HRC Blog

GOP Mega Donors Bankrolling Right’s 2012 Campaigns

August 7, 2012 by Dan Rafter, Online Campaigns Manager

This cycle, we’re seeing anonymous Republican spending far outmatch similar efforts from Democrats.

Much of that effort on the right is being coordinated by groups like Crossroads, the Faith and Freedom Coalition, and organizations receiving funding from the Koch brothers. These groups are executing campaigns that largely include elevating social issues including marriage equality.

According to the Huffington Post, Faith and Freedom is ready to pour $10 million into activating socially conservative voters in swing states like Pennsylvania, Florida, and Ohio; while a multi-million dollar ad buy against healthcare reform from the Concerned Women for America (CWA) came shortly after the group began receiving financial support from groups tied to the billionaire conservative Koch brothers.

The rhetoric coming from some of the leading individuals associated with these organizations is unmistakable in their anti-LGBT undertones. Faith and Freedom Coalition Executive Director Gary Marx told Huff Po that when President Obama “came out with his convenient and suddenly heartfelt support for gay marriage that sent a strong signal" to religious conservatives.”

The Templeton Foundation, a conservative Philadelphia-based organization, also is involved in the influx of funding. The Templeton family is known to have donated at least $550,000 to the National Organization for Marriage, according to tax filings.

The attempt to infuse massive amounts of funding from a few wealthy mega donors while pushing the message that the funds actually represent a grassroots uprising is nothing new for the far-right- and they’re tactics we see utilized frequently. The campaign to pass Prop 8 in California; NOM’s ongoing efforts to hide their few donors; and the lack of substantive populous support for the effort to ban marriage equality in Minnesota are just the most recent examples.

What makes the money infusion so dangerous this time around is that, for the third month in a row, Republican mega donors have propelled Mitt Romney past President Obama in fundraising.