Pro-Trump PACs coax donors off the sidelines
Donald Trump, who made opposition to political money a centerpiece of his outsider campaign, is poised to get a boost from super PACs that are intensifying their outreach to big Republican Party donors.
The main pro-Trump outside group, Great America PAC, has begun inviting some of the party’s most generous financiers to a reception next month at the ranch of Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens. On the invitation list: Republican mega-donors Foster Friess, Andy Beal, and Sheldon Adelson, who on Friday formally endorsed Trump. Also being asked to come are Texas billionaires Darwin Deason and Toby Neugebauer.
In the days since Trump clinched the nomination, the super PAC has formed a 20-person advisory board and begun mapping out ambitious plans to support the presumptive nominee and informing top donors that it wanted to raise at least $100 million. Among those donors pledging to help Great America PAC, according to a list provided by the group, are investor Doug Kimmelman, energy company executive Andrew Littlefair, and Lending Tree CEO Doug Lebda. Billionaire Stanley Hubbard, a Minnesota broadcasting company owner, has also signed on.
Many of those who’ve given to the group were also contributors to Trump-rival-turned-supporter Ben Carson, who has assisted Great America PAC.
On a conference call with financial supporters on Friday afternoon, Ed Rollins, Great America PAC’s top strategist and a veteran of presidential campaigns, warned that Hillary Clinton was prepared to orchestrate a disciplined and well-funded campaign to destroy Trump. It was time, he said, for major Republican donors – many of whom remain deeply skeptical of Trump – to get on board with the super PAC, which he predicted would become the main outside entity to support the New York businessman.
“They’re going to try to do to him what they did to Mitt Romney,” Rollins said on the call, which POLITICO was allowed to listen in on. “What we want to do is coalesce the finance committee.”
On the call, Rollins conceded that some developments had made the unification task that much tougher. He pointed to the repeated attacks on Trump from Romney, who has a wide following in the GOP donor world. “I’ve been very disappointed with Mr. Romney,” Rollins said.
Great America PAC, though, isn’t the only pro-Trump group in the works. On Thursday, another super PAC, the Committee for American Sovereignty, announced its formation. The outfit, which is headed up by former Ben Carson spokesman Doug Watts and has set a goal of raising at least $20 million before the Republican National Convention in July, has secured a financial commitment from venture capitalist Kenneth Abramowitz. (In an interview, Abramowitz said he would also help out Great America PAC.)
How much success either group has remains an open question. Many GOP benefactors are wary of Trump, who has railed the lobbyist and donor community and has blasted his rivals for their reliance on super PACs. Since launching in February, Great America PAC has struggled, raising just $550,000 – a pittance in the big-spending world of Republican groups. Yet as Trump settles into his new role as presumptive nominee, he appears to recognize that he’ll need dough – and probably lots of it. After loaning himself nearly $40 million during the primary, the billionaire has said that he’ll accept small dollar contributions. In recent days, his top aides have been hammering out a joint fundraising agreement with the Republican National Committee that would allow Trump to raise funds directly for the national party.
His campaign, meanwhile, appears to be giving both super PACs their tacit approval. While they have filed numerous federal complaints against third-party groups claiming to be in support of Trump, they’ve been largely silent about Great America PAC and the Committee for American Sovereignty.
In January, Eric Beach, Great America PAC’s co-chairman, traveled to Iowa to meet with top Trump campaign officials. While the campaign didn’t give Beach their blessing, according to two sources familiar with the meeting, they also didn’t raise any objections. Then, in February, Jewelry Exchange CEO Bill Doddridge, one of the group’s primary funders, went to Las Vegas to huddle with Trump aides and, briefly, Trump himself. Again, no objections were raised.
Beach and Doddridge declined to comment on the meetings, describing them as private. Trump spokespersons, for their part, declined to comment on Great America PAC and the Committee for American Sovereignty and on whether Trump will fundraise for either.
As Great America PAC looks to gain traction with donors, it’s also expanding. It recently announced hiring Rollins, who was Ronald Reagan’s 1984 campaign manager, and Amy Pass, a longtime top fundraiser for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a possible Trump VP contender. On Friday’s conference call, it was announced that the group had hired Brent Lowder, a former California Republican Party executive director, to serve as a top staffer.
Some believe that GOP financiers may be more interested in providing large checks to pro-Trump super PACs rather than in raising small amounts for the campaign, which is widely viewed as insular – and perhaps impenetrable to givers who are eager to have a direct line to the candidate. Friday’s Great America PAC call drew a number of players from the big money world, including Dale Dykema, a California financial services company executive who was a major giver to John McCain and Romney.
“People are concerned about access – it’s that simple,” said Yuri Vanetik, a California philanthropist who’s signed onto the Great America PAC board, predicting that there would soon be a proliferation of pro-Trump outside groups. “It’s hard to get access to Trump.”
But as new groups pop up, so too do may rivalries. Some staffers at Great America PAC were miffed by the emergence of the Committee for American Sovereignty and suspected that Roger Stone, a longtime Trump ally, was behind the new super PAC. Stone has taken to Twitter in recent days to criticize Great America PAC and its decision to hire Rollins, whose competence he has called into question – leading some at Great America PAC to wonder if Stone was trying to undercut them.
Reached on Friday, Stone said he did not have anything to do with establishing the Committee for American Sovereignty. But, he quickly added, he was eager to help them.
“I am sending them $1,000,” he said.