Republican mega-donors, increasingly fed up with their party’s circus-like presidential primary, are sitting on their checkbooks until the nominee is decided.GOP campaigns and super-PACs saw dismal fundraising figures in March. John Kasich’s campaign took in $4.5 million and his supporting super-PAC $2.8 million for the month — numbers Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders’s campaign can beat on a good day.And Ted Cruz isn’t doing much better. After a strong start, the pro-Cruz super-PAC’s income has slowed to a trickle, and his campaign took in just $12.5 million in March — less than half of Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton’s campaign haul and about a quarter of Sanders’s total.Interviews with major Republican donors and fundraisers reveal that many are fed up after early enthusiasm for unsuccessful candidates. Many of these donors spent millions on the super-PACs supporting former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former favorites who dropped out of the race after getting throttled by Donald Trump.[…]
Doug Deason, a multimillionaire Texas businessman whose family spent $5 million supporting Rick Perry and has now thrown $200,000 behind a Cruz super-PAC, said the feeling among his donor friends goes beyond exhaustion.He said many establishment donors believe their money has been wasted this cycle, with the only winners being the high-priced consultants who have gotten rich by charging commissions on ad buys.Donors “are upset about how their money was spent and the bang they got for their buck. … They are suspicious, and rightfully so,” Deason told The Hill.“Somebody should be indicted over Right to Rise,” he added, referring to the super-PAC that spent more than $100 million in a failed attempt to make Bush the Republican nominee.“I would sue them for fraud.
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