Of all the investments made by the super-wealthy partners at Bain Capital, perhaps none have a greater potential return than the one they have made in Mitt Romney.
Current and former Bain executives and their relatives have given about $4.7 million to organizations dedicated to making Romney the next president of the United States, according to a Center for Public Integrity investigation.
And they haven’t just come around lately.
Some Bain associates have been filling Romney’s campaign coffers since 2004 when the former Massachusetts governor had early aspirations to become president, and long before he officially embarked on a run.
Since then, they have given to political committees in early primary states — some without contribution limits — to both of Romney’s presidential campaigns and to federal “leadership PACs” controlled by the candidate.
Most dramatically, they gave at least $3.1 million in 2011 to “Restore Our Future,” a “super PAC” not controlled by Romney, which has used the contributions to launch ads attacking candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum.
The state-level contributions have at times gone to local officials, like South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who received $62,500 from Romney-connected state and federal PACs, and who endorsed him in the South Carolina primary.
But a greater percentage of funds raised at the state level went to promoting Romney’s presidential runs, something that has prompted legal challenges by Democratic groups.
The Center examined contribution data from the Center for Responsive Politics, CQMoneyline, the Federal Election Commission and state campaign finance regulators. (Contributions made from 2004 to 2007 to the South Carolina PAC were not available.)