Santorum's sugar daddy

CABOT, Pa. - Rick Santorum didn't have much nice to say about big business and the moneyed class last week when he announced his second campaign for the Republican presidential nomination at a factory here with a focus on the plight of working Americans.

Multimillionaire investor Foster Friess later said he did not mind the populist focus.

In 2012, Friess gave $2.1 million to a super PAC supporting Santorum. And he's planning to back the former Pennsylvania senator again – with how much, he won't say.

"That's a private question," Friess, 75, said as he prowled the shop floor, towering over the crowd in a black Resistol cowboy hat.

"I'm going to keep it pretty low-profile," he said. "What I give this session is going to be very hard to find."

He did not elaborate. Some non-profit groups can spend on political campaigns without revealing their donors; super PACs can take unlimited contributions but must report contributors.

"I don't consider myself, to get to your question, 'big money,'" Friess, of Jackson Hole, Wyo., said. "I came out of the Army with $800 in accumulated leave pay and a '62 Volkswagen. My whole life has been for the underdog because I've been an underdog." He said he wants to "create a system that allows people to thrive, and to have liberty and not have limitations on what they can achieve."

Friess built one of the nation's most successful asset-management firms and became a philanthropist, with a focus on Christian conservative causes.

He praised the burgeoning GOP field of candidates as an excellent crop, but said he would be with Santorum as long as he's in the race. "Right now I'm giving to Rick Santorum, period," Friess said.

But, noting the attendees at Santorum's kickoff rally came from 32 states, Friess predicted the candidate would not need to rely solely on the generosity of mega-donors.

"It's a lot better if he moves his campaign ahead without the big money, because that's the message," Friess said.