Some of the biggest Republican donors, who collectively have contributed tens of millions of dollars to shape the presidential race, are tightening their purse strings out of frustration with their inability to boost their favored candidates, or to slow Donald Trump.
Rather than continuing to write huge checks to support the cluster of establishment candidates jockeying to emerge as the leading alternative to Trump, a billionaire real estate showman roundly despised by the GOP elite, these donors have mostly retreated to the sidelines. They’re watching anxiously, hoping that the field sorts itself out, according to interviews with a half dozen major donors or their representatives.
Many of the donors are urging the deep-pocketed groups they’ve already funded to begin spending against Trump, even as some recognize the potential for such spending to backfire, and are increasingly questioning the efficacy of big-money advertising campaigns more generally.
“It’s unbelievable. I mean Jeb Bush spent $42 million in New Hampshire ? what did he get for it?” said billionaire GOP mega-donor Stan Hubbard, a Minnesota media mogul. “It’s frustrating.” ...
[ ... ]
GOP mega-donor Stan Hubbard: “It could help Trump. It helps him say 'The establishment is against me. They’re out to get poor me. I’m the victim.'”
Far from saying 'poor me,' Trump has been laughing at their frustration and rubbing their noses in it. Of course to the Lefty hacks at Politico these fanatical open-borders fat cats are simply public spirited GOP "centrists."
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/gop-megadonors-fundraising-freeze-219228
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