Payday Lenders Rally for Romney Super PAC
Restore Our Future, a super PAC supporting Mitt Romney, got a boost in February from an industry that is currently under fire by the Obama administration: payday lenders.
At least seven payday lending companies threw their support - and a cumulative $227,500 - toward Mitt Romney’s super PAC in February, according to the PAC’s latest FEC filings. Meanwhile, the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is increasingly targeting those companies, which offer small, short-term loans secured against a customer’s next pay-check, often with high interest rates, in its oversight of financial institutions.
Romney’s super PAC raised a little less money in February ($6.4 million) than in January ($6.6 million). But February’s total is largely due to one large donation of $3 million from Texas homebuilder Bob Perry, which made up almost half of the super PAC’s income.
Restore Our Future spent less in February ($12.2 million) than in January ($13.9 million) and came into March with $10.4 million in the bank.
The FEC filing lists three locations under “fundraising event” expenditures, including The Beverly Hills Hotel, The Boston Park Plaza and Carmine’s Restaurant in Washington DC.