June 3, 2015

These 8 Republican Sugar Daddies Are Already Placing Their Bets on 2016

It’s not just the Koch brothers.

    — By the MoJo News Team


The 2016 election is more than a year and a half away, but conservative megadonors are already picking their favorite candidates:

Megadonor 2016 pick Meeting of the minds
Norman Braman
Billionaire car dealer and former owner of the Philadelphia Eagles

Marco Rubio

 Rubio is “the candidate of today and tomorrow,” Braman tells Mother Jones. “Read his book and you’ll see.”
Robert Mercer
Hedge Fund magnate and the owner of a $2 million model train set

Ted Cruz

 Mercer’s firm has been accused of dodging $6 billion in taxes; Cruz has mused about abolishing the IRS.
Foster Friess
Crocodile hunting mutual fund financier

Rick Santorum

 Friess, who joked about aspirin’s contraceptive powers while backing Santorum in 2012, told the Washington Post, “I am clearly in the Santorum camp.”
Larry Ellison
Founder of Oracle and owner of a private Hawaiian island

Rubio

 Ellison is holding a big-ticket fundraiser for the candidate at his $200 million Japanese-style Silicon Valley estate.*
Ken Langone
Home Depot cofounder who once said, “I’m nuts, I’m rich, and boy, do I love a fight!”

Chris Christie

 Langone, who initially supported Christie in 2012, has offered to build a bridge between his donor network and the New Jersey governor.
Sheldon Adelson
Casino tycoon who dropped more than $93 million to defeat Obama in 2012

Rubio…maybe

 Adelson has received visits from Rubio, but is staying coy. His spokesman told Politico, “He’s going to keep his powder dry until he needs to weigh in.”
Charles and David Koch Billionaire bros who have vowed to spend $900 million in 2016

Scott Walker…maybe

 David Koch reportedly likes Walker’s chances, but the brothers plan to hold “auditions” for GOP candidates this summer.

Correction: This story originally reported that Ellison had held a fundraiser for Rand Paul and may back him. Politico reports that Paul only attended the event and Ellison has committed to Rubio.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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