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A mysterious firm that gave $400,000 to help elect Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has direct ties to a married couple who already are among Romney's top Florida fundraisers, The Associated Press has learned.
The $400,000 contribution from SeaSpray Partners LLC to a "super" political committee, Restore Our Future, is at the center of a new flare-up over loosened federal rules that effectively permit anonymous and unlimited contributions to influence the presidential election.
The revelations about the $400,000 donation - and the super PAC's reluctance to identify such wealthy supporters - illustrate the loosened rules overseeing the federal campaign finance system in the wake of a series of court rulings in recent years.
Those rulings, including the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United case, have turned back laws that were intended to shine a light on who was paying for elections - and put limits on how much they can donate - in the wake of the Watergate fundraising scandal of the 1970s.
In the current campaign, most donors identify themselves, but in some cases corporate donors are able to disguise their names using limited liability partnerships.
"We've disclosed all the information that the FEC required," said Carl Forti, the super PAC's founder and chief strategist, said last week after his group first posted the mystery $400,000 donation.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/apr/23/romney-backers-tied-to-mysterious-400k-donation/
