Type of organization: Super PAC

Supports candidate: Mitt Romney

Founded: Oct. 8, 2010

Website: http://restoreourfuture.com/

Social media: YouTube channel, Facebook

Principals:

• Carl Forti (co-founder): Romney’s 2008 political director. Advisor to American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS. Co-founder of Blackrock Group, a strategic communications and public relations firm.
• Charles Spies (treasurer): Romney’s chief financial officer and counsel in 2008.
• Larry McCarthy (co-founder): Member of Romney’s media team in 2008. President of McCarthy Hennings Media, Inc.
• Steve Roche (fundraiser): Former top fundraiser for Romney in 2008 and until August 2011.

Profile:

No other super PAC has raised as much money as Restore Our Future, which collected almost $55.8 million through the end of April thanks to a network of deep-pocketed individuals and parnterships, nearly half of which are in the financial sector.

Restore Our Future’s staff includes Larry McCarthy, known for the infamous “Willie Horton” ad that helped sink Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis in 1988. The group ran attack ads in Iowa that were widely credited with undermining Gingrich’s popularity and boosting Romney to a very close second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses. In fact, nearly all of the group's money has been spent on negative ads, and with its lush bank account, it has dramatically outspent Romney's rivals and their allies.

Romney has attended several of Restore Our Future’s fundraising events, including a dinner in New York on July 19. The dinner was also attended by one of the PAC’s million-dollar donors, John Paulson, the hedge-fund manager who made billions betting against the housing market. In addition to his contribution to the super PAC, Paulson was also a leading fundraiser/bundler for the Romney campaign and hosted a money bash at his home in the Hamptons late last summer.

Several big-dollar contributions to Restore Our Future have come from obscure businesses suspected of being shell corporations to mask the identity of the actual donors.

On multiple occasions, Restore Our Future has refunded corporate contributions and then accepted the same amount of money from individual donors instead. Two of these situations involved former employees of companies that Romney himself used to work for. Additionally, in February, the group refunded a $100,000 donation from the Rod and Leslie Aycox Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that was legally prohibited from donating to the super PAC.

Two other mysterious corporations have invested $1 million in Restore Our Future’s success: F8 LLC and Eli Publishing, which share an address in Provo, Utah. They are connected to prominent Mormon businessman Steve Lund, the vice chairman of the board of nutrition and cosmetics company Nu Skin, and former Nu Skin lawyer (and Lund son-in-law) Jeremy Blickenstaff.

Another Mormon business executive, Frank VanderSloot, has used a network of corporate accounts connected to his cleaning products, cosmetics and vitamins company, Melaleuca Inc. -- which has been accused by some of being a pyramid scheme -- to give $1 million to Restore Our Future.

Restore Our Future has also received $2 million from the sons of hotel magnate John Willard Marriott, whom Romney is named after: J.W. "Bill" Marriott, Jr., and Richard Marriott, both influential Mormon businessmen, have each contributed $1 million to Restore Our Future.

Nearly half of Restore Our Future's contributions have come from the finance industry, iWatch reported, with especially large contributions coming from hedge fund and private equity managers.

In April, the trend continued with a $1 million contribution from John Kleinheinz, founder of hedge fund Capital Partners Inc., and a $250,000 contribution from Romney's former Bain colleague Stephen Zide. Other finance industry donors in April included Wilbur Ross Jr. of WL Ross & Co. ($100,000) and Marc Leder and Rodger Krouse, co-CEOs of Sun Capital Advisors Inc., a private equity firm ($100,000 each).

Restore our Future spent exclusively to aid Romney during the GOP primary. With Romney now the clear nominee for the Republican party, the super PAC nicknamed "Romney's Death Star" is likely to turn it's sights on President Barack Obama.

See more data on Restore Our Future at OpenSecrets.org, or more background information at FactCheck.org.

Advertisements:

• Restore Our Future’s anti-Gingrich ad, run in Iowa just before the primary.
• The "Right Experience" ad attacks Santorum with several misleading claims, Factcheck.org reported. It's running in Tennessee, Oklahoma, Alabama and Mississippi.
• The "Reagan" ad run in Florida says that despite Gingrich's constant Reagan name-dropping, Gingrich "is no Ronald Reagan."
• The anti-Santorum ad "Values" aired in Michigan.
• Another anti-Santorum "Own Words" ad aired in Ohio, Oklahoma and Tennesee. It goes after Santorum for voting for bills that included support for Planned Parenthood.
• For more ads, see Restore Our Future's YouTube page.

Last updated: May 21, 2012