Free Republic

Jeb Bush has an event on Feb. 15 in Key Largo, while Florida rival Marco Rubio goes to Ocean Reef on March 11. The invitation for Rubio's has more than twice as many names, including Cynthia & Patrick Lee, Judy & Gary Ball, and Maggie & Steve Parker. Bush's host committee includes Jorge Arrizurieta, Nanci & Nick Lanni and Nancy & Bobby Schostak.

The senator's super PACs have launched an unprecedented ground effort in South Carolina and seem intent on going where few super PACs have gone before--door knocking. We all know super PACs have permanently changed the face of American politics. But in South Carolina, right now, we're getting a preview of the unprecedented ways they can alter a campaign. South Carolina, as you may know, is kind of a big deal. It has a large population--4.8 million people--and a bad reputation because it's a place where candidates love to break out their dirtiest tricks. Or, in the case of Ted Cruz's...

Some of the biggest Republican donors, who collectively have contributed tens of millions of dollars to shape the presidential race, are tightening their purse strings out of frustration with their inability to boost their favored candidates, or to slow Donald Trump. Rather than continuing to write huge checks to support the cluster of establishment candidates jockeying to emerge as the leading alternative to Trump, a billionaire real estate showman roundly despised by the GOP elite, these donors have mostly retreated to the sidelines. They're watching anxiously, hoping that the field sorts itself out, according to interviews with a half dozen...

The bipartisan Open Secrets blog reported that a small number of Americans, led by George Soros, donated $100 million to Presidential Super PACs in the second half of 2015. Federal Election Commission filings of 21 different Super PACs supporting the top 13 major party candidates show "29 individuals or organizations who gave $1 million or more" for a total of $99.4 million collected in a six-month period. Adding in the 13 campaign committees, to total raised in the second half of 2015 was $260 million. Democrat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pocketed the largest individual single Super PAC donation...

Ted Cruz sounded despondent at the possibility that same-sex marriage could become legal when he called into the radio show of Tony Perkins, a vehement opponent of gay rights, in February 2014. "Our heart weeps for the damage to traditional marriage that has been done," Mr. Cruz said, urging conservatives to pray but also to fight back. "Be as wise as serpents and gentle as doves," he said, quoting Scripture. But seven months later, when Mr. Cruz visited the Midtown Manhattan office of a major Republican supporter of same-sex marriage, he sounded almost indifferent: If New York politicians wanted to...

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – Donald Trump is so fiercely opposed by the Koch brothers network that some donors believe the powerful group will intervene to stop the billionaire if it looks like he could win the Republican presidential nomination. "They are always very hesitant to get involved in a primary, but I think if they were going to do it, this would be the time because they just hate the guy,” said a donor who attended the Koch network’s winter retreat, held over the weekend at a luxury resort on the edge of Coachella Valley. Both officials and donors within...

George Soros in December donated $6 million to the leading super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, marking the return of the billionaire financier as among the biggest givers in all of American politics. The massive check brings to $8 million the Hungarian-born investor's total 2015 giving to pro-Clinton groups. The super PAC that received the $6-million check, Priorities USA Action, raised $25 million in the second half of 2015, according to a report it filed Sunday evening with the Federal Election Commission. The haul brings the PAC’s tally to $41 million for the year, and left it with a...

One of the interesting assumptions infecting this election season is that a self-funded wealthy candidate is less likely to make corrupt deals. If a candidate doesn't solicit money from the public (which, by the way, every candidate for president does), so the story goes, he won't be beholden to do favors. But what if a candidate had a ready reserve of millions? Could that candidate buy off media outlets, public figures and educational institutions? Answer: probably, if he knows how to do the deal. Expenditures on behalf of a campaign, of course, must be reported to the Federal Election Commission....

Only weeks after the White House made headlines with a directive urging prosecutors to get tougher on corporate crime, the Obama administration has moved to protect a convicted financial firm from punishment. The bank, Credit Suisse, has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to President Barack Obama’s political campaigns. It also employs the Podesta Group, a lobbying firm with family connections to the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. In 2014, Credit Suisse pleaded guilty to criminal charges for operating “an illegal cross-border banking business that knowingly and willfully aided and assisted thousands of U.S. clients in opening and...

The Mullahs' Voice By Kenneth R. Timmerman FrontPageMagazine.com February 23, 2007 Iran’s ruling clerics have a new unofficial spokesman in Washington, who can talk circles around their official ambassadors. His name is Trita Parsi, and he is a protégé of Francis Fukayama, the policy heavy-weight who has now turned against the Bush agenda of promoting freedom in the Middle East as an antidote to terror. In a remarkable round-up of official Iranian government views, presented as “objective” analysis on C-SPAN this past Saturday, Feb. 17, Parsi urged the United States government to “open up diplomacy and dialogue” with Iran’s rulers...

Political action committees (Super PACs) have become a popular way for candidates to dodge those annoying regulations set up by the FEC when it comes to individual donations. As long as Super PACs don't "coordinate" *wink wink nudge nudge* with the campaigns they support, they can do just about anything they want. Taking a look at the 5 candidates who have a realistic shot of being president, and their PAC money, should help us gain a little insight into who their biggest financial supporters are. This can also tell us what kind of a presidency to expect from them. 1....

(CNN)--Dick Uilhlein, one of the top Republican megadonors nationwide, has decided to back Ted Cruz's presidential campaign and has donated $1 million to his super PAC. Uilhlein committed on Wednesday evening, according to Drew Ryun, a super PAC official with Keep The Promise PAC. "He is one of the top five courted GOP donors," Ryun told CNN. "For us to land him is a good shot in the arm for Ted, and it really sets the stage going into Iowa."(continued)

Dick Uilhlein, one of the top Republican megadonors nationwide, has decided to back Ted Cruz's presidential campaign and has donated $1 million to his super PAC. Uilhlein committed on Wednesday evening, according to Drew Ryun, a super PAC official with Keep The Promise PAC. "He is one of the top five courted GOP donors," Ryun told CNN. "For us to land him is a good shot in the arm for Ted, and it really sets the stage going into Iowa." Uilhlein previously backed Scott Walker's campaign and gave $2.5 million to his super PAC. Uilhlein, of Illinois, started the shipping...

News articles concerning the most influential political donors in America typically list the same names: The Koch brothers, George Soros, Sheldon Adelson and, lately, Tom Steyer. But as we reach the end of 2015, none of these billionaires has spent big in the 2016 contest, at least not at an individual candidate level. In their absence, a number of lesser known donors are shaping up to be major players in 2016. Here are five to watch: 1. The DeVos Family We're cheating by including a whole family in our list, but there is no way of separating out this high-spending...

Ted needs your help. Ted is under an all-out assault on his campaign, his values, and even him personally. Attacks are coming from all sides -- Republican and Democrat -- and of course the liberal media. Ted won't tell you this but I will -- please stop what you are doing and read below.

Political analysis of the Las Vegas debate immigration dust-up between Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio is missing a key ingredient: the money factor. You can read the lips of the candidates till the cows come home. But you'll get to the truth much faster when you learn where pro-amnesty power brokers have placed their bets and hitched their wagons. Rubio's brazenly fraudulent campaign to paint Cruz as soft on illegal immigration is a flabbergasting attempt to distract from the Florida junior senator's faithful allegiance to the open-borders donor class. Here's what you need to know: Facebook, Microsoft and Silicon...

Donald Trump is slated to meet with billionaire Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson on Tuesday, a Trump spokesman said. Trump is slated to meet with Adelson ahead of tonight's Republican debate, which will be held at Adelson's posh Venetian hotel. Corey Lewandowski, Trump's campaign manager, confirmed the scheduled meeting. Adelson spokespersons did not respond to a request for comment. Adelson is expected to meet privately with multiple Republican candidates gathered here for the debate. While Adelson, one of the biggest GOP donors in the country, is said to be favoring Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, he has made no final...

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump got into an interesting war of words on Twitter last week with a Saudi prince. "Dopey Prince (Al-Waleed bin Talal) wants to control our U.S. politicians with daddy's money. Can't do it when I get elected," Trump tweeted. Trump's social-media salvo was truly provocative, and not because he called a billionaire member of the Saudi royal family "dopey." What made Trump's outburst on Twitter so interesting was his willingness to call out the tacit and longstanding subversion of the U.S. political system by foreign interests. "You are a disgrace not only to the GOP but...

An Obama administration proposal to have some nonprofit charities report the Social Security numbers of donors giving at least $250 in one year is raising concerns about security, government overreach and another episode of IRS targeting. “There´s a big caution here. There´s a big yellow light that should be flashing for a couple of reasons,” Illinois Republican Rep. Peter Roskam tells Fox News. “Number one, the IRS has not demonstrated its capacity to hold this type of information from confidentiality and a security point of view.” The change would impact organizations that fall into the 501 (c)(3) category, which includes

It's a case of the billionaire versus the "BULLYionaire." Mike Fernandez, one of Jeb Bush's wealthiest donors, announced plans on Friday to buy full-page advertisements warning voters against being lured by Donald J. Trump's hateful message and comparing his rise to the conditions that led to some of history's most evil dictators. "Look at Hitler in Germany, Mussolini in Italy and Peron in Argentina," Mr. Fernandez writes in the ad, which was first reported by Politico. "When people lose hope, they are susceptible to those who offer to think for them." Mr. Fernandez is chairman of MBF Healthcare Partners, a...