A GOP Super PAC plans to spend $2
million this fall to support Republican candidates who favor gay
rights.
American Unity PAC launched in 2012
with an initial $1 million donation from hedge fund manager Paul
Singer. The Super PAC's mission is to encourage Republican
candidates to support marriage equality by lending financial support.
According to USA
Today, the group has committed to back 7 congressional
candidates, including Representatives Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania
and Richard Hanna of New York and Richard Tisei, an openly gay
Republican candidate vying to represent Massachusetts in the House.
“For many years, there's been a huge
fear from Republican elected officials that if they showed courage on
issue like this, would they be able to survive politically?” said
Jeff Cook-McCormac, a spokesman for the group. “What American
Unity PAC is committed to doing is ensuring that as these courageous
elected officials follow their conscience and do the right thing,
that there is a political network in place that's there to defend
them.”
Singer, who is straight but has a gay
son who married his husband in Massachusetts, the first state to
legalize gay nuptials, is considered among the most important
Republican donors nationwide. He has given nearly $10 million of his
own money toward efforts to legalize such unions in New York, New
Hampshire and New Jersey.