Democratic billionaires boost pro-Obama super PAC

Democratic billionaires boost pro-Obama super PAC

By KENNETH P. VOGEL | 7/21/12

The super PAC supporting President Barack Obama had its best fundraising month to date in June, pulling in $6.2 million, but also spending even more on a barrage of ads blistering Mitt Romney.

Priorities USA Action spent $7.9 million last month – mostly on ads scrutinizing Romney’s tenure at the private equity firm Bain Capital – and finished June with $2.8 million in the bank, according to a report filed late Friday with the Federal Election Commission.

The report offered some encouraging signs for a PAC that had been worrying Democrats with its sluggish fundraising, revealing a mix of new mega donors and returning ones who increased their contribution levels and drawing heavily from the worlds of entertainment and gay rights activism.
Its biggest donation – $2 million – came from telecom billionaire Irwin Jacobs, who had not previously given to the Obama super PAC. And Priorities received $1 million each from Chicago media mogul Fred Eychaner, an Obama campaign bundler and prominent gay rights supporter who had previously donated $500,000, and star actor Morgan Freeman, a newcomer to big-political-check writing.
It also received $750,000 from billionaire heir Jon Stryker, a big donor to gay rights causes, and $333,333 from billionaire media entrepreneur Haim Saban, who was among a handful of major Democratic donors who had been intensely courted for months to write a big check to support Obama and his Democratic congressional allies.
Saban made his donation through a joint fundraising committee called Unity 2012, to which he gave $1 million, which was divided between Priorities USA Action, as well as the super PAC backing the party’s Senate candidates, Majority PAC, and the one supporting Democratic candidates for the lower chamber, House Majority PAC.
After advertising, the PAC’s biggest expense was polling, for which it paid $258,000, including $158,000 to New York’s Global Strategy Group, which previously employed the Obama campaign’s new traveling press secretary Jen Psaki, though she says she did not work for Priorities.