Recently announced presidential candidate and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is not widely considered likely to win the 2016 election or even win the Republican party’s 2016 nomination. But those Americans who are high on Cruz are also apparently very wealthy and very willing to give their wealth away: According to Bloomberg, three super PACs affiliated with Cruz and formed this week are expected to collect $31 million by Friday, more than has ever been raised by similar groups for a single candidate in such a short time period. (Coordination between super PACs and specific candidates is ostensibly illegal, but in practice the prohibitions against it are easily circumvented.) From Bloomberg:
From his time as a Senate candidate in 2012, Cruz has been one of the country’s most aggressive and successful super-PAC fundraisers. His political team has calculated from the start of their planning for a presidential campaign that his overall operation would be able to keep pace with rivals in part because of a robust super-PAC operation. They have talked among themselves about the names of numerous wealthy Cruz backers who they fully expect will contribute several million dollars each.
There’s an important caveat in Bloomberg’s story, though:
Cash figures could not be independently confirmed by Bloomberg, and sources declined to provide financial documents to support the claim.
Also, this is funny:
The PAC names are “Keep the Promise,” “Keep the Promise II,” and “Keep the Promise III.”
Whatever “the promise” is, it apparently doesn’t involve an emphasis on creativity.
