“CITIZEN’S UNITED” BROUGHT US MILLIONAIRE GOP DONORS

…Richard Uihlein, a major RNC donor

Without the Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision, We would not have the Uihlein’s.

If you have ever heard of a company in Pleasant Valley, Wisconsin, by the name of Uline, you may not be aware that it is one of the nation’s largest packaging and shipping-supply operations.

Richard Uihlein, 72, is the sole owner and he has described his conservative priorities as being: “freedom of speech, limited government, sanctity of life and, Second Amendment rights”.  This is according to his recent court testimony.

Uihlein, the wealthy shipping-supplies magnate from Illinois, seriously shuns the spotlight, while he has risen to become one of the most powerful, and disruptive, GOP campaign donors in the country.

He's disruptive because he has been behind every divisive Senate Republican primary this year.  This amiable Midwestern businessman is bankrolling the most divisive hard-charging candidates and the most anti-establishment conservatives in the race.

For years, Uihlein has given money to isolated races in the service of his: “anti-union, free-market and small-government views”.  However, he has for this term, dramatically increased his giving.  He alone has poured $21 million into races from Montana to West Virginia.  He is supporting these races to ensure more conservative victories in the upcoming midterm elections.  This all according to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) records.

To give you an idea of who he is sending donations, one such upstart candidate is Senator Chris McDaniel of Mississippi.  You may recall that McDaniel has made preserving the Confederate flag symbol in the Mississippi state flag as a centerpiece of his campaign for US Senate.

In addition, Uihlein gave tens of thousands of dollars to support the failed Senate hopeful,l Roy Moore (R) in Alabama, doubling down on Moore’s campaign.  This was even after multiple women accused Moore of unwanted sexual advances toward them when they were in their teens.

“Dick does believe in the underdog and likes to give people a chance no one else would,” said John Tillman, a friend and chief executive of the Illinois Policy Institute, a conservative think tank that is of course, funded by Uihlein. “He believes in building mechanisms of accountability for lawmakers. And too often, that means holding Republicans accountable when they fail to put taxpayers first.”

And yet Uihlein, cuts an understated figure, who personally avoids the spotlight and who says little publicly. Neither Uihlein nor his Wisconsin based company, has a media representative.

However, Uihlein’s wife, Liz, is the company president and she is a political donor in her own right.  She has been more forthcoming about the couple’s political views in her regular column she writes in the company’s catalogue.  It’s interesting that you can find her political columns featured along with packing tape, shrink wrap and hundreds of types of shipping boxes.

Recent notes of hers have warned oabout the dangers of Chinese competition, the negative health effects of marijuana use and the detriments of the Federal Reserve’s low interest rate policy.

She recently wrote a frightening column stating: “Dick and I love reading newspapers and when we watch TV news, the channel is mostly set on Fox News”.  (I am not surprised.)

Uihlein rose as a power-player in the GOP, but he has been greeted warily among a number of Republican leaders, who are facing tough odds this fall against energized Democrats in the midterm races across the country.

However, he has helped support some establishment-favored figures seen as more electable in general elections, such as Missouri Senate candidate Josh Hawley, who is seeking to unseat Sen. Claire McCaskill (D).  On the other hand, he is scrambling the political order in unpredictable ways, as he favors the outsider, Kevin Nicholson in Wisconsin, a Republican aiming to take on Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D) this fall.

Nicholson, a former Democratic activist, was deemed a long-shot candidate until Uihlein gave him a fighting chance by pouring at least $3.5 million into his campaign.

“We have a primary because the guy who was a former Democrat a few years ago, but has now found a billionaire backer that turned him to the GOP,” said Alex Conant, a strategist for Wisconsin Next PAC, which is supporting state Sen. Leah Vukmir (R) in the race. “Without his [Uihlein’s] backing Nicholson, Leah would be the presumptive nominee and the party would be working in unison to defeat Sen. Baldwin.”

All the while, this couple is testing the limits of what wealthy donors can do since the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which opened the doors for unlimited political spending by rich donors.

Uihlein has also stepped up his donations to conservative causes through the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation, named after his father.  This foundation has given more than $45 million in donations since 2007, according to the IRS..

Allies of Uihlein have painted a picture of a thoughtful and likable man who cares profoundly for his country.

“Dick is more interested in seeing people who will be good leaders, principled leaders and it’s more out of a deep care for the country,” said David McIntosh, president of Club for Growth, whose super PAC arm received at least $11 million since 2010 from Uihlein. “Every time I’ve talked to him, he has talked about how he really wants our country to be successful and have good leaders.”

But the causes and candidates Uihlein supports at times capture the headlines with their controversial statements about homosexuality and the Confederate flag.

In supporting Moore in Alabama, Uihlein backed a candidate who believed the US Constitution was subservient to “God’s law” and promoted the impeachment of judges who approved of same-sex marriage.

His backing of Moore has made at least one of his candidates uniquely vulnerable. In Illinois, state Rep. Jim Durkin (R), the House minority leader, struck back at a Uihlein-backed primary challenger by responding with a TV spot claiming his opponent “teamed up with a child predator’s $100,000 donor.”

Uihlein gave $500,000 in 2016 to a minister in Minnesota, Bradlee Dean, who argues that judges who have strayed from biblical teaching around marriage are “magnifying lawlessness” and replacing “liberty with licentiousness.”

This spring, Uihlein was the primary backer of the gubernatorial campaign of Jeanne Ives, who ran an ad that cast its actress as a transgender woman.   “Thank you [Governor of the state] , for signing legislation that lets me use the girls’ bathroom,” said the deep-voiced actor wearing a dress and holding a purse. “Thank you, for having all Illinois families pay for my abortion,” said another woman actress in a pink hat.

Uihlein gave Ives $2.5 million.

Uihlein was not an early supporter of Trump, but he came around after his preferred candidates, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, dropped out of the contest for the GOP presidential nomination.

He has continued to be one of the president’s top supporters, attending the inauguration in a black baseball cap that read “01.20.17, Just can’t wait” (the Trump inauguration date) and he is continuing to give hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican National Committee (RNC).

His friend Tillman, said Uihlein is guided by his commitment to conservative principles and to effecting change through the candidates and causes he supports.

“He is pragmatic and realistic about every investment he makes, whether it’s in policy, politics or charitable giving,” Tillman said.

The conservative US Supreme Court brought us the Uihlein’s with their Citizens United decision.  Until that court changes, there will be many more Uihlein’s popping up to support the GOP.

Copyright G.Ater  2018