Behind the curtain: A brief history of Romneys donors — Barack Obama
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Behind the curtain: A brief history of Romneys donors

As the presumptive GOP nominee, Mitt Romney is relying on a cadre of high-dollar and special-interest donors to fund his campaign. Giving information about his real policy intentions and high-level access for cash, Romney and Republicans are working hard to pull in as much money as they can from wealthy lobbyists, corporations, and PACs. But just who are the people that Romney has called on for campaign cash?

A closer look at Romneys donors reveals a group of wealthy individuals with less-than-reputable records. Quite a few have been on the wrong side of the law, others have made profits at the expense of so many Americans, and still others are donating to help ensure Romney puts beneficial policies in place for them. Heres a look at just a few of the people Romney has relied on:

Donors who benefit from betting against America

  • Paul Chip Schorr: Paul Schorr has given $112,500 to Romneys presidential ambitions through Super PAC and direct campaign donations. As a partner at Blackstone, Schorr closed a deal in 2007 to outsource the services of seven U.S. companies to a firm in India, boosting that firms profits by $220 million and making millionaires of the Indian management team. In 2006, he arranged a buyout of a Colorado travel reservations company that led to 841 layoffs while Blackstone and its partners recouped the billions of dollars they invested in less than a year.

  • Sam and Jeffrey Fox: Sam and Jeffrey Fox serve as co-chairman of Romneys finance operation in Missouri and, together, have donated $220,000 to Romneys presidential ambitions. They also control the Harbour Group investment firm which bragged about buying an automotive accessories manufacturing company in Kansas in 1997 and moving production to Mexico. In 2002, the Harbour groups Mexico operation decided to outsource to China because China was offering incentives and making it easy to open operations there. The Chinese government awarded Sam Fox the Marco Polo Award for his companys role in Chinas economic development and his humanitarian contributions to that country.

  • T. Martin Fiorentino: T. Martin Fiorentino is on Romneys Florida finance team and has bundled over $140,000 for the Romney campaign. He also lobbied on behalf of Lender Processing Services, a foreclosure mill that paid him to lobby on legislation aimed at preventing lenders from making loans that borrowers would have difficulty repaying. The government has reprimanded Lender Processing Services for unsound practices related to residential mortgage loan serving and foreclosure processing.

Special-interest donors

Romneys stances on social and economic issues, like his long-standing alliance with Big Oil, attracts the contributions of high-dollar donors who are interested in pursuing a specific agenda. Here are just a few of special-interest donors that Romney is taking money from:

  • Louis Moore Bacon: An early mega-donor for Romney, Louis Moore Bacon donated $500,000 to the Restore Our Future Super PAC. Bacon makes his profit off of oil, first making a huge profit from successfully betting that gas prices would rise before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1989. Bacons firm, Moore Capital, was fined $25 million for attempting to manipulate certain commodity futures markets.

  • Thomas OMalley: Thomas OMalley is the CEO of PBF Energy, Americas fourth largest petroleum refining company, and gave $100,000 to Restore Our Future. Not only did PBF energy help drive gas prices up this year by curtailing gas production, but it spilled 6.6 million gallons of oil at a refinery in New Jersey. The release of toxic gas and eventual explosion at another of its refineries in Delaware also directly contributed to a spike in gas prices.

  • Kent Burton: Kent Burton is one of Romneys new bundlers who raised more than $25,000 in one month for Romneys campaign. He is also a registered lobbyist for a wide array of energy clients, including Marathon Oil and Shell Oil.

  • Frank Vandersloot: Frank Vandersloot is the national finance co-chairman of the Romney campaign and, through his company Melaleuca, has donated $1 million to Restore Our Future. He is also a litigious, combative, and a bitter foe of the gay rights movement who spent big on ads in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to force Idaho Public Television to cancel a program that showed gays and lesbians in a favorable light to school children.