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Mitt Romney Wealth

February 21, 2012 by · Comments Off on Mitt Romney Wealth 

Mitt Romney Wealth, Restore Our Future, a U.S. political action committee supporting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, started this month with about $16 million in cash – – 26 times more than its chief competitor’s camp.

Red White and Blue Fund, the super-PAC supporting former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, raised $2.1 million in January and finished the month with $626,607 to spend. Even so, the PAC has continued to raise money in February and today announced an additional $600,000 advertising buy in Michigan, Romney’s birthplace and the site of a Feb. 28 primary.

The emergence of super-PACs has altered the dynamics of the presidential campaign, aiding candidates when they run short of money or running negative ads so the White House hopefuls can stay positive.

Restore Our Future has helped Romney “respond overwhelmingly and negatively to a challenger that threatens” his lead, said Stephen Wayne, a professor of government at Georgetown University in Washington.

With the additional ad buy, the Red White and Blue Fund will have spent about $1.3 million on Santorum’s behalf in Michigan, said Stuart Roy, a spokesman for the group.

More than three-fourths of the pro-Santorum money in January came from two donors — William Dore, president of Dore Energy Corp. in Lake Charles, Louisiana, who contributed $1 million; and Foster Friess, a fund manager based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, who donated $669,000 last month after giving $331,000 to the PAC last year, bringing his total to $1 million.

The pro-Romney group, which raised $6.6 million last month, also began February with about seven times as much in the bank as a super-PAC supporting former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich. That PAC, Winning Our Future, had $2.4 million coming into February. Almost all of its $11 million in donations last month came from Sheldon Adelson, chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS), and his wife, Miriam, each of whom gave $5 million, and Texas billionaire Harold Simmons, who donated $500,000.

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