PAC profile: Leaders for Families

Introduction

Type of organization: Super PAC

Supports: Rick Santorum

Founded: Dec. 27, 2011

Website: thefamilyleader.com

Social media: YouTube channel, Facebook page, Twitter profile

Principals:

• Charles Hurley (vice president): Hurley is the vice president of the Iowa Family Law Center, a nonprofit that opposes Iowa’s same sex marriage law, and also a former Iowa state representative who personally endorsed Santorum.
• James Bopp (counsel): Indiana-based attorney and member of the Republican National Committee who is a long-time critic of campaign finance regulations and represented Citizens United in its landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

Profile:

Eleven days before the Iowa primary, Iowa conservative Charles Hurley established Leaders for Families. The super PAC has ties to the Family Leader, a group of conservative nonprofits that opposes gay marriage and abortion. Hurley is president of the Iowa Family Law Center, one of the nonprofits.

In 2011, Leaders for Families received an end-of-year cash infusion from super donor Foster Friess, the wealthy Wyoming investor who also bankrolled the larger pro-Santorum super PAC, the Red, White and Blue Fund.

Four contributions in December 2011 — two from the Red, White and Blue Fund, one from Friess and one from investor Charles Parlato — were the only contributions the super PAC in 2011. The only other money the group raised was $15,000 on Jan. 6, 2012, from developer Terrance Caster, who is active in the self-storage industry.

Leaders for Families’ total spending is minimal compared to what the big super PACs are spending.

In January 2012, Hurley told Roll Call that Leaders for Families may not live past Iowa, it did buy radio ads in New Hampshire at the beginning of January but has abstained from political spending since. It ended the election cycle with about $5,900 in the bank.

See more data on Leaders for Families at OpenSecrets.org.

Advertisements:

• The group spent about $135,000, mostly on advertising in Iowa.

Last updated: Jan. 17, 2013