Billionaire fiscal conservative spending $10M to back Romney
(CBS News) After taking heat earlier this year for his ties to a proposal for a controversial ad campaign against President Obama, billionaire businessman Joe Ricketts is moving ahead with a plan to invest $10 million to support Mitt Romney for president, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Ricketts, the founder of the company that became TD Ameritrade and whose family owns the Chicago Cubs, will invest the money in the super PAC he started called Ending Spending Action Fund. The group will reportedly air national cable television ads as well as broadcast ads in swing states like Wisconsin, Virginia, Ohio and Iowa.
The ads will feature stories of disenchanted Obama supporters who are voting for Mitt Romney this year. In one video posted online, a voter named Lynne from Davenport, Iowa, explains, "I've been a lifelong Democrat and a teacher for 40 years... I voted for Obama in '08, but he's taking our country in the totally wrong direction."
Ricketts also plans on spending $2 million to help Republican congressional candidates, the Journal reports, bringing his total expected spending on the 2012 election to about $18.5 million.
Ricketts' super PAC came under fire earlier this year after it was reported he was supporting a proposed ad campaign that would have hit President Obama for his ties to the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The proposed ad campaign drew serious rebukes from Democrats as well as Romney. Ricketts, however, said the plan for that ad campaign was only a suggestion and was never put into motion.
