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Bank Of America And Billionaires Funded Conventions

Thursday, October 18, 2012 18:48

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The story of the money behind this year’s political conventions hews very closely to the funding narrative of the entire election cycle: the Republicans had a huge advantage, led by generous donations from individuals, and the Democrats turned to a coalition of traditional supporters and a sizable loan to cover their costs.

Both parties looked to regional backers to foot large parts of the bill for the respective conventions. A number of well-heeled Tampa-area individuals and companies picked up much of the tab for the Republican Convention in August, while Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank Of America was the single largest source of financial support behind the Democratic Convention in that city in early September. But the money from Bank of America wasn’t a contribution — it was a loan Democrats had to take out to cover the cost of their event.

In total, the 2012 Tampa Bay Host Committee raised $55.8 million and spent about $52.4 million, while the Committee for Charlotte 2012 pulled together a much more modest $35 million and spent $33.4 million. Bank of America’s contribution to the Democratic event came to $10.9 million — including a $10 million loan and in-kind donations — nearly one-third of the total. Bank of America also donated $1.1 million to the Republican event.

If one big bank’s loan was key to the Democrat’s event, extremely wealthy individuals, in particular Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, played a similar role for Republicans — except they weren’t lending their money. Adelson gave $5 million, while Bill Edwards, a Tampa area resident, gave $4.6 million through two of his companies, Marketing Solution Publications and Mortgage Investor’s Corp. Several big hedge fund players also topped the list of individual donors — Paul Singer of Elliott Management, who has donated millions to conservative super PACs, gave $1 million, as did Robert Mercer of Renaissance Technologies, also a large donor to conservative super PACs. Paulson & Company, the hedge fund run by John Paulson, gave another $1 million. James S. Davis, the chairman of shoe company New Balance, also donated $1 million.

The Republican convention also received a $1 million donation from David Koch, the billionaire liberals love to hate, but the Democratic convention got $310,000 from the Tides Foundation, which is partially funded by liberal billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Institute.

Regional support played a role for both conventions. Behind Bank of America’s loan, the second largest single source of support to the Democrats came from Duke Energy, a North Carolina based company, which gave $1.5 million in in-kind donations. Duke Energy CEO James Rogers personally gave another $339,000. Florida Power and Light gave $1 million to the Republican event, while the New York Yankees gave $150,000 — not a surprise considering the Steinbrenner family’s connection to Tampa.

Unions gave $5.9 million to the Charlotte committee, and several American Indian tribes also made notable appearances, with four tribes combining to give $400,000 to the Democratic event. One of those tribes, the Chickasaw Nation, also gave $100,000 to the Republican convention, and the Seminole Tribe gave $350,000 to the Republicans as well.

Big business gave to both sides, but large donations from major publicly traded corporations top the list of donors to the Republican event: AT&T gave $3 million (not counting in-kind donations for telephone service), Microsoft gave almost $1.6 million andUnited Health Care Services gave $522,000. The Republican convention also got a significant boost from the oil and gas industry — the American Petroleum Institute gave $2 million, while America’s Natural Gas Alliance chipped in $400,000.

Missing from the Republican convention’s list of donations — small checks. The committee collected just $1,200 in unitemized contributions (donations of $200 or less) and just six donations from people giving between $200 and $500. In total, the Republicans had 304 itemized donations (including in-kind donations).

The Democrats, on the other hand, relied heavily on small donors. The Charlotte committee listed $866,000 in unitemized contributions, and had 1,558 donors who gave between $200 and $500, more than five times the total number of donors to the Republican convention.

Correction: The story originally described Bank of America’s contribution to the Democratic Convention as a donation — it was actually a loan. The story has been changed to reflect that.

Image: Bill Clinton and Barack Obama at the DNC Convention in Charlotte via Flickr user Barack Obama.

Article by Russ Choma. Republished with permission from OpenSecrets.org

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