The Ties That Bind: Romney and the Super PACs

By Robert Maguire

Yesterday the long-developing ties between two Republican super PACs and Mitt Romney's campaign grew stronger when the campaign announced that veteran GOP strategist Ed Gillespie would come aboard as a senior adviser.

Gillespie is a founder of and adviser to American Crossroads, which has stockpiled $26.9 million so far this election cycle, much of which is expected to be spent helping the Republican nominee; it's increasingly likely that will be Romney. Another Crossroads adviser is Carl Forti, who is also president of the pro-Romney Restore Our Future super PAC.

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Other donors are and likely will remain completely unknown to the public because they’ve given to Crossroads GPS, a 501(c)(4) group linked to American Crossroads that does not have to disclose the sources of its funds. OpenSecrets Blog has been able to find at least one documented donation of $4 million to the group by the Republican Jewish Coalition. A number of Romney donors sit on the board of RJC, and a handful of them -- Paul Singer, David Flaum, Lewis Eisenberg and Sam Fox -- are also major donors to Restore Our Future.

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While Restore Our Future has far outpaced the pro-Obama super PAC, Priorities USA Action, in fundraising ($43.2 million to $6.5 million), Romney’s own campaign has brought in less than half the amount than the incumbent president has raised ($157 million for Obama, $74 million for Romney). But Romney now has two super PACs that are deeply connected to him, through both donors and personnel. Forti, head of Restore Our Future -- the group that Romney has referred to as “my super PAC,” despite the requirement that it function independently of the campaign -- and Gillespie both have intimate knowledge of the Crossroads game plan and messaging strategy. While Gillespie says he is taking a leave of absence from Crossroads, Forti is not.

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http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2012/04/the-coordinated-non-coordination-of.html