2012 GOP presidential favorite Mitt Romney has been receiving the support of the Restore Our Future Super PAC. Restore Our Future has been using its millions of dollars to run misleading advertisements about Romney’s opponents.
NBC has noted that Restore Our Future is “by far the best-funded of the super PACs backing presidential candidates in the 2012 election.” And according to an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), nearly half of the Super PAC’s donations come from the financial industry:
Of the $43.2 million raised by the attack PAC, $20.5 million, or 48 percent, came from finance industry donors, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission data by the Center for Public Integrity.
At least $13.5 million came from private equity firms ($7 million) and hedge funds ($6.5 million) while most of the rest came from investment banks and other asset managers. So-called “non-bank lenders” that run storefront cash-for-title and payday lending operations gave the super PAC $437,500, according to the analysis.
A ThinkProgress analysis previously found that Mitt Romney is Goldman Sach’s favorite GOP candidate. And it seems that the rest of the financial industry is in the same camp.
The financial industry’s love for Romney makes sense, since Romney is both a former financial executive himself, and wants to repeal the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. He has also been non-committal with regard to closing the carried interest tax loophole, a pernicious tax break for money managers that helps Romney himself save millions of dollars. CPI noted that “the average contribution [to the Super PAC] was a little more than $83,000.”