Reports filed with the
Federal Election Commission on Sunday showed that wealthy donors who according to
The New York Times have built a powerful shadow Republican Party of outside groups, are splitting into two mutually hostile and deep-pocketed factions in support of Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.
The report shows that many of the Wall Street financiers who have been the backbones of Republican super PACs in the last six years believe that Sen. Marco Rubio is the best GOP candidate to win a general election battle against front-runner Hillary Clinton. In the last six months, a super PAC for Rubio has raised $14.3 million, including $2.5 million each from the hedge fund founders Paul Singer and Ken Griffin.
And while the super PAC successfully attracted significant support from donors who previously backed Jeb Bush — Chris Cline, a coal executive, and Brian Ballard, a prominent Florida lobbyist — they weren't successful in avoiding the release of a new counter-establishment of conservative donors whose favorite candidate is Sen. Ted Cruz.
The New York Times reports the counter-establishment includes some donors who are outside "the universe of traditional Republican giving" and include "wealthy evangelicals, libertarian businessmen, Israel hawks and others disenchanted by the party's past nominees, and are drawn to Mr. Cruz's uncompromising social conservatism and his promise to disrupt the party's traditional power brokers in Washington."
New Cruz backers include:
- Wilks family of Texas, noticeable donors to anti-abortion groups;
- Edward Czuker, a Los Angeles real estate developer and board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition;
- Richard Uihlein, Illinois businessman who gave $1 million to a pro-Cruz super PAC in January.
"I think we're rewriting history," said Mica Mosbacher, a longtime Republican fundraiser who decided to back Cruz because she was tired of the party nominating "moderates and career politicians," The New York Times reports
"We've got a civil war within the party," Mosbacher added. "And people want someone who is strong."
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