From the liberal largesse of George Soros to the big-spending ways of Republican financiers like Sheldon Adelson, the 2012 U.S. presidential election is being shaped almost as much by billionaire backers as by the voters and candidates themselves. America's permissive campaign finance laws give these political sugar daddies unique clout (thanks a lot, Citizens United), but it's not a purely American phenomenon. When it comes to behind-the-scenes moneymen, it's a global bull market.
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MICHAEL ASHCROFT
Countries:
Britain, Belize, Australia
Cause:
Conservative political parties
A longtime entrepreneur and self-made billionaire who divides his time between Britain and Belize, where he was raised, Lord Ashcroft has been one of the Conservative Party's largest individual donors since the 1980s and is credited with keeping the party's finances afloat during the rough post-Thatcher years. A member of the House of Lords, he has bankrolled Tory campaigns in dozens of closely contested constituencies to the tune of some $15 million, helping David Cameron attain the premiership in 2010. Ashcroft, who stepped down as the Tories' deputy chairman in the months after the elections, when he was accused of avoiding millions of pounds in British taxes on foreign income, says his donations have been motivated by his support for the "Tory principles of free markets and personal liberty." His political advocacy has not been limited to the British Isles. He also reportedly donated more than $1 million to the People's United Party in Belize, though the party denies it, while banks he owns in the country have faced allegations of money laundering. And in 2004, he donated at least $750,000 to Australia's Liberal Party (which is conservative, down under), its largest individual gift at the time.
SUBJECTS:
