Top 5 super PAC donors by industry

Introduction

Securities and Investments

Rank: 1

Total: $94 million*

Favorite candidate: Mitt Romney

Top donors: Ken Griffin, Paul Singer, Robert Mercer, John Paulson, Joe Ricketts

Donors’ interests: Most favor limited regulation of financial markets and keeping taxes low, particularly on income from investments.

Industry’s interest: Same as donors.

Casinos and Gambling

Rank: 2

Total: $55 million

Favorite candidate: Mitt Romney

Top donors: Sheldon Adelson and family

Donors’ interests: Keeping taxes low on overseas profits that are repatriated to the U.S., strong support for Israel.

Industry’s interests: Removing online gaming restrictions and expanding the visa waiver program (so foreign tourists can more easily come to the U.S. to gamble), according to the American Gaming Association.

Chemical and Related Manufacturing

Rank: 3

Total: $31 million

Favorite candidate: Mitt Romney

Top donors: Harold Simmons and his company, Contran Corp.

Donors’ interests: Simmons’s companies want to eliminate certain environmental regulations that have resulted in millions of dollars’ worth of environmental cleanup costs for Contran subsidiary Valhi Inc. and led to numerous personal injury lawsuits against Valhi subsidiary NL Industries, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Industry’s interests: Keeping the costs of environmental and safety regulations to a minimum while improving the industry’s image relative to climate change.

• Keeping chemical regulation out of the hands of state governments and updating the Toxic Substances Control Act to ensure safety while balancing popular demand for stricter regulation with industry interests, according to the American Chemistry Council.

Real Estate

Rank: 4

Total: $23 million

Favorite candidate: Mitt Romney

Top donors: National Association of Realtors, Harlan Crow and Crow Holdings, Gary Morse and various Morse-owned corporations in The Villages retirement community in Florida

Donors’ interests: The NAR wants to preserve the mortgage interest deduction, restructure Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and raise the cap for credit union lending and Fannie- and Freddie-backed loans.

Industry’s interests: Similar to those of the National Association of Realtors.

Homebuilders

Rank: 5

Total: $22 million

Favorite candidate: Mitt Romney

Top donors: Bob Perry

Donors’ interests: Promotion of free markets, limitation of damage awards in jury verdicts and lowering taxes, among other issues.

Industry’s interests: Maintaining federal support of home loans, preventing more foreclosures and reforming the housing appraisal process, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

Source: Center for Public Integrity analysis of data provided by the Center for Responsive Politics, Federal Election Commission.

*Totals through Oct. 17, 2012.