Meet One of the Super-PAC Men 
His name isn’t Adelson or Koch, but he’s spending millions on politics, hoping to roll back taxes and reform education.

By NAOMI SCHAEFER RILEY

Liberals who suspect that wealthy businessmen and political masterminds are colluding to hijack democracy might have fainted had they walked into the St. Regis hotel’s lobby restaurant in New York the other day. There was Rex Sinquefield, a deep-pocketed St. Louis, Mo., native and big-time political donor, sitting across from the Republican Rasputin himself, Karl Rove. The not-so-vast right-wing conspiracy in plain public view. 

Mr. Sinquefield, an index-fund pioneer, has not drawn the fear and loathing that liberals devote to the billionaire Koch brothers and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. Oh, Bloomberg News referred to him as “a new American oligarch,” and the New York Times recently painted an ominous portrait of him as “perhaps the most influential private citizen in the state.” But no one has picketed his home, Mr. Sinquefield says, or harassed his guests. At least not yet.

He is nonetheless one of the nation’s biggest conservative donors in a political year when they are much in the spotlight. So it seems like a good moment to meet one of these princes of alleged darkness in person and see the conspiracy from the inside. It turns out the inside looks a lot like it does from the outside. At age 67, Rex Sinquefield is a successful businessman and conservative who is passionate about his country and wants to turn its policies in a more prosperous direction. He’ll even spend lots of his own money to do it. 

“By my engagement, as well as others like me,” he says, “voters are provided with more choices, not less.” He won’t say how much money he has donated to political causes in general, or specifically to Mr. Rove and his Super PAC, American Crossroads, but it’s safe to say it’s more than a pittance. Mr. Sinquefield is forthright in opposing campaign-finance limits and says, “Our system works when all voices are heard.”

His own voice is heard in particular in Missouri. The state ended limits on campaign contributions in 2008, and public sources show that Mr. Sinquefield has since spent more than $21 million on various causes and candidates (nearly $7 million in the past two years). He says that’s merely the start of what he’ll spend to promote his two main interests: rolling back taxes and rescuing education from teachers unions. 

“I care deeply for my state,” he says. “In order for it to grow, we need to restructure our tax and education systems.”

In the current political season, Mr. Sinquefield has given $400,000 to Republican secretary of state candidate Shane Schoeller, a 41-year-old free-marketeer who supports education reform. Mr. Sinquefield has backed at least a dozen other candidates in the 2012 campaign—mostly, but not exclusively, Republicans. Democrats can get a check if they’re tax cutters who favor education reform or free markets. Chris Koster, a Republican-turned-Democrat running for re-election as Missouri attorney general, received a $250,000 check this year.

Full article here: http://online.wsj.com

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