Sheldon Adelson (left), John Paulson and Jeffrey Katzenberg have given big bucks. | Reuters Photos Primer: How super PACs rake it in

Super PACs raised about $181 million in the last two years — with roughly half of it coming from fewer than 200 super-rich people.

Those are the findings in a new study that confirms what public interest groups have long feared and campaigns are learning the hard way in 2012 — that the cash for big-ticket campaign spending like TV advertising is increasingly controlled by an elite class of super-rich patrons not afraid to plunk down a million bucks or more for favored candidates and causes.


Last year alone, just 32 donors gave $34 million — and that’s not including an eight-figure donation from billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson in January.

The concentration of donors was discovered in Federal Election Commission filings analyzed by two nonprofit groups, U.S. Public Interest Research Group and Demos that are pushing to strengthen disclosure and spending rules. Their results appear in a report published Wednesday that maps where super PACs are getting their cash.

Alongside individuals, corporations chipped in another $17 million last year. And unions kicked in $6 million. Another $2 million came from more shadowy sources difficult to trace, according to the report.

Expect “an unprecedented surge” in cash, particular secret money, later this year as Election Day approaches, predicted a co-author of the report, Blair Bowie of U.S. PIRG, pointing to 2010 patterns. As campaigns brace for that deluge, here’s a primer on the five ways the new outside groups are pulling in money — from secret gifts to transparent donations — and why each might be attractive to a donor:

Individuals

A relatively few wealthy backers are keeping super PACs afloat — and they’re saying so. Last year alone, individuals gave super PACs $63 million.

That includes 15 people who gave $1 million or more, such as DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, who gave $2 million to Priorities USA Action, the super PAC supporting President Barack Obama, and John Paulson, a hedge fund billionaire who gave $1 million to a super PAC supporting Mitt Romney’s GOP presidential campaign, according to FEC reports.

The figures don’t even include the $10 million that Adelson and his wife gave from their personal accounts to the super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich’s GOP presidential campaign after the year-end FEC reports.

Giving from a personal account, rather than a corporate or non-profit account, is seen as a way for wealthy corporate types to shield their business interests from the controversy that such mega-donations can bring. But it doesn’t always work, as New Balance Chairman James Davis found out last year, when his sneaker company penned an apology to gay activists upset by his $500,000 contribution to the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future.

Big personal donations also can be a way to advertise support for a candidate, said Foster Friess, a Wyoming mutual fund guru who is a major donor to super PACs supporting Rick Santorum’s GOP presidential campaign.

“I can say I endorse Rick Santorum and am going to vote for him, but it means a little more if I put up some green for him. There’s no need for me to be surreptitious about this,” said Friess, who had given $381,000 to a pair of super PACs supporting Santorum, according to FEC disclosures covering through the end of last year. Friess said he’s given more since then, and will continue giving as long as Santorum “needs me.”

Non-profits

Some non-profit groups that aren’t required to disclose their own donors gave $8 million to super PACs during the 2010 midterm elections, according to the PIRG-Demos study.

While they’ve been slower to pony up for super PACs this time around, preferring instead to spend directly on their own hard-hitting ads, recent FEC reports revealed 501(c)4 contributions to several high-profile super PACs. Priorities USA Action super PAC accepted $215,000 from an affiliated 501(c)4. The Karl Rove-linked American Crossroads super PAC received $25,000 from the League of American Voters, a mysterious 501(c)4 that rents office space from Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform.

Corporations

Since 2010 companies have ponied up nearly $31 million to super PACs, according to the PIRG-Demos study.

The money, which comes directly from corporate treasuries, can be easy to identify in some cases. Some large publicly traded corporations have given openly: Rent-A-Center gave $5,000 to the super PAC supporting Senate Democratic candidates, for example. And sector-specific firms also gave, like the natural gas interests that donated $1.2 million to the pro-Romney Restore Our Future.

But it can be difficult to determine the true source — and motivation — of some corporate contributions, such as those that come from obscure limited liability corporations or holding companies.

Take EAM Services LLC, which listed the address of a Tarrytown, N.Y. short-term shared office space when it contributed $50,000 to Restore Our Future. While there’s no current phone number or website listed for EAM, New York state corporations records show the company registered at the same Manhattan address as Blue Ridge Capital LLC, a hedge fund founded by Romney backer John A. Griffin. He and Blue Ridge gave Restore Our Future group $225,000 on the same day in August as EAM’s contribution.

Then there was Blackstone Limited I, a Houston company that gave $100,000 to a super PAC that aired statewide ads in Iowa touting Texas Gov. Rick Perry as “a better option” for president – even before he announced his candidacy. While there isn’t much public information on Blackstone, Texas state corporations filings link it to an energy investment firm called Quantum Energy Partners, which was co-founded in 1998 by major Perry donor Toby Neugebauer. The son of Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas), Neugebauer told POLITICO that his immediate family owns Blackstone and that he use d the company to write the check “based on convenience,” not to obscure the source.

Stanley Hubbard, a Minnesota billionaire whose family owned company Hubbard Broadcasting gave $100,000 last year to American Crossroads, told POLITICO “It really disappoints me when I see some of the bigger companies are afraid to step forward because they’re afraid to have their names associated with the money.”

Then there are donors who give super PAC donations through their companies as well as their personal accounts, like Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons. He cut personal checks of $5 million to Crossroads and $500,000 to a pro-Gingrich super PAC, while his holding company Contran Corp. gave $2 million to Crossroads and $1 million to a pro-Perry super PAC.

The mega-checks from “very wealthy individuals and for-profit businesses” should concern voters who believe that influence “shouldn’t depend upon the size of our wallets,” said Adam Lioz of Demos.

Political committees

Super PACs have reported receiving $19 million from political committees since 2010, including $2 million that came from other super PACs, according to the analysis by PIRG and Demos.

Such giving represents a new and unlimited twist on an established political technique – PACs giving donations to curry favor or boost an ally.

Take the Leaders For Families Super PAC, which is associated with influential Iowa Christian conservative leader Bob Vander Plaats. It was established in December, and quickly raked in $150,000. Half of that came from the Red, White and Blue Fund, a pro-Santorum super PAC, whose biggest backer , the Wyoming investor Friess, also donated $50,000 to Leaders For Families.

It used the cash to air radio and television ads and place automated telephone calls touting the endorsement of Santorum by Vander Plaats, who — in the run-up to Santorum’s Iowa caucus win — reportedly told the candidate he “needed money to promote the endorsement.”

At the end of last year, Leaders For Families reported debts of $6,500 to Vander Plaats “for professional services for fundraising, media production and media relations” and $175 to his non-profit group The Family Leader for “office supplies, phone usage.”

Someone familiar with the relationship between the pro-Santorum super PACs said Red, White and Blue “liked what [Leaders For Families] was doing and their mission to help Rick win in Iowa. … And it worked.”

Unions

Labor unions – long a get-out-the-vote force for sympathetic Democratic candidates – are starting to embrace super PACs as another avenue for political spending, donating $16 million to the groups since 2010, disclosures show.

Last year alone, the Service Employees International Union’s PAC sent $1 million to the pro-Obama Priorities USA Action. Other labor groups that wrote big checks to Democratic super PACs included the United Food and Commercial Workers Union ($205,000), the Laborers’ Political League Education Fund ( $150,000) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers ($50,000), while the AFL-CIO raised $3.7 million late last year into its own super PAC.