The Center for Public Integrity

They say it takes money to make money. And supporters of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s presidential bid have shelled out more than $20,000 to hold fundraising events for their super PAC at some pretty luxurious spots, according to an iWatch News analysis of campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

The pro-Romney super PAC called “Restore Our Future” has raised more than $36.8 million since its launch last year. That’s more than any other super PAC has collected so far this election cycle.

To aid this money chase, Restore Our Future has held fundraising events held at several elite locales, including New York’s Waldorf Astoria and the Beverly Hills Hotel in the acclaimed California ZIP code of 90210.

Restore Our Future was founded by — and is run by — several of Romney’s former aides, including Carl Forti, Romney’s 2008 political director; Larry McCarthy, a member of Romney’s 2008 media team; Steve Roche, Romney’s former finance director; and Charles Spies, Romney’s former chief financial officer and counsel, as iWatch News has detailed.

As a super PAC, Restore Our Future is allowed to accept unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations, trade associations, unions and other groups, so long as it doesn’t illegally coordinate with Romney’s campaign.

A super PAC supporting Mitt Romney has paid one of the Republican candidate’s veteran fundraisers a fee of $1.9 million for his work during a period when the super PAC raised about $24 million, according to new FEC filings.

The fee went to Podium Capital Group — a company that the super PAC’s treasurer said is Steve Roche’s. Roche is the top fundraiser for the principal outside group — "Restore Our Future" — that’s backing Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.

Charlie Spies, the treasurer of the super PAC, confirmed in a telephone interview with iWatch News that Podium Capital is “Roche’s company.”

The hefty fees paid to Podium Capital suggest that court rulings in early 2010 that opened the floodgates for corporations, individuals and unions to give unlimited sums to outside groups backing candidates have been a bonanza for presidential contenders and some elite operatives with super PACs. 

Roche is a long-time major fundraiser for Romney, going back to Romney’s days as Massachusetts Governor. He worked directly for Romney’s campaign until last summer, and then shifted to the PAC's chief fundraising job. At that time, Restore Our Future had pulled in just over $12 million, the figure it reported to the FEC for the first six months of 2011.  

Although the super PAC is prohibited under federal election law from coordinating its work with the campaign, the transfer of such a senior operative from one group to another is not prohibited.

On FEC records Podium Capital only lists a P.O. Box in Beverly, Mass. Podium received $1.9 million for its work from mid-2011 through the end of January, according to the FEC filing.

Asked whether he deemed the fees paid to Roche’s company reasonable, Spies said “we don’t comment on payments to specific vendors.”

Calls to a phone number for Roche in Massachusetts were not answered.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has called the Supreme Court decision that created super PACs “wrong” and in need of fixing, but that didn't stop him from sending money to one of these new groups.

On Jan. 25, just days after the two-year anniversary of the controversial Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, Patrick donated $500 to the Democratic Governors Association's super PAC, “DGA Action,” records show.

The Citizens United ruling held that corporations and unions can spend their treasury funds on political advertisements expressly advocating for or against federal candidates. Super PACs can accept unlimited contributions and spend the money on ads - so long as they act independently of candidates and their campaigns.

Last year, several Massachusetts lawmakers introduced a resolution that says the Citizens United ruling “presents a serious and direct threat to our democracy” and calls on Congress to “pass and send to the states for ratification a constitutional amendment to restore the First Amendment and fair elections to the people.”

When Patrick was recently asked by the media whether he would support the resolution, he replied, “Well, if you’re asking me do I think the Citizens United decision was wrong and needs to be fixed, the answer to that is, yes.”

Alex Goldstein, executive director of Patrick’s state political committee and federal political action committee, told iWatch News that Patrick continues to be concerned about the influence of money in politics, especially “the role of unidentified corporate money.”

Thanks to a small number of wealthy individuals, the outside spending groups known as “super PACs” that are working to put the four leading GOP candidates in the White House collectively raised more than the candidates themselves in January.

Candidates Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul raised a combined $21.1 million for the month, according to Federal Election Commission records, while the four primary super PACs backing them raised $22.1 million.

Donors to candidates number in the thousands, but they may only give $2,500 per candidate, per election. Super PAC donors, thanks to the Citizens United Supreme Court decision and a lower-cour ruling, can give unlimited amounts. The funds can come from billionaires, corporations and labor unions. So far this election, the funds have been spent overwhelmingly on advertising disparaging competing candidates.

Super PACs are prohibited from coordinating their activities with the candidates.

The average donation to a super PAC filing in January was $63,000, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of FEC data.

Two of the super PACs — “Winning Our Future,” supporting Newt Gingrich and “Endorse Liberty,” supporting Ron Paul — are dominated by a single donor.

Of the $11 million Winning Our Future raised in January, $10 million — about 90 percent of the total for the month — came from billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson and his wife. That’s in addition to $1 million given by other Adelson family members to the PAC last year.

A Louisiana energy executive has made a $1 million contribution to a super PAC supporting the surging campaign of Rick Santorum, according to disclosure records released Monday.

The donation came from William J. Dore of Louisiana, president of Dore Energy Corp. Dore’s contribution accounted for about half of the $2.1 million the “Red White and Blue Fund” raised for the month of January — that’s nearly triple the $730,000 it had raised through December.

The PAC also continued to rely heavily on checks from multimillionaire and retired mutual fund executive Foster Friess, a Wyoming-based, born-again Christian. Friess donated $669,000 in January and $331,000 in 2011, making his total donations an even $1 million.

The two men account for 71 percent of the contributions to the super PAC.

Dore of Lake Charles, La., is winner of the 2011 Horatio Alger Norman Vincent Peale Award, according to the Horatio Alger Association website. The award is given to those who have made “exceptional humanitarian contributions to society.”

Friess of late has conducted a one-man media blitz with numerous broadcast and print outlets touting Santorum’s conservative credentials. But his freewheeling style with the media drew some criticism when he remarked jokingly last week in an interview with MSNBC that “… back in my days, they’d use Bayer aspirin for contraceptives. The gals put it between their knees …”

After the comments sparked a backlash, Friess apologized in a blog post.

Casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson and his family have pumped $11 million into the pro-Newt Gingrich super PAC “Winning Our Future,” about 84 percent of the $13.1 million the group has raised so far.

And that doesn’t include the additional $10 million sources say the multibillionaire is expected to kick in to help his political ally and friend Gingrich become competitive again. Gingrich has fallen behind the two frontrunners, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and ex-Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, in national polls.

The PAC’s new filing with the Federal Election Commission shows two separate $5 million donations were made last month by Adelson and wife Miriam, an Israeli-born physician with dual citizenship. Another $1 million was donated in December to the super PAC by three relatives of the Adelsons, bringing the total family contribution to $11 million.

Without the Adelsons’ largesse, the PAC has raised $2.1 million.

The PAC’s latest filing shows the next largest donation in January came from Texas mega-GOP donor Harold Simmons, who gave $500,000, bringing his total contributions to the super PAC to $1 million.

Together, the Adelson family donations have been the largest publicly reported to a presidential super PAC thus far this election cycle. They have been used to pay for a mix of negative television advertisements against Romney and positive ads to promote Gingrich.

Those donations, respectively, helped to fund hard-hitting and expensive advertising drives before the South Carolina primary — which Gingrich won — and the Florida primary, which he lost, and where he was badly outspent by the Romney campaign and the “Restore Our Future” super PAC supporting him.

The super PAC that has played a pivotal role in keeping Mitt Romney's presidential campaign going raised an impressive $6.6 million in January, bumping its total haul to $36.8 million since its founding last year.

"Restore our Future" has raised six- and seven-figure donations from a relatively small number of wealthy donors, including a large contingent of hedge fund managers and executives from private equity companies such as Bain Capital, Romney's former employer.

There were no seven-figure donations in January, but 25 people gave $100,000 or more, according to a Federal Election Commission disclosure filing released Monday. Three wealthy donors gave $500,000 in January: Joseph Craft, president and CEO of Alliance Coal; Bruce Kovner of Caxton Alternative Management LP; And David Lisonbee, CEO of 4Life Research LLC.

Caxton is a multibilion-dollar hedge fund founded by Kovner; 4Life Research is a Sandy, Utah-based company that sells immune system support and anti-aging supplements among other products.

Among other top donors in January, renowned hoteliers J.W. and Richard Marriott, who are long-time supporters of Romney. Combined, the two gave  $500,000 to go with $500,000 they gave in 2011, bringing their total contributions to the super PAC to $1 million. Retired hedge fund manager Julian Robertson of Tiger Management LLC gave $250,000 to go with the $1 million he gave last year, making him the PAC's top donor.

Billionaire hedge fund manager, David Tepper, president of Appaloosa Management LLC, gave $375,000 in January.

Texas congressman Ron Paul may be running in fourth place in the most recent national polls for the Republican presidential nomination, but he's first in the heart of PayPal founder and hedge fund manager Peter Thiel.

With a $1.7 million donation in January added to the $900,000 he's already given, Thiel is responsible for 76 percent of Endorse Liberty's $3.4 million in total receipts, according to Federal Election Commission disclosure records released Monday.

In 1998, Thiel was a co-founder of PayPal, the online payment service that revolutionized the way commerce is conducted online. EBay Inc., the Internet auction service, bought PayPal for $1.5 billion in Ocotober 2002, making the technology pioneer a very wealthy man.

Thiel, 44, a former securities lawyer and self-described Libertarian, blames regulation for hurting innovation, a view that dovetails with Paul's platform. Thiel founded hedge fund Clarium Capital Management LLC in 2002.

Endorse Liberty was created by three young businessmen and one seasoned corporate veteran. Abe Niederhauser and Jeffrey Harmon both work in the marketing department at the bad-breath-combating company Orabrush, and they’ve taken the company’s bold, youthful marketing strategy and applied it to their endorsements of Ron Paul.

Ladd Christensen, who like Niederhauser and Harmon is a Utah resident, has ties to the Huntsman Corp., founded by Jon M. Huntsman, Sr., father of Jon Jr., who dropped out of the race.