Posted on 08/01/2015 10:16:05 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
PITTSBURGH — Republican rivals are trying desperately to dent Donald Trump, as he leads in polls, dominates media coverage, and builds a campaign organization using his personal wealth.
Not long ago, they came to him with hats in hand.
Internal memos obtained by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and public filings, show that officials courted the celebrity magnate for years, seeking and receiving ever-increasing donations, especially to GOP-related organizations trying to elect more governors and senators.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who recently criticized Mr. Trump, was notably successful at convincing the developer and beauty pageant owner to write checks.
Now Mr. Trump is at the head of a Republican presidential field that includes eight current or former governors and four current or former senators, with the first televised debate scheduled for Thursday.
That scenario — political sugar daddy turning into nemesis — is both fairly novel and likely uncomfortable, according to Robert Mutch, author of last year’s Buying the Vote: A History of Campaign Finance Reform.
“What’s going on is certainly something new and a little disturbing,” Mr. Mutch said Friday. “The Republicans always had a pretty strict division of labor. The rich guys gave the money. The party selected the candidates and ran the campaigns.”
Mr. Christie proved his fund-raising prowess last year when he was head of the Republican Governors Association, which swept in $94 million and spent $140 million on its way to raising the number of states headed by GOP executives to 31. Mr. Trump gave $250,000 to the RGA during Mr. Christie’s one-year tenure.
That courtship of Mr. Trump has roots going back to 2010, during Mr. Christie’s first year as governor, and thus as a member of the RGA team.
A September, 2010, note in a Republican fund-raiser’s files suggests that Mr. Trump “can write a huge check if he’s so inclined. Try for the biggest amount possible and ask if he might host an event for the RGA.”
The RGA’s related memo to Mr. Christie read: “Please ask for $50,000 to renew his membership with the RGA’s Executive Roundtable program. The Executive Roundtable has over 500 members so far who believe in the conservative ideals of keeping taxes low and keeping the free enterprise system intact.”
Even a $25,000 contribution, the fund-raiser wrote, would allow Mr. Trump to participate in a dinner at the Four Seasons in New York with Mr. Christie, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, and Tom Corbett, who was then Pennsylvania’s attorney general. He’d also get to attend the Executive Roundtable’s fall meeting in New York that October.
A note written around a week after the first, though, suggested that Mr. Trump had his limits. “Chris spoke to [Trump] and he wants to write a check and collect checks [doesn’t want to host an event],” the fund-raiser noted.
Mr. Trump came through with a $50,000 donation to the RGA on Sept. 29, 2010, according to the contribution database of the Center for Responsive Politics.
On Sept. 30, 2010, an RGA fund-raiser instructed Mr. Corbett, a gubernatorial candidate at the time, to call Mr. Trump, use the salutation “Donald” and ask him for $25,000.
“You recognize that he has made a recent contribution to the RGA for Governor Christie — would he consider an additional $25,000 for a total of $75,000 this year — your same level as last year?” the fund-raiser wrote to Mr. Corbett. The suggested pitch: “Like Chris, I have my own fund-raising goal with the RGA and your additional contribution of $25,000 will help me personally.”
Mr. Trump gave the organization $20,000 on Oct. 19 of that year, and another $25,000 on Nov. 9, according to the Center for Responsive Politics database.
Neither Mr. Trump’s campaign nor a spokesman for former Governor Corbett responded to repeated requests for comment made Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. Mr. Christie’s campaign referred questions to the RGA’s spokesman, Jon Thompson, who did not respond to email or voice mail inquiries.
Mr. Trump gave the RGA $100,000 in 2012 and again in 2013, then $250,000 in March, according to the organization’s disclosures to the IRS.
Mr. Christie had seemed reticent to criticize Mr. Trump. On Tuesday, though, the governor told CNBC that Mr. Trump’s idea that the United States could get the Mexican government to pay for a wall at the border “hurts the credibility of the presidency. You have to have some experience in [the] actual difficulty of governing … You need to understand how you have to work with other people, how if you disagree with someone, you can’t just fire them. ... I don’t think it’s in the best interests of your party to have someone who I don’t think would be an effective president to be the nominee.”
The RGA, under Mr. Christie, was the biggest recipient of Mr. Trump’s federal political giving, but not the only one.
Next up, during the 2013-14 political cycle, were the the Republican National Committee, to which the businessman donated $74,800; Super PAC Kentuckians for Strong Leadership, which backs Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, $60,000; the National Republican Senatorial Committee, $64,800; and the Republican Party of South Carolina, $10,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Last month, after Mr. Trump said that Arizona Sen. John McCain, a prisoner of war in Vietnam, was “not a war hero,” several other presidential candidates and other Republican notables rebuked him. Mr. McConnell was one of the more circumspect, saying publicly, “John McCain is a hero,” but declining to criticize Mr. Trump.
Eight of Mr. Trump’s rivals for the nomination are current or former governors. They are Mr. Christie, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Jeb Bush of Florida, Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, John Kasich of Ohio, Rick Perry of Texas, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, and George Pataki of New York.
“I guess they’ve got to tread softly. They do owe him a lot. A lot of them have obligations to him,” said Frank Askin, director of the Constitutional Rights Clinic at Rutgers law school and an election law professor. “They’re afraid of his money.”
Didn’t he also give the Clintons money?
Most ALL of his rivals OWE him.
LOLOLOL.
Does Mr. Trump do business in NY where she was unfortunately a US Senator?
Has he freely stated that he has given the Clinton’s donations and freely given donations to other democrats, too?
Has he stated that “politics is the “Art of the Deal?” i.e. “buying politicians?”
Pols are bought cheap because they come begging. Ask Senator Graham, to name just one.
Trump: “I’ll bet you can squeal like a pig. Weeeee!”
Krispie Kreme: “Weeeee!”
Trump: “Weeeee.”
Krispie: “Weeeee!”
LOLOLOLOL.
Trump is all hat and no cattle.
Now read the article.
That is such a specious argument. A U.S. Senator has no say in what goes on in the state. Plus, Trump had been working in the state 25+ years by the time she was a senator.
Which means Trump has cell phone numbers of all his opponents hahahaha He makes a habit of writing them down on a card.
This is the most hilarious and fun election in my adult years since 1960’s.
Most ALL of his rivals OWE him.
Aggressive panhandling politicians. ;^)
We found a poster who thinks a US senator has no influence in his/her state! hahahaha...
So who do the senators represent if not their state?
And who do the people and local politicians run to when they want something done in Washington DC? Who gets federal funds for state projects?
Ding Ding Ding...we have a winner!
EXACTLY SO!
They’re ALL such a bunch a retard frauds, I can’t stand them!
I hope (and would not be surprised) to learn if it comes out that Mr. Trump has all them on tape!!!
That is, should they be so stupid as to deny Mr. Trump’s claims.
BRING IT ON!!!!
“What’s going on is certainly something new and a little disturbing,” Mr. Mutch said Friday. “The Republicans always had a pretty strict division of labor. The rich guys gave the money. The party selected the candidates and ran the campaigns.”
And there it is. Elites are disturbed the status quo has been broken by Trump.
They have all been exposed for the beggars that they are. It’s actually sickening that he was good enough to write them checks, but not good enough to take them on head-to-head. What a bunch of cow dungs! Should he not win the nomination, I bet Trump will shut off the spigot. I know I would.
“The day that Senator Ted Cruz knocks Mr. Trump, is the same day that I “might” take Nick seriously.”
BINGO. You win the door prize.
I’m sure he gave Clintons money.
This article is quite a shock, giving money to Republicans.
I’m sure he only gives money to Democrats.
If you can't figure it out that giving money to all politicians, of both sides is SOP for big business men, do a little more thinking.
Do you know if anyone has a Trump ping list?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.