Ranking: 7
Total contributions to super PACs: $4 million*
- $2 million to Priorities USA Action(pro-Obama)
- $1.5 million to Majority PAC(pro-Democrat, Senate)
- $500,000 to House Majority PAC(pro-Democrat, House)
Notable federal hard money and 527 contributions:
- $144,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (since 2007)
- $58,900 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (since 2007)
- $7,400 to Secretary of State and former Sen. Hillary Clinton (since 2008)
- $5,050 to Pres. Barack Obama (since 2008)
- $4,800 to Sen. Chuck Schumer (since 2009)
- $2,100 to former Sen. Chris Dodd (since 2006)
Notable state-level contributions (see here):
- $85,000 to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (since 2010)
- $20,000 to New York Attorney General EricSchneiderman (since 2010)
- $6,000 to former New York Attorney General and Gov. Eliot Spitzer (2005)
Corporate name: Renaissance Technologies
Total spent on federal lobbying (2007-2011): $1 million
Lobbying issues: taxes, accounting, finance.
Biography:
James Simons is founder and former CEO of Renaissance Technologies, a Long Island-based hedge fund with $15 billion under management.
The firm uses complex mathematical analysesand computer modelingto make investment decisions. Simons holds a doctorate in mathematics from the University of California, Berkley and a bachelor’s degree, also in mathematics, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Simons retired as CEO in 2010, but continues to play a role in the company. Robert Mercer, its current CEO, is a prolific Republican contributor and is No. 9 on the Center for Public Integrity’s Super Donor list, with $3.4 million in contributions this election cycle.
Prior to starting Renaissance Technologies in 1982, Simons was a code breaker at the U.S. National Security Agency and later worked at IBM, where he met Mercer. He was also chair of the mathematics department at Stony Brook University in New York.
Simons’s biggest donation was a $2 million check to pro-President Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action. He is also a volunteer fundraiser for the group, according to The New York Times.
Simons has donated to a number of well-known Democrats over the years, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Sen. Chris Dodd, but doesn’t say much about his positions, at least not publicly.
“The fact is that I am not seeking any publicity in this matter,” he recently told The Times. “The donations can speak for themselves.”
Simons, whose net worth Forbes estimates at $11 billion, founded the Nick Simons Institute and created the eight-acre Avalon Park and Preserve through the Paul Simons Foundation in memory of two of his sons, who were killed in separate accidents in 1996 and 2003. In addition, he is a supporter of autism research.
He has donated more than $1 billion to the Paul Simons Foundation and at least $210 million to Stony Brook University. The Stony Brook University Foundation, a scholarship-granting organization of which he is chairman emeritus, lost $5.4 million to the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme in 2008.
Last updated: Sept. 27, 2012
*2011-2012 election cycle,source: Federal Election Commission