Pro-Perry PAC fueled by corporations, lobbyists (Politico)

Corporations, lobbyists and the most powerful businessmen south of the Red River.

That sums up the donor roster of pro-Rick Perry super PAC Make Us Great Again, which received its nearly $5.5 million in funding last year from a few dozen people and companies well known in the Texas governor?s home state, new federal campaign finance records show.

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Businessman Harold Simmons? holding company, Contran Corp. of Dallas, alone contributed $1 million to the super PAC ? a donation that would have been illegal prior to the Supreme Court?s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision in 2010. The ruling allowed corporations and unions to make unlimited political expenditures or contributions from their treasuries to overtly support or oppose candidates.

More than a dozen other corporations also made large, direct contributions, including:

• $125,000 from Chesapeake Energy of Oklahoma City
• $100,000 from the Heritage Bag Company of Carrollton, Texas
• $100,000 from Schwertner Farms Inc. of Schwertner, Texas
• $100,000 from SCI Executive Services of Houston
• $50,000 from Friedkin Business Service of Houston
• $50,000 from ALON USA of Dallas
• $50,000 from the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma

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Tax consulting mogul Brint Ryan, who once spent more than $1 million in a losing effort to win a Dallas City Council seat, contributed $250,000 to Make Us Great Again. Robert McNair, who owns the Houston Texans football team, donated $100,000, as did Dallas oilman Trevor Rees-Jones.

Meanwhile, an Austin, Texas-based lobbyist Mike Toomey, a former Perry chief of staff, contributed an aggregate of more than $102,000.

In all, Make Us Great Again, which announced earlier this month that it?d cease operations, spent $4.88 million through Dec. 31 and reported $604,472 cash on hand.

And while Make Us Great Again spent the vast majority of its money on various advertisements and public communications supporting Perry, it also spent nearly $200,000 on fundraising efforts and tens of thousands of dollars to conduct polling, federal records show.

The Perry campaign itself burned through millions of dollars as it attempted ? and failed ? to recover from a string of disastrous presidential debate performances and widely criticized television commercials.

Perry officially exited the presidential race Jan. 19 ? two days before the South Carolina presidential primary ? after finishing fifth in the Iowa caucuses and dead last among major candidates in the New Hampshire primary.

Upon dropping out, Perry endorsed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/politico_rss/rss_politico_mostpop/http___www_politico_com_news_stories0112_72250_html/44371390/SIG=11m2atrve/*http%3A//www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/72250.html

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