Because the first announcement of the greatest present in Yale’s history in October, the $ 250 million that will propel two new residential colleges toward building have received far a lot more publicity than the man who presented them, Charles Johnson ’54. Johnson has stored a low profile at the University, creating no notable public appearance at the inauguration of University President Peter Salovey this fall and declining interviews about his gift.
Johnson has extended maintained a similarly reduced profile in one more realm exactly where he workout routines important influence — politics. Johnson is one particular of the largest political spenders in the country.
Above the previous 15 many years, Johnson has poured practically $ 900,000 into the American political sphere, according to the Federal Election Commission and the Center for Responsive Politics. Due to laws that do not call for particular groups to disclose their donors, the actual total quantity given by Johnson to political organizations could be far greater. His recorded contributions have been almost solely to Republican candidates and organizations.
Despite the fact that seemingly paltry when in contrast to his current $ 250 million present, Johnson’s political contributions spot him in the prime echelons of American political donors. As a former chairman of Franklin Assets, very best recognized as the $ 840 billion Franklin Templeton mutual fund, Johnson’s net really worth stands at $ 5.six billion, in accordance to Forbes.
More than the previous three months, Johnson has not responded to the News’ requests for comment, and he has not created any political statements that can be located on public record.
Despite just lately relocating his major residence to Florida, Johnson has invested most of the previous decade residing in California, a state dominated by Democrats. In San Mateo County, the place Johnson lived until finally just lately, Republicans comprise 19 % of registered voters, said Ellen Mernick, the executive director of the county’s Republican committee.
“A whole lot of the Republicans here [in California] are on the quiet side,” Mernick stated. She further mentioned she could not comment on Johnson’s role in the neighborhood political scene, beyond the reality that he did not interact with the local committee.
Despite the subdued presence of Republicans in California, the affect of Johnson’s political allegiance has been far from quiet. The 80-12 months old has played a main position in bringing in contributions from other wealthy folks to national conservative brings about in the previous many election cycles.
In May 2012, Johnson and his wife Ann hosted a fundraiser for then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney at their house in Hillsborough, Calif. — a 98-space, 65,000-square-foot mansion. Tickets for the occasion, which incorporated a dinner with Romney, ran as higher as $ 50,000 each and every.
The Romney event was held in addition to significant spending by Johnson himself in the 2012 election cycle. Johnson gave at least $ 250,000 to Republican brings about that yr, according to the FEC.
And although he has given extensively to candidates — such as U.S. Residence of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Tea Party-backed Arizona Representative Ben Quayle, who lost his seat in November 2012 — Johnson has mainly channeled his considerable wealth toward events and political action committees. Although political candidates are bound by donation limits of usually $ 2,600, the latter two categories do not face this kind of stringent limits. Under the ruling of the 2010 Supreme Court situation Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, PACs can accept unlimited donations from companies, unions and individuals.
In 2012, Johnson gave $ 200,000 to American Crossroads, a PAC founded by Karl Rove, a former adviser to U.S. President George W. Bush ’68. He gave an extra $ 50,000 to Restore our Long term, the PAC closely linked with Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. The groups have been two of the biggest spenders in the 2012 cycle, with American Crossroads and a sister group investing more than $ 176 million.
Each American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS did not respond to requests for comment.
The 2012 donations from Johnson — who is described on the Yale Class of 1954’s site as the class’s “only billionaire” — are just the continuation of a long-standing pattern.
In 2008, Johnson gave a recorded total of $ 239,900, making him the 34th biggest political donor in the country, in accordance to the Center for Responsive Politics. In 2010, Johnson when yet again stood at 34th with a similarly large total. In each cycles, almost all of Johnson’s offering went to Republican candidates and groups.
Johnson has presently place significant funds into the approaching 2014 election cycle. With $ 130,000 already spent, Johnson is presently the 51st greatest donor for the cycle.
However Johnson’s publicly disclosed gifts could be only the tip of the iceberg. Organizations that are registered as 501(c)(4) non-income are allowed to redact the names of their donors in publicly filed forms, effectively enabling for limitless, anonymous contributions. In current many years, a slew of politically affiliated groups have filed as this kind of non-income, top in part to a huge boost in non-campaign investing and marked lessen in the disclosure of donors in the course of the previous four election cycles in the nation.
American Crossroads, the group to which Johnson gave $ 200,000 in 2012, has a sister 501(c)(4) known as Crossroads Grassroots Policy Technique. Robert Maguire, a spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, said it is impossible to know exactly how many of American Crossroad’s donors give to Crossroads GPS.
“My educated guess is that it is most likely quite frequent for some of the greater donors to give to both the super PAC and the 501(c),” Maguire explained, attributing some of Crossroads GPS’ substantial revenues — which outpaced the super PAC’s — to the lack of disclosure needs.
Johnson’s political involvement stands in contrast to that of other folks affiliated with Yale. Although the University itself produced no political contributions, Yale-employed folks gave $ 573,000 during the 2012 election cycle — and of that, $ 481,000 went to person candidates, with only 3.7 % of individuals money going to Republicans. In the last cycle, U.S. President Barack Obama, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy and Connecticut Representative Elizabeth Esty pulled in the most disclosed contributions from members of the Yale local community.
Despite the magnitude of his donation figures, Johnson’s nationwide political influence remains relatively unknown on campus. Elizabeth Henry ’14, president of Yale Republicans, stated Johnson has had no interaction with the campus group, and that she was unaware of his status as a key political donor.
Of ten other college students interviewed — which includes some who are politically lively at Yale and beyond — all said they had been similarly unaware.
Yale donor is among nation’s top political contributors
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