THE MASTERS NETWORK: Winkelvoss Twins/Big Tech Investors/Uihlein Invest $4.5M Into Blake Masters' Candidacy (FOLLOWING $$$ IN AZ'S POLITICS)

The question raised last week when Saving Arizona PAC placed a $2M ad buy to support Blake Masters in his run to unseat Senator Mark Kelly has been answered. The Winkelvoss twins, Richard Uihlein and several big tech investors have stepped in to kick in at least $4.5M.

There has been much speculation about whether Masters' former employer, Peter Thiel, would continue to support the GOP nominee after spending $10M in the primary contest. He had refused and there was reporting that Thiel was facing off with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the rest of the GOP's big money establishment in who should provide the support to try to win back the Arizona seat. The plot thickened last week with the $2M ad buy and the $5.2M total spent since the primary.

This report shows that Thiel stuck to his guns, and that the Super PAC vehicle is being driven by billionaires Richard Uihlein ($3M) and Cameron and Tyler Winkelvoss ($500,000 each). (Yes, the twins featured in The Social Network movie about the disputes surrounding the founding of Facebook. They had previously contributed $50,000 each to Saving Arizona) 

Another $250,000 was kicked in by another Peter Thiel protege - David Sacks and his wife Jacqueline. They ran their money through the "Purple PAC"*

A couple of regular Arizona Republican contributors also threw in some money - builder Tom Lewis ($50,000) and Services Group of Arizona ($10,000)

Amazingly, though, this is just a drop in the bucket of money being spent on the Arizona Senate race. According to AdImpact, the overall spending has reached $110M (as of yesterday), with more than $18M in advertising spots already reserved for the next 19 days.

$80M has been spent by Kelly and Democratic-philic groups and only $30M on the Republican side.

And, just today, Saving Arizona PAC dropped another $1.4M in advertising and $114,000 in "signs".

*Interestingly, the Purple PAC has only sent small contributions to several Republican Senators, and Arizona's other Democratic Senator, Kyrsten Sinema.  

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