Mitt Romney’s biggest donor group: Goldman Sachs, of course, with $426K in 2011 | Death and Taxes

Mitt Romney’s biggest donor group: Goldman Sachs, of course, with $426K in 2011 | Death and Taxes:

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Mitt Romney’s biggest donor group: Goldman Sachs, of course, with $426K in 2011

By DJ Pangburn 1 day ago

According to a review of campaign records by the Associated Press, Mitt Romney’s largest group of bundled donors in 2011 were, not surprisingly, Goldman Sachs employees. Bundling, of course, is the campaign finance practice of inviting rich donors to private candidate events for the express purpose of raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in one night.

“Romney’s largest source of donations is employees at Goldman Sachs, the New York based investment and securities firm. More than $426,000 flowed into the Romney campaign in 2011 from individuals who identified themselves as Goldman Sachs managers or employees,” states the Associated Press. “[A]nd the Romney campaign has listed several senior or former Goldman Sachs executives as lead fundraisers of its campaign events, including John Whitehead, the firm’s former chairman.”

The AP review also notes:

One top Goldman Sachs fundraiser is Muneer Satter of Chicago, a managing partner who heads the firm’s Mezzanine Group. Satter was a co-chairman of Romney’s national finance committee during his unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid. Satter was a lead fundraiser for at least two events for Romney in 2011, one in New York in December and another in Chicago in May, and gave $195,000 to the super PAC supporting Romney. Satter did not return several telephone messages from the AP.

Although Goldman employees’ total contribution to Romney is impressive, there is no doubt that the firm, ever the crafty investor, is far more into political hedging. Both parties are eminently corruptible, as evidenced by Goldman’s $994,795 in donations to the 2008 Barack Obama campaign.

What did they get from Obama? Goldman’s sacrificial lamb, Fabrice Tourre, was convicted of securities fraud, which gave Obama at least something to show angry Americans after the sub-prime mortgage disaster. Former Goldman Sachs board member Rajat Gupta is set to go to trial for insider trading chargegs unrelated to the sub-prime mortgage securities, while the architects of the sub-prime mortgage fraud, Michael Swenson and Josh Birnbaum, made $4 billion out of the shitstorm and remain free.

To put the Goldman-Romney figure in some perspective, one must consider that the investment bank’s employees bundled $426,000 during 2011 when no less than 12 candidates were active (a handful of which could be taken seriously). Romney, of course, was always the most rational choice—the best electoral hedge, so to speak, even when one considers Santorum’s 2012 momentum.

If Romney secures the nomination—and there is no reason to believe won’t—that $426,000 figure will be chump change. And whatever sum ultimately finds its way into Romney’s coffers, one can be certain that Goldman Sachs employees will donate a similar amount to Obama.

One might say this simply represents the firm’s split political ideologies as a mirror of America’s own. To an extent, this is true. However, donating $1 million+ to both the presumptive GOP candidate and Obama is a smart business move for Goldman Sachs.