry
Texans don't like the government interfering with their business, especially campaign donations, where state laws allow contributors to fork over unlimited cash. No one has benefited more from this arrangement than Rick Perry, who has raised $100 million over the last decade, nearly half of which came from just 204 ultra-wealthy donors.
You're going to be hearing a lot about those donors over the next few weeks, for a couple of reasons. One is that Perry has a reputation for being especially friendly with his most loyal backers: separate analyses by the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times concluded that large percentages of his top donors received some benefit from the state during his tenure as governor. Perry's camp told both papers, as they've told the Texas press for years, that they were doled out on the merits.
But the second reason is that the same gang is going to have a chance to contribute to Perry's presidential ambitions in a big way. And not just at the $5,000 max donation level either, or even by bundling hundreds of other maxed out donors together. This year the major candidates, including President Obama, Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, and even Jon Huntsman have Super PACs backing them up that can collect unlimited donations from individuals and corporations alike to run ads. Perry's former chief of staff Mike Toomey has already set one up and, according to NBC, its goal is to spend $55 million on the primaries -- likely more than Perry's own campaign.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/meet-the-money-behind-rick-perry.php?ref=fpb