Photograph by Peter W. Stevenson/The New York Times via Redux
Sen. Richard Lugar before debating his primary challenger, Richard Mourdock in Indianapolis, on April 12, 2012.
The Club for Growth’s super-PAC has more than $5 million in the bank — funds it will use to aid candidates who share its aversion to taxes, government spending and bailouts.
The group began April with $5,060,867 in available funds after raising $705,367 in March, including $500,000 from three individuals, Club for Growth Action said in a filing to the Federal Election Commission today.
The PAC got $250,000 from Robert Mercer, co-chief executive officer of Renaissance Technologies LLC, an East Setauket, New York, hedge fund. Mercer gave $100,000 to the group last August. He donated $1 million last July to a super-PAC aiding Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
Arkansas businessman Jackson T. Stephens Jr. donated $150,000 to Club for Growth Action last month. Steven Pfeifer, the managing member of Houston-based PO&G Resources, an oil equipment services company, donated $100,000.
Club for Growth Action has spent about $1.5 million on independent expenditures in the 2012 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. It has spent about $635,000 to influence a Republican Senate primary in Indiana, where Club for Growth Action opposes the renomination of six-term Senator Richard Lugar.
