Whiteco gives $1 million to Romney ‘super PAC’

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Updated: March 9, 2012 8:14AM

A Merrillville company’s $1 million donation to a so-called “super” political action committee that supports Mitt Romney was tied for seventh nationally among the single largest donations made last year.

“Super PACs,” created in 2010, are organizations that can support political candidates and have no fundraising limits. However, federal law says they can’t coordinate with the candidates on their campaigns.

Whiteco Industries gave the money on Nov. 15 to American Crossroads, according to numbers provided by the Sunlight Foundation, which obtained them from the Federal Elections Commission.

Whiteco is a real estate company, with the Star Plaza Theatre in Merrillville and the Lighthouse restaurant in Cedar Lake in its portfolio.

A spokesman at Whiteco headquarters said the company had no comment on the donation.

The donation was tied with 11 other $1 million donations for the seventh-largest single donation to a “super PAC” in 2011. It isn’t clear, however, how it stacks up in total donations made by a group or individual in 2011, because some people gave multiple times, according to the data.

Whiteco and its owner, Dean White, have given to Republican candidates in Indiana numerous times, including several hundreds of thousands of dollars to both Indiana Rep. Brian Bosma and the House Republican Campaign Committee of Indiana, according to the website InfluenceExporter.com, a partner with the Sunlight Foundation.

The Sunlight Foundation is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to bring transparency and accountability to government.

The FEC began releasing “super PAC” donation numbers at the beginning of the month. Those numbers showed that several other people from Northwest Indiana also donated to “super PACs” in 2011, although no one gave as much money as Whiteco.

Portage resident Daniel McHale and Michigan City resident Mark Demicoli each gave $250 to Revolution PAC, which supports Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul. Yvonne Lindborg, of LaPorte, gave $1,500 to Club For Growth Action, which is associated with former U.S. Rep. Chris Chocola’s Club for Growth PAC. Club for Growth supports various Republican congressional candidates.

Donors from Indiana gave a total of $1.445 million in 2011 to a “super PAC,” almost all of which went to ones that support conservative candidates. The only donation that didn’t was $1,000 that went Americans for a Better Tomorrow.