George Soros Donates $8 Million Dollars to Boost Hillary
The massive check brings to $8 million the Hungarian-born investor's total 2015 giving to pro-Clinton groups. | Getty
George Soros donates $8 million to boost Hillary
The billionaire financier had dialed back his political giving after his failed 2004 effort to oust George W. Bush.
By Kenneth P. Vogel
01/31/16 07:26 PM EST
George Soros in December donated $6 million to the leading super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, marking the return of the billionaire financier as among the biggest givers in all of American politics.
The massive check brings to $8 million the Hungarian-born investor's total 2015 giving to pro-Clinton groups.
The super PAC that received the $6-million check, Priorities USA Action, raised $25 million in the second half of 2015, according to a report it filed Sunday evening with the Federal Election Commission. The haul brings the PAC’s tally to $41 million for the year, and left it with a strong $36 million in the bank headed into the year.
Other major donors in the second half of the year included Hollywood mogul Haim Saban, who combined with his wife Cheryl Saban to donate $3 million, as well as Herb Sandler and Donald Sussman, who donated $1.5 million each. The union-affiliated super PAC Working for Working Americans also donated $1.5 million.
But the donation from Soros ― who in the first half of the year also donated $1 million to Priorities USA and $1 million to another Clinton-backing super PAC, American Bridge 21st Century — stands alone, and not just because of the amount.
Soros is seen as a bellwether among rich Democrats. He is one of the few liberals who has shown a willingness to drop eight-figures in an election cycle, having donated more than $20 million in 2004 to groups that tried to oust then-President George W. Bush. After the failure of that effort, Soros dialed back his big-money political spending.
Despite intense courtship in 2012, Soros gave only $1 million to Priorities USA, which at the time was dedicated to supporting President Obama’s reelection. That year he told a close Clinton ally that he regretted supporting Obama over her in the 2008 primaries and praised Clinton for giving him an open door to discuss policy, according to emails released last month by the State Department.
Priorities USA was among the many super PACs assiduously courting him heading into 2016, and his huge check is sure to be interpreted as an encouraging sign headed into an election cycle in which conservative billionaires are expected to donate more than $1 billion to super PACs and other unlimited money groups.
Read more:
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/hillary-clinton-george-soros-218494#ixzz3yuI8lvsY
