George Soros, the liberal-leaning billionaire financier, made his first major intervention in the US general election on Tuesday, announcing plans to donate $2m (£1.23m) to two organisations devoted to mobilising the Democrat Party vote on polling day.
US financier George Soros
Although far short of the $23m (£14.24m) Mr Soros spent on trying engineer the defeat of George W Bush in 2004, the donations could provide a significant boost for Democratic fund-raisers hoping to attract major donations from potential super-rich supporters.
Thus far the Democratic Party has fallen far behind the Republicans in soliciting big-time donations to so called "Super PACs" – or Political Action Committees – that can gather unlimited donations from big corporations and the very rich.
This week the Obama campaign attacked the Republican-supporting brothers Charles and David Koch, labelling them the "contract killers" of politics for the millions of dollars their Super PAC, American's for Prosperity, has spent on negative advertising.
The Obama campaign said it estimated that Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, had already spent $55m in campaign advertising – 90 per cent of which is negative and funded by Republican-allied Super PACs determined to see Mr Obama ousted from office.
Earlier this year, Mr Obama put Democratic distaste at the Super PACs aside, calling on donors to support the pro-Democratic 'Priorities USA' saying the party would not 'unilaterally disarm' in the face of the threat from Republican super PACs with "half a billion dollars to spend".
Reports from the Federal Election Commission suggest the response has so far been tepid, however Democratic fund-raisers will be hoping that Mr Soros's $1m donations to 'American Bridge 21st Century' and 'America Votes' might now bring others off the sidelines.
Critics of Super PACs, which have already collected several hundred million dollars, say they enable big business to 'buy' elections and make a mockery of rules that cap individual donations to candidates at $2,500 per person in each four-yearly election cycle.
In an interview on CNN last February, Mr Soros said the Super PAC groups "create an unequal playing field, which will further destroy the political system" and appeared to be undecided whether he would donate heavily in the 2012 campaign.
But confirming Mr Soros was now making a donation, a senior adviser said in an email that the billionaire investor was concentrating his giving on grassroots organising and "holding conservatives accountable for the flawed policies they promote."
No comments:
Write comments