The Super PAC has $417,250 to spend on the upcoming election. $400K of that came from Robert Mercer, a white billionaire hedge-fund titan who is the major funder of the Ted Cruz campaign.
Mercer's fellow "Black Americans" are also all rich white men, who made donations from $250 to $10,000 to cover the remaining 4% of the "Black American" war-chest.
BABF appears to exist solely as a vehicle for Washington, D.C. consultant Raynard Jackson, who is African American. Jackson is quoted on his firm’s website stating that “You have a fundamental right to pursue business interests with the least amount of interference from the government.” Jackson has elsewhere accused Barack Obama of “relentless pandering to homosexuals.”
At an event in November 2015 at the National Press Club, which cost the BABF $13252.79 for the venue and catering, Jackson said that “Having well trained, credible, experienced African-Americans constantly challenging the liberal orthodoxy in the media will create a tectonic shift in the perception of the Republican Party within the Black community.”
As of its current FEC filings, BABF has spent a total of $172,424.69, including $38,983.45 in net salary payment to Jackson for the last five months of 2015. Together with $26,952.55 disbursed for payroll taxes, this indicates Jackson is receiving an annual salary of $155,000. The Super PAC’s remaining spending has been mostly for travel, hotels and food, including about $5,000 at New York’s famous Morton’s Steakhouse on Fifth Avenue.
““Black Americans for a Better Future” Super PAC 100% Funded by Rich White Guys” [Jon Schwarz/The Intercept]
