A mysterious corporate donor to an outside spending group supporting Mitt Romney’s campaign for president isn’t a corporation at all, but a former executive of Romney’s old employer, Bain & Co., and his wife, according to records.
Super PAC “Restore Our Future” reported a $250,000 donation from a firm called Glenbrook LLC on its disclosure report released Jan. 31. On Tuesday, the group amended its filing, dropping Glenbrook and replacing it with the names Jesse and Melinda Rogers.
Both are listed as having made $125,000 contributions. Jesse Rogers works in “investment management” at Altamont Capital Management. Melinda Rogers’ occupation is listed as “homemaker.”
Rogers is a former executive of Bain & Co., the management consulting firm that Romney helmed during the early 1990s. Rogers worked for 16 years at Bain where he founded and led the firm’s private equity group until 2000.
Between 2004 and 2011, Rogers and his wife donated $88,000 to Romney’s presidential campaigns and state and federal level political action committees, according to records. During the past year, Rogers also gave $28,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and $2,500 to failed GOP presidential candidate former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Rogers also contributed the legal maximum of $2,500 to Romney’s presidential campaign last year, as did Melinda and their daughter Jennifer.
Neither Rogers nor a representative of Restore Our Future could immediately be reached for comment.
If this story has a familiar ring to it, that’s because it’s happened before.
In August, Ed Conard, a former managing director at Bain Capital, which Romney co-founded in 1984 along with two other Bain & Co. executives, ‘fessed up to being the face behind a $1 million corporate donation from a group called W. Spann LLC — which incorporated in Delaware and disbanded before the contribution came to light.
Restore Our Future later adjusted their reports to include Conard’s name.
Super PACs were made possible by federal court decisions in 2010 that allowed independent groups to accept unlimited corporate and union contributions and spend the money on advertising that supports or opposes a candidate.
Restore Our Future was created last year to help boost Romney’s electoral prospects. It is run by several of Romney’s former aides, including Carl Forti, Romney’s 2008 political director; Larry McCarthy, a member of Romney’s 2008 media team; and Charles Spies, Romney’s chief financial officer and counsel in 2008.
Through the end of 2011, the super PAC reported raising more than $30 million — more than any other super PAC or Republican candidate committee. To date, it’s also reported spending more than $18 million, mostly on negative ads targeting Newt Gingrich.
Elizabeth Lucas contributed to this report.