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"Romney seeks to reach America from Boston" by Michael Levenson | Globe Staff, April 12, 2012
The plan to make Mitt Romney the next president of the United States is being hatched deep in the heart of a city that conservatives across the country view as enemy territory: Boston.
The campaign has kept a Kremlin-like cloak of secrecy over what goes on inside their offices at 585 Commercial St. No sign or other marker tells visitors it is now the official seat of the man who could be the country’s next leader....
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"‘Swift Boat’ donor throws big money behind Romney" by Michael Levenson | Globe Staff, April 13, 2012
The leading donor to Mitt Romney’s super PAC is not a hedge-fund manager or Bain Capital executive. It is Bob Perry, a Houston home-building magnate who was also the top donor to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against John F. Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, in 2004.
Along with Foster Friess, who was Rick Santorum’s benefactor, and Sheldon Adelson, Newt Gingrich’s patron, Perry has become one of the most important, if least known, members of an elite class of Republican moneymen who are almost single-handedly reshaping the race for the White House.
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It was all about stopping Ron Paul.
He has doled out $80 million to political candidates and committees over the last decade. That includes $4 million to Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting Romney that has systemically obliterated his opponents with negative ads.
But unlike Friess and Adelson, who have risen to prominence in this presidential election, Perry has always shunned attention. Associates say he never shows up at fund-raisers and rarely grants interviews....
Yet his vast fortune, combined with the new rules that allow unlimited donations to super PACs, means the reclusive businessman, 79, could play an even bigger role than he played in 2004, when the Swift Boat ads accused Kerry of lying about his record in Vietnam and helped sink his candidacy.
“I don’t speculate about the future, but he’s done quite a bit already, and clearly believes Romney would be much better for America’s future than another four years of President Obama,’’ said Anthony Holm, a Perry spokesman.
Perry has a habit of quietly giving money to recipients he has never met or even spoken with. Two weeks ago, he sent an unsolicited $10,000 check to the Texas Tribune, a nonprofit news organization in Austin. In a two-sentence letter, he praised the organization for its balanced political coverage. Associates said the donation was quintessential Perry....
A believer in lower taxes, less regulation, and tort reform, Perry supports affirmative action and “an immigration solution that gives hope to those that need it most,’’ according to his biography. He has a particular interest in supporting Hispanic Republicans and, outside of politics, has donated to Latino studies programs and orphanages in Mexico....
The son of a school principal, Perry was raised in a rural farmhouse in Central Texas, where he raised and sold rabbits, goats, sheep, and bantam hens.
He started Perry Homes in 1967. The company is now the second-largest home builder in Texas and the 23d largest in the nation, with about $380 million in revenue last year, according to Denise Dersin, editor-in-chief of Builder Magazine, a trade journal.
Perry first entered politics as a supporter of conservative Democrats in the 1970s and has been a force since then, showering some Democrats, but mostly Republicans, with money.
In 2006, for example, Perry gave Joseph Nixon, a Republican member of the Texas House, $262,500, a massive sum for a state legislator, after Nixon authored and passed a bill that could have benefited the home-building industry by sharply limiting personal injury claims. Nixon said he had never even met Perry when the donations rolled in.
“That’s his deal,’’ Nixon said. “He doesn’t call you and ask you to do this or that. He will support you financially and leave you alone.’’
Critics say that, with his financial clout and well-connected lobbyists, Perry does not have to pick up the phone to influence elected officials.
“His money speaks for him,’’ said Craig McDonald, the director of Texans for Public Justice. “And it’s well known where Perry stands on most issues.’’
In 2003, after Texas home builders were hit with a spate of mold-related lawsuits, Perry’s lawyer, John Krugh, helped draft a bill creating the Texas Residential Construction Commission to screen buyers’ complaints before they could sue for damages in court.
Consumer groups complained the agency was tilted heavily in favor of the building industry, and the Legislature abolished it in 2010.
Last year, Bob Perry helped kill Governor Perry’s effort to prohibit Texas from allowing “sanctuary cities’’ where police are barred from asking about the immigration status of people they detain. Many pointed out that the home-building industry relies heavily on immigrant labor.
Perry has supported Romney since 2005, when the former Massachusetts governor became chairman of the Republican Governors Association. While associates declined to predict how much he would donate, they say if Perry is committed to a cause, he tends to go all in. “I always say small is not in his vocabulary,’’ Miller said.
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At least Mitt has seen the light:
"MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell said on his show:
“Mormonism was created by a guy in upstate New York in 1830 when he got caught having sex with the maid and explained to his wife that God told him to do it. Forty-eight wives later, Joseph Smith’s lifestyle was completely sanctified in the religion he invented to go with it. Which Mitt Romney says he believes.’’
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Related: The Romney-Rosen Cat Fight
