the man who bought north dakota. he s been very critical of obama s energy policies, thinks he s holding back oil and gas drilling in the united states, been very aggressive on that. and he emerged in march as being named by the romney campaign as the chairman of the energy advisory group for the romney campaign. was this quid pro quo? reporter: that s the interesting part. what we discovered yesterday was about the same time just a few weeks later, mr. hamm donated nearly $1 million to the romney super pac. this is kind of a new wrinkle here in the super pac phenomenon. we ve all been focused on, are these big mega donors, the six and seven-figure donors having influence with the campaign? are they getting access? in this case, mr. hamm is
the money they ve donated? a donor might have a lot of reasons for giving money. it s hard to look into their heart and predict what the reason is. but we know that he s said, one, the reason he put a lot of money into the newt gingrich super pac was to help his old friend, newt. he wanted to see this campaign go on for a while, back when there was a primary campaign. he s also a huge hawk on israel. and it s clear he wants somebody in the white house who shares his views on israel. and finally he s battled heavily with trade unions in his hometown of las vegas. it s soured him on labor. that s probably a part of it as well. now that gingrich is out, who are the adelson s backing? they haven t gotten in on behalf of mitt romney. there s been high-level talks between supporters of romney and the adelsons about eventually supporting mitt romney. it hasn t happened yet. instead they put $5 million into
president clinton and president obama. and dick cheney will be hosting a fund-raiser for mitt romney at his home in wyoming. there is new evidence this morning that the already fuzzy lines between super pacs and the campaigns are being blurred again. nbc news national investigative correspondent michael isikoff joins me live this morning. i understand you ve discover that had romney s new top energy adviser donated nearly $1 million to a romney super pac a month after joining the team. who is this guy? reporter: harold hamm, he is the chairman and ceo of a company called continental resources that has struck it big-time in the north dakota oil shale game. mr. hamm s company has bought up most of the leases for the bakken shale formation in north dakota and has struck it rich there. in fact, mr. hamm was featured in aback in january under the t
there s another way to help erase litter box odor. purina tidy cats. only tidy cats has new odor erasers. making it easy to keep things at home. just the way you want them. new tidy cats with odor erasers. well, the campaign ad wars are tupon us. romney super pac ally, doing most of the work for him. taking a deep dive where the money is going, who s spending and how this shifting to the battleground. where is no big surprise. the biggest numbers in the battleground states, colorado, florida, north carolina, ohio and pennsylvania and virginia. who s spending the money and where? for instance in florida, the president s campaign is spending nearly $7 million. more than twice the amount of
as always, thanks. sounds like we might get more out of this. appreciate your work, sir. when it comes to campaign cash, president obama has a 2-to-1 cash advantage over mitt romney. team obama has a combined total of $144 million. this includes money from the dnc and super pac priorities usa, the super pac for the democrats. team romney has more than $77 million in the bank, that includes super pac money from american crossroads and restore our future. nicholas joins us now. some of these big super pac donors, who they are and what they want good morning to you. let s start on the republican side. let s start with sheldon this is one of the names that most folks when you hear super pac, this is the gentleman most closely identified with super pacs. sheldon and his wife, miriam. what do they hope to get for all