Stealthy Wealthy: To Robert Rowling, political giving makes business sense

By The Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group

Texas-based billionaire Robert Rowling has given a total of $6.8 million to American Crossroads, the super PAC that has run ads criticizing President Barack Obama for, among other things, bailing out and bankrolling private businesses with public money. Yet Rowling, seen at right, a member of the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans who inherited his fortune, hasn’t been averse to seeking taxpayer assistance in his own business ventures. And he’s been willing to use his private fortune to seek public dollars. 

Though he’s a less well-known name than mega donors like George Soros or the Koch Brothers, Rowling has been contributing for years. An analysis of his political giving shows that the surge of contributions in the super PAC era was preceeded by a steady flow of donations that stretches back decades. While he has written the biggest checks for the super PAC, he has also been quick to write smaller dollar checks for city council and mayoral candidates–and even the occasional Democrat.

From his perch as the head of the privately held TRT Holdings, Rowling oversees an empire that includes Omni Hotels & Resorts, Tana Exploration Company, Gold’s Gym; he also owns a major stake in Gaylord Entertainment, home of the Grand Ole Opry. None of these entities leave much of an official lobbying footprint. But digging into Rowling’s past shows that his giving is part of his business strategy.

“The people who give money to politicians get to know them well. If there’s one thing [politicians] do, they learn who their donors are, and they milk them. But they develop a relationship,” Rowling said in a frank interview he gave the Texas Tribune in 2010. Through an assistant, Rowling declined to speak to Sunlight for this story.

A search of federal and state campaign contributions available online from Influence Explorer, the Center for Responsive Politics, and the City of Dallas that shows Rowling, his wife, and TRT Holdings having given at least $11.4 million since 1989, when some electronic records first became available. This amount is likely an understament. Much local campaign contribution giving is not available online in electronic format. And Rowling may well be contributing to nonprofit groups that are politically active, such as American Crossroad’s sister organization, Crossroads GPS, which are not required to reveal their donors.

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The Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group is part of the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based organization that uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and accountable.