South Carolina primaries plutocracy

This video from the USA is called Laid Off Steelworker: Mitt Romney, Bain Capital Profited By Shutting Down Kansas Steel Plant.

By Patrick Martin in the USA:

Millions poured into South Carolina primary campaign

19 January 2012

Spending in the Republican presidential primary in South Carolina has broken all records, as multi-millionaire candidates and their billionaire backers pour in resources to influence the comparative handful of people who will participate in the January 21 voting.

The State, the biggest daily newspaper in South Carolina, reported that more than $11 million had been spent on TV ads alone, with more than a full week of campaigning still to go. The majority of the ads attacked former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on behalf of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who has a narrow lead in the polls.

Total outlays could well top $20 million, in a state where a bit more than 440,000 took part in the Republican presidential primary four years ago. The price tag of $50 a vote would make South Carolina less expensive than the Iowa caucuses, where nearly $100 per vote was spent by the rival candidates and the “super PACs” backing them.

The super PACs are secretive organizations made legal by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in early 2010, which barred any restrictions on spending by corporations and wealthy individuals on behalf of their favored candidates. While the rich cannot give the unlimited sums directly to the candidates, they can funnel the money to a political action committee that is nominally independent of the candidate, usually established by former aides and associates.

The best-funded super PAC is Restore Our Future, chartered by former Romney aides, which has spent $7.8 million in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina through last week. At least four donations of $1 million have been reported in the press: from John Paulson, the wealthiest hedge fund operator; Edward Conard, a former executive with Bain Capital, Romney’s private equity firm; Paul Edgerley, another financier with Bain ties; and J. Willard and Richard Marriott, the two brothers who control the giant hotel chain.

Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire proprietor of the Sands casino and other Las Vegas properties, has given the largest single donation to a super PAC, a $5 million check to Winning Our Future, which backs Gingrich. This single donation revived the Gingrich campaign after it was devastated by Romney-inspired attack ads in Iowa.

The Red, White and Blue Fund has spent at least $800,000 already in South Carolina promoting former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. The super PAC is largely funded by Foster Friess, a billionaire mutual fund manager from Wyoming. Friess is a longtime associate of the Koch brothers, the ultra-right oil billionaires who are the biggest single financial backers of the Tea Party movement.

Koch Brothers in Battle With Cato Institute Over Control. Eric Lichtblau, The New York Times News Service: “From its perch in a spacious brand-new headquarters blocks from the White House, the Cato Institute has built on its reputation as a venerable libertarian research center unafraid to cross party lines. Now, however, a rift with one of its founding members – the billionaire conservative Charles Koch – is threatening the institute’s identity and independence, its leaders say, and is exposing fault lines over Mr. Koch’s aggressive and well-financed brand of Republican politics”: here.

The Koch Brothers Go After Actor Zach Galifianakis and the Film “The Campaign”: here.