According article in the latest issue of The New Republic (subscription required) the “eccentric Republican billionaire” Foster Friess will, “for sure,” spend some money in Montana this election cycle.
Friess, now of Jackson, Wyo., made a fortune managing a multi-billion-dollar mutual fund. Now retired, Friess is a prominent financier of conservative causes and he’s GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum’s biggest financial backer. According to the The New Republic Friess has pumped $331,000 of the $730,000 raised by Santorum’s Super PAC, the Red White and Blue Fund and is responsible for a third of the $150,000 raised by Leaders for Families, another Santorum Super PAC.
According to The New Republic’s Molly Redden :
Rich eccentrics are nothing new in politics. But, thanks to the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling and the unlimited Super PAC donations it allows, these eccentrics can now sustain campaigns that would have otherwise dropped out of view long ago. Newt Gingrich has Las Vegas magnate Sheldon Adelson; Ron Paul has PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel; Santorum has Friess. And, no matter what ultimately happens in the GOP presidential primaries, Friess is already beginning to contemplate which races he might be able to influence next.
One of those races is likely to be Montana’s very own U.S. Senate race between Democratic incumbent Jon Tester and Republican challenger U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg.
Redden reports:
…Friess is hoping to haven an even bigger impact on several crucial races for the fall. He told me he plans "for sure" to give to eight or ten key Senate races. His favored candidates include Denny Rehberg, who is currently locked in a virtual tie with Montana's vulnerable Democratic senator, Jon Tester; Josh Mandel, who is challenging liberal Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown; and Dan Liljenuist, a far-right primary challenger to Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah. In all three races, a large cash infusion could make a big difference.
If Foster Friess’ name sounds familiar, it’s probably because of the headlines he generated last week when he weighed into the debate over contraception in an interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell:
This is just the same song, thousandth verse: MEN---white,privileged, wealthy--controlling govt. with the help of the new RIGHT Activist Supreme Court. They want less govt. because that is the ONLY entity that has the power to control them! And...Mr. Friess thinks women's issues are beneath him to discuss or consider.
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