Posted on 03/03/2015 5:00:30 AM PST by GIdget2004
A dozen potential Republican presidential candidates are about to sit down, one by one, with the biggest GOP donor in Iowa — a multimillionaire few people outside the state have ever heard of.
Bruce Rastetter, an agribusiness mogul who’s made a fortune in pork, ethanol and farm real estate, has long worked behind the scenes to help bankroll conservatives across the country, but Saturday is a public coming out party of sorts for Rastetter as he hosts the first Iowa Agriculture Summit. It’s an event designed to promote farm policy in a state where pigs outnumber voters 10 to 1, but it’s also a bold display of the political power Rastetter has amassed — and a reminder to candidates that his endorsement would be a big get ahead of the Iowa caucuses.
t’s an unusually public gig for a donor: Rastetter will chat with each candidate on-stage for 20 minutes before 1,000 Iowans and dozens of media outlets. He’ll get to ask Jeb Bush exactly what he thinks about ethanol, pepper Scott Walker with questions about Environmental Protection Agency regulations and quiz Marco Rubio about where he stands on genetically modified food labeling, if he wants. Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, Donald Trump and Mike Huckabee will enter the agriculture policy ring, too.
How the 58-year-old self-made millionaire assembled one of the biggest GOP cattle calls yet is illustrative of the influential network he’s built over the past several years, as he’s emerged as the state’s top Republican donor at both the federal and state level, donating nearly half a million and $1.1 million, respectively, since 2003, according to campaign finance disclosures — sums that are likely a fraction of his total giving to groups that don’t have to disclose their donors.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
I’m not sure he’s a “king maker” but Rastetter is a nasty piece of work, and an open borders proponent for cheap Third World labor, consequences be damned. He’s also close to Iowa Gov. Branstad.
I’m waiting for the follow-up story about Obama or Hillary sitting down with George Soros...I forgot, this is Politico.
Got any better cowboys around?
wind, ethanol, rove, christy, what’s not to love?
Bruce Rastetter: The Elon Musk of Ethanol
Ethanol
More now than ever, it’s government by special interest.
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