GOP mega-donor backs immigration reform

freshh. · 04-29-2013, 07:24 AM

Quote:

Republican mega-bundler Paul Singer has quietly gotten involved in the fight for immigration reform, making a six-figure donation to a group involved in marshaling conservatives to support an overhaul of federal laws, POLITICO has learned.

Singer, the hedge fund billionaire who has become one of the Republican Party’s most prolific donors and bundlers over the past seven years, made the donation to the National Immigration Forum. The group has been focusing, in part, on getting support from the business community, faith leaders and law enforcement for the reform effort.

Singer, whose fundraising is relied upon by a number of rank-and-file members of Congress and the Senate, is one of the biggest fish to lend his name to the immigration overhaul effort.

“In my estimation he’s proably the first big high-profile Republican to put his name on the line,” said Ali Noorani, executive director of the NIF Action Fund, who declined to specify the exact amount Singer had given.

Singer has been involved for the past few months, officials said, beginning with the Forum’s “Bibles, Badges and Business” network, one of its programs to corral support for immigration reform from different corners of the party.

The group has worked with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a linchpin of the “Gang of Eight” working on a bipartisan immigration reform package. And the group announced last week that one of its former officials is joining the White House as a Hispanic media adviser.

The involvement of a high-profile bundler on the GOP side has been a missing piece from the Republican column in the reform push, though party staples like former Republican National Committee chairman Haley Barbour have lent support.

For Singer, the move to become involved financially is in keeping with his history of pro-business policies — and dovetails with efforts by News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch, who formed a group with New York City Mayor and businessman Mike Bloomberg to support immigration reform from a pro-business standpoint.

Singer has been a donor to the anti-tax Club for Growth, which made itself a major presence in primaries last cycle on the Republican side. But he also helped fund the efforts to pass a gay marriage law in New York State in 2011, and formed a super PAC last cycle aimed at supporting lawmakers who cast votes that were friendly on gay rights.

At a recent fundraiser at the St. Regis Hotel in New York that benefited House Speaker John Boehner’s PAC, Singer discussed immigration reform with people in the room, sources familiar with the event said. National Republican Campaign Committee chairman Greg Walden was also on hand for the dinner.

A major question about the immigration reform efforts is whether the GOP-led House, where members are concerned about primaries from the right in increasingly gerrymandered districts, would pass a bill that clears the Senate. The supposition has been that both parties recognize the political pragmatism behind immigration reform, but a number of conservatives have denounced the “Gang of Eight” product as “amnesty,” and one that would likely ultimately benefit Democrats electorally.

Singer, through his donations, “wants to make sure there is a Republican forum for immigration reform, and [that] he’s contributing to it,” Noorani said.

Asked whether he thinks this will lead to other major bundlers making similar efforts, Noorani said, “I certainly hope so. It’s good politics and good policy for Republicans and Democrats to be working together on this.”

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GOP mega-donor backs immigration reform