Syracuse University isn’t the only place trustee Steven Barnes has sought influence outside of his professional career.

He is also a frequent donor in elections, having given hundreds of thousands of dollars to political campaigns and fundraisers over the past 15 years. Barnes and his wife, Deborah Barnes, have donated a combined $651,400 in elections, including more than $450,000 to Mitt Romney and Romney-affiliated organizations, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Romney is the founder of Bain Capital, the private equity firm where Barnes has long been an executive.

Barnes did not return requests for comment on this story.

FEC filings show that Barnes first began giving to political campaigns in October 2002, when he donated $5,000 to the Massachusetts Republican Party. Romney won on the Republican ticket for Massachusetts governor that year.

Since the 2002 election, Barnes has made dozens of other campaign contributions, usually to Romney or other Republicans. But Barnes has also given to Democrats. He and Deborah each gave $2,000 to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in 2003. Barnes has also donated to Alan Khazei, a Democrat, and Stephen Pagliuca, the co-chairman of Bain Capital who was a Democratic candidate for the United States Senate in 2009.

Barnes, who became a trustee at SU in 2008, began donating directly to Romney and Romney-affiliated organizations in 2007, when Romney announced his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election. During that election cycle, Barnes and Deborah gave a total of $14,600 to Romney and the Free and Strong America PAC, a Romney-affiliated super PAC.

In 2011 and 2012, Barnes and Deborah gave a combined $406,600 to Romney and Romney-affiliated super PACs. They also each donated $30,800 to the Republican National Committee in 2012, the election cycle in which Romney clinched the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.

Barnes was not the only Bain Capital executive to donate to Romney’s presidential bid. Domenic Ferrante and John Connaughton, two other managing directors for Bain, each donated more than $300,000 to Romney and Romney-affiliated PACs during the election cycle.

Laura Friedenbach, the deputy communications director for Every Voice, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for campaign finance reform, said candidates are at an advantage when they have wealthy individuals funding their campaigns.

“Candidates without wealthy networks, including many women and people of color, are shut out of the process entirely,” she said. “What we need is a new way of running for office that prioritizes small donors over big donors, so that everyone, not just those who can write large checks, (has) a voice in our democracy.”

Barnes has donated to campaigns less regularly in recent years. FEC filings show that he and Deborah have each made just one donation since 2013. Last year, they both gave $2,700 to Tanner Ainge, a Republican candidate for a House seat in Utah.

Published on April 25, 2018 at 11:03 pm

Contact Michael: mdburk01@syr.edu