Monday, Aug. 1, 2011 | 4:03 p.m.
A couple of Nevada donors gave about a fourth of the total to the new Democratic Super PAC, which is being run by operatives tied to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Meanwhile, Reid’s PAC tried to help Richard Cherchio, both before and after he lost by one vote in that controversial North Las Vegas race, and his Searchlight Leadership PAC took in money from a wide variety of donors, including Indian tribes and pharmeceutical companies.
That’s what recent disclosures show, and here are the details:
Steve Cloobeck, long a major Democratic donor and once rumored to want to run for the U.S. Senate, gave $100,000 through one of his companies, JHJM, to the Majority PAC, which is the Democratic answer (or one of them) to American Crossroads. Guy David Gundlach, a retired film producer who retired to Nevada and who gave to the Reid-helping Patriot Majority last cycle, gave $150,000 to the PAC, which raised about $1 million in the first half of 2011.
As for Reid, his Searchlight Leadership Fund took in about $140,000 in the first half of 2011 and disbursed most of it to his various senators and candidates, but he spared a few bucks from some municipal contenders at home in his role as meddler-in-chief. He gave Cherchio $1,000 in two contributions, one before and one after the contested election, and her ponied up $2,500 for Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak.
Reid’s PAC was funded by quite the variety of donors, including those he has been critical of, showing it is good to be the majority leader. To wit:
• $17,500 from Indian tribes who like their gaming
• Pfizer gave $5,000, Merck gave $5,000, Zeneca gave $5,000 and GlaxoSmithKline gave $6,000
• Human Rights Campaign gave $1,500
• Mortgage Bankers gave $9,000
• Altria (Phillip Morris) gave $5,000
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