GOP’s Mitt Romney Raising Huge Money In Greenwich – Second Ranked ZIP Code In USA

Tiny Connecticut is not a big factor in the Electoral College, but the state has become a national player for Republican Mitt Romney as he collects money to fuel his campaign in the critical battleground states.

While Romney is fighting fiercely for the presidency in Ohio, some of the money to pay for those TV commercials is coming from Connecticut.

Well-heeled Republican donors from Greenwich and New Canaan have been writing checks at a steady pace that not only go directly to the Romney campaign but also to the Republican National Committee and a pro-Romney Super PAC.

Although Connecticut has been written off politically as a “blue’’ state for President Barack Obama, Romney supporters continue to collect money here for Restore Our Future, a pro-Romney Super PAC that collects unlimited contributions from some of the wealthiest voters in the nation.

In lower Fairfield County alone, four individuals have combined to contribute more than $2.5 million to the Super PAC, which pays largely for commercials. Nationally, the Super PAC had raised $111 million as of September 30, while the Romney campaign has directly raised more than $450 million nationwide.

Among more than 40,000 ZIP codes across the country, Greenwich ranks second – after Manhattan’s Upper East Side – for the most money raised directly for Romney. New Canaan ranks fourth, while a second Greenwich ZIP code – where the median home sells for $2 million in a weak market – ranks ninth in the nation.

Many of the contributors are hedge-fund kingpins and financial executives who are not well known to the general public, but others are more prominent. The best-known in Connecticut are Linda and Vince McMahon, the Greenwich wrestling entrepreneurs who contributed a combined $150,000 to the Romney Super PAC, according to public records. McMahon, who is running for the U.S. Senate, has been criticized lately for a campaign commercial touting independent voters who will support Obama and her. But she is placing her money on Romney.

The Romney campaign readily admits that the Connecticut donors are funding a chunk of their operations around the country. During a recent fundraiser at a country club in Darien, vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan told the donors that their money is being used far beyond Connecticut’s borders.

“Thank you so much for all you have done,’’ Ryan said at the Woodway Country Club near the Merritt Parkway. “You don’t see what’s going on [in the battleground states] on TV, living here in Darien. But please know that the resources you’re providing us gives us the ability’’ to broadcast the commercials.

While the McMahons are the most prominent contributors on the Super PAC list from Connecticut, they are not the highest donors. Two wealthy financial investors – Chris Shumway of Greenwich and William Laverack, Jr. of New Canaan – both contributed $750,000 each to the SuperPac. Shumway, 46, is a veteran hedge fund manager who runs an investment firm bears his name. He was listed by Fortune Magazine as a member of Romney’s 19-member economic advisory panel, which includes five former chairs of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. He lives in the same neighborhood that served as the longtime home for the late Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets.

Laverack, 55, now operates his own investment firm after working previously for Morgan Stanley and Morgan Guaranty Trust Company. He holds a bachelor’s degree and an M.B.A. from Harvard. Besides contributing $750,000 in his own name, Laverack is connected to Paumanok Partners LLC, a New Canaan company that contributed another $250,000 to the Romney Super PAC.

In a recent development outside the Romney campaign, Greenwich billionaire Thomas Peterffy is pouring as much as $10 million into commercials nationwide to tell how he escaped communist Hungary and wants to avoid the economic damages of socialism. He is also spending more than $38,000 in an attempt to defeat Democratic state Sen. Steve Cassano, who won by only 66 votes in 2010 in a swing district. Peterffy is trying to shift control to the Republicans in the state Senate and has contributed more than $25,000 to defeat incumbent Democratic Sen. Andrew Maynard of Stonington.

On the Democratic side, Obama has outraised Romney in “blue’’ states like New York and California, but he is trailing in Connecticut. Obama had more than twice as many contributors as Romney in Connecticut, but the Romney supporters gave more than twice as much money at an average of more than $1,300 each. Overall, the campaigns had received more than $7.6 million as of August 31 in direct contributions from individuals – not counting the Super PACs. The numbers change daily as the money pours in, but the snapshot as of August 31 showed that Greenwich had contributed more money than any Connecticut town and accounted for about 25 percent of the entire state total.

Obama actually raised more money than Romney in about 80 percent of the ZIP codes across the state, but the huge margins in Greenwich and New Canaan helped outflank the other towns.

While contributors in two different Greenwich ZIP codes have raised more than $1 million each for Romney, the rest of the state is a different story. The 06112 ZIP code in Hartford’s North End did not raise a single penny for Romney, while contributing slightly more than $1,000 to Obama as of August 31. Two relatively affluent Hartford suburbs – Simsbury and Avon – were nowhere close to the Greenwich totals with $65,000 and $54,000 raised for Romney, respectively.

Democratic political operative Matt Hennessy said that the Democrats have sharply increased their fundraising, which was slowed because some Democrats were philosophically opposed to the ruling in the Citizens United case by the Supreme Court that opened the floodgates to unlimited contributions and the creation of the Super Pacs.

“The tenor and tone has changed,’’ Hennessy said. “The big, big Democratic donors have gotten over their problems with Super PACs. There’s been a surge of Democratic money. The sense of urgency kicked in in the last 45 days.’’
The Democrats in Connecticut, though, are not close to the gigantic donations by the Republicans. The main Super PAC that is supporting Obama – Priorities USA Action Committee – has Connecticut donors that include longtime Democratic contributor James Burke Kingston of Simsbury and Harvard University fellow Benjamin Heineman of New Canaan.

Former state Republican chairman Chris Healy, a longtime fundraiser and political operative, said the TV stations in the swing states are reaping a bonanza with the ads that will not stop until November 6.

“We don’t see any Romney or Obama ads,’’ Healy said of Connecticut. “We’re one of the 35 fly-over states. A lot of the money is being spent at seven or eight states at the most. The president and Romney are going to be in Florida, Ohio, Colorado, New Hampshire. That’s where it always is. Their air-time is at a premium, so they can charge higher rates.’’

With the landmark United States Supreme Court ruling that opened the floodgates, Super PACs have exploded this year and have sharply changed the political landscape in the presidential race. With longtime regulations removed from campaign financing, Greenwich – and Fairfield County in general – has exploded in campaign cash.

With no limitations on contributions, some of the richest moguls in the nation have made six-figure contributions that would have been unheard of – and illegal – only a few years ago. Stephen Zide, an executive at the Bain Capital investment firm that Romney founded, contributed $500,000 in two installments, according to public records.
State Sen. L. Scott Frantz – the state’s top Republican fundraiser – gave $300,000 to the Super PAC in three installments, and he raised another $1.5 million for Romney in a single day at a party that attracted 500 people to his waterfront home in Greenwich’s Riverside section. Hedge fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones contributed $200,000.

Those contributing at least $100,000 from Greenwich include 84-year-old Thomas W. Smith, the co-founder of Prescott Investors, Inc. and the owner of two other homes on Fifth Avenue and in Palm Beach, Fla. that are worth $10 million each. Other $100,000 contributors are Mark Stitzer, 52, of Hamlin Capital Management and Credit Suisse investment bank CEO Eric Varvel, who is a Mormon like Romney. Longtime fundraiser Donald K. Miller contributed at least $75,000 to the Super PAC, while former deputy assistant Secretary of Defense Steven Price donated $50,000.

Other major contributors included Thomas McInerney of Westport ($40,000); Thomas Mulroy of New Canaan ($25,000), and Direct TV CEO Michael White of Norwalk ($20,000). Others included former J.P. Morgan Chase chairman William B. Harrison, Jr. of Greenwich and Blythe, Inc. candlemaker Robert R. Goergen of Greenwich.

While the overall numbers are gigantic nationwide, Healy issues a reminder that the money must be targeted properly and spent wisely – along with actually getting voters to the polls on November 6.

“You can have lots of resources. The difference is how you manage them and how you spend them,’’ Healy said. ‘’You can’t just write a fat check and buy a lot of ads. That’s the sort of fine art of this. Right now, you need to make sure that you have enough people in the states that matter. No television ad forces someone to put a coat on and go down to a polling station.’’