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Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz and his allies are moving aggressively to court the super-wealthy donors disenchanted with GOP front-runner Donald Trump. Jack Gruber, USA TODAY
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz speaks at a recent rally in Lebanon, Ind.(Photo: Jenna Watson, AP)
WASHINGTON – Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz and his allies are<span style="color: Red;">*</span>moving aggressively to court the super-wealthy donors disenchanted with GOP front-runner Donald Trump, but a USA TODAY analysis shows the tough challenge the Texas senator has faced<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in wooing the party’s moneyed elite.
Only 16<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of the more than 720 organizations and individuals who contributed $10,000 or more to a pro-Mitt Romney super PAC four years ago have donated money to the array of super PACs pushing Cruz’s candidacy this year, a USA TODAY examination of newly filed campaign-finance reports finds. Another 12<span style="color: Red;">*</span>have donated to super PACs supporting Ohio John Kasich’s bid for the GOP nomination.
In the Senate and on the stump, Cruz repeatedly rails against the "Washington cartel" and has clashed publicly with his party’s leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. His rivals for the presidency have attacked him repeatedly, saying he lacks the temperament to build coalitions and work with Congress.
“Ted Cruz has so firmly established his brand as an outsider in the Senate, that he’s having a hard time turning that brand into one that’s acceptable to traditional Republican donors and to general election voters,” said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Cruz’s home state of Texas.
Idaho businessman Frank VanderSloot, who donated more than $1 million to the Restore our Future super PAC in 2012 to help Romney, said he’s dismayed by the top two candidates remaining in the Republican field and isn’t rushing to help either of them.
He called Cruz too “arrogant” for the White House.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> “I like where he stands,” VanderSloot said of Cruz’s conservative positions. “I just don’t like how he stands there:<span style="color: Red;">*</span>pompous, holier-than-thou, no one is conservative enough.”
“We had so many great candidates when we started and to end up literally with the two worst ones as our only choices just seems bizarre to me,” he said. VanderSloot, who backed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s unsuccessful presidential bid, said he’s now hoping for a brokered Republican National Convention in Cleveland where a third candidate can emerge.
Cruz campaign aides declined comment.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Trusted Leadership, the main fundraising arm for the super PACs supporting Cruz, recently<span style="color: Red;">*</span>gathered<span style="color: Red;">*</span>with<span style="color: Red;">*</span>donors in Las Vegas. The group’s spokeswoman Kristina Hernandez declined to discuss fundraising.
Trump had<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the lead among delegates as the Republican race headed into a round of East Coast<span style="color: Red;">*</span>contests Tuesday.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>But Cruz’s team has<span style="color: Red;">*</span>proved adept at mastering the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>arcane, behind-the-scenes battles for convention delegates who will be key if Trump does not lock up the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination before the convention opens in July.
The GOP race <span style="color: Red;">*</span>remains<span style="color: Red;">*</span>so unsettled that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Cruz and Kasich on Sunday night announced they had formed an unusual alliance aimed at<span style="color: Red;">*</span>thwarting Trump in upcoming contests in Indiana, Oregon and New<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Mexico.
Cruz’s slow start with many<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Republican donors doesn’t mean Team Cruz is short of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>money.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>A cluster of wealthy donors, including New York hedge-fund<span style="color: Red;">*</span>manager Robert Mercer and Texas energy billionaires Farris and Dan Wilks, have<span style="color: Red;">*</span>pumped millions into a family of super PACs supporting Cruz. Mercer’s investment alone has<span style="color: Red;">*</span>topped<span style="color: Red;">*</span>$13.5 million.
At the end of March, one pro-Cruz super PAC, Keep the Promise II, still had nearly $9 million in unspent cash in its bank account.
Super PACs, however, are barred from coordinating their advertising spending with candidates, and party nominees still must draw in the support of the well-connected fundraisers who can help raise the hundreds of millions in donations the party nominees need<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to fund their own advertising, staff, travel and other campaign infrastructure.
Both Cruz and Trump "have<span style="color: Red;">*</span>got a lot of catching up to do around here," Frank Donatelli, a veteran Republican activist, said of their<span style="color: Red;">*</span>standing with longtime donors. Donatelli, who backed Rubio and now is neutral in the GOP race,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>coordinated the Republican National Committee's fundraising with the McCain-Palin presidential ticket in 2008.
"It's important that the campaigns have money," he said. "They can't just shovel it all out to the super PACs. It's always better that the candidate can do their own advertising because they can control that message."
USA TODAY's analysis examined donations to super PACs aligned with Kasich and Cruz<span style="color: Red;">*</span>through the end of March, the period covered by the most recent public filings with the Federal Election Commission. Trump, who has poured $36 million of his own money into his campaign through the end of March, has disavowed several super PACs that claimed to raise money to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>support his campaign. Only one of the Romney super PAC's big donors, Texas banker Andy Beal,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>shows up as a contributor to a pro-Trump super PAC.
Another of the Romney super PAC donors, Oklahoma oil billionaire Harold Hamm, endorsed Trump last week
Support for Cruz has begun to pick up in April. Anthony Gioia, a Republican fundraiser who served as U.S. ambassador to Malta in President George W. Bush’s administration, said he recently signed on to help Cruz raise funds.
“It’s a relative choice. Compared to Donald Trump, this isn’t even close,” said Gioia, a retired Buffalo, N.Y., businessman who initially supported Rubio.
“I’ve heard all the rumors about Sen. Cruz being sometimes not likable, but the times I’ve met him, I’ve been very impressed,” Gioia said. “He seemed like a really nice guy. In addition, no one has ever said anything about his intellect He’s a brilliant guy.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>He will do the right thing.
"The way he’s running his campaign shows a tremendous amount of skills and knowledge of the process.”
USA TODAY
Trump, favored in five states Tuesday, now faces Cruz-Kasich alliance
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