Super PAC profile: Pro-Ron Paul group has corporate address
Heading into the South Carolina primary, Santa Rita super PAC had created seven ads that appear on its YouTube channel. According to FEC records the PAC spent $317,500 producing ads and buying time on 14 channels for a promised 11-day ad blitz before Palmetto State voters head to the polls Saturday.
The president and treasurer of Santa Rita PAC is a Donald Huffines, the co-owner of Huffines Communities, a Texas-based real estate development company. Though the PAC is being run out of the same Dallas office suite as Huffines Communities, it is not registered as a corporate PAC and the Donald Huffines said the two entities only affiliation is shared office space.
In an interview with the Sunlight Foundation, Donald Huffines said the PAC is, "open for business for large donors that believe in freedom, common sense, and liberty."
Huffines' support of conservative causes has included donations to: Ron Paul, his son, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and the Republican party of Texas.
The super PAC says it takes its name from one of the nation's largest oil wells.. Before the saints started blessing super PACs and wells, Santa Rita was the patron saint of impossible cases, a fact that could be apropos, should Paul defy the odds to become his party's nominee and win the presidency.
The Ronald Reagan-themed ad draws parallels between the doubts about Reagan's electability and those raised about Paul this year.