In the ongoing scrum that is the GOP presidential money primary, every wealthy donor locked up adds both to a potential candidate’s perceived viability and his credibility with more donors. FEC filings from late last month have already yielded positive signals for several of the senators who may be angling for the nomination, but the latest batch are even more promising for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

Rubio, who may have the steepest hill to climb with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush entering the fray — the two have the same natural base of funders among mainstream Floridian Republicans — reported fourth-quarter 2014 donations to his senatorial campaign from several key names in the world of presidential fundraising. Most prominently, on Dec. 17 he received $5,000 from Annette Simmons, the widow of Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons. Together the couple was the second largest overall donor of traceable money in the 2012 election, contributing more than $27 million to conservative causes. At least $20.5 million of that was given to the Karl Rove-founded American Crossroads super PAC and $2.3 million of it went to the Mitt Romney-backing Restore Our Future super PAC. Simmons was also an early backer of a super PAC supporting Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s 2012 run and the super PAC that kept former Sen. Rick Santorum’s improbable fight going well into the 2012 spring primaries.

If Annette Simmons, who reportedly was left more than $600 million upon her husband’s death, is as inclined to invest in politics as her late husband was, early financial support from her could be just the spark a candidate like Rubio needs to battle through the first primaries. While Simmons may have donated to other potential presidential candidates in recent weeks — filings for any GOP presidential hopeful who is not a senator won’t be available until later this month — it’s notable that she did not make a similar donation to Ted Cruz, her home state senator and one of Rubio’s rivals, even though 12 of the 14 congressional candidates she contributed to in the last cycle were Texans, plus Rubio, Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner (R-Texas) and former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.). Also, the $5,000 check to Rubio was largest donation Simmons made to any politician in that cycle.

Besides Simmons, Rubio also received a big donation, listed at $10,400, from Dian Graves Stai (that’s double the maximum allowed, and at least some of it appears to have been refunded). Stai is not quite on at the donor level of Harold Simmons, but in 2014 she donated $250,000 to Freedom Partners Action Fund, the super PAC affiliated with the network of donors assembled by the libertarian billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch. A recent gathering of the group included a panel that featured Rubio, Cruz and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), seen as an early opportunity for the network’s large donors to size up potential candidates. Stai also donated $50,000 to Kentuckians for Strong Leadership, a super PAC with Rove connections that backed Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in his re-election bid.

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Another potentially symbolic donor to appear on Rubio’s filing was Scott Sperling, a Boston investment banker who in 2012 publicly discussed his decision to stop supporting Barack Obama and start supporting Mitt Romney. Sperling donated $5,200 to Rubio’s campaign in 2014, the only of the three senators vying for the nomination. In 2012, Sperling donated the maximum to Romney’s campaign and $25,000 to Restore Our Future. In 2008, he also donated to Romney’s campaign, but donated to Hillary Clinton’s campaign as well. Sperling could not be reached for comment on his donation to Rubio.

Cruz’s latest campaign filing also had at least one potentially significant pair of donors — John and Barbara Nau of Houston. John Nau owns a major beer distributor and in the last two cycles has become a big donor to super PACs. In the last three months of 2014 he became a maximum donor to Cruz’ campaign committee and leadership PAC. Aside from the Cruz donations, the Naus donated $125,000 to American Crossroads, $200,000 to Kentuckians for Strong Leadership, $200,000 to Mississippi Conservatives (the super PAC that supported Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) in his primary fight with a tea party insurgent) and $225,000 to Texans for a Conservative Majority, a super PAC that boosted Sen. John Cornyn in his GOP primary battle to retain his seat as Texas’ other senator.

Paul’s fourth-quarter Senate report was not electronically available today. Because Senate candidates still file their reports on paper, they become available over a period of weeks as they are digitized.

And disclosure reports covering leadership PACs established by several other major potential GOP candidates, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Jeb Bush, will not be available until later this month as they were formed in January. Hillary Clinton, the presumed frontrunner on the Democratic side, has not formed an official campaign committee yet, and so no similar filings are yet available.



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