Do GOPers Taking Campaign Funds From DeMint Agree With His Extreme Views On Unmarried Women, Gays?
While DeMint’s extreme statements and tea party endorsements have grabbed headlines, less well-known is the fact that two political action committees controlled by DeMint — MINT PAC and the Senate Conservatives Fund — are spending millions of dollars to elect GOP candidates from coast-to-coast. According to OpenSecrets.org and a ThinkProgress review of the most independent expenditure reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, DeMint’s PACs have lavished nearly $2 million on fifteen GOP candidates whose success or failure at the ballot box will determine which party controls the Senate in the 112th Congress. The beneficiaries of his largesse include:
– Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio: $406,250
– Colorado Senate candidate Ken Buck, who famously implored GOP primary voters to choose him over his rival Jane Norton because he “[doesn]’t wear high heels”: $359,654
– Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle, herself a former teacher: $337,903
– Utah Senate candidate Mike Lee: $251,945
– Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller: $180,067
– Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell: $130,326
– Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul: $79,421
– Pennsylvania Senate candidate Pat Toomey: $68,796
– Wisconsin Senate candidate Ron Johnson: $51,858
– Washington Senate candidate Dino Rossi: $37,000
– South Dakota Senate candidate John Thune: $7,500
– North Carolina’s Richard Burr, Georgia’s Johnny Isakson, Ohio’s Rob Portman, and Indiana’s Dan Coats have each received $5,000.