Ross Perot’s grandkids back Labrador

BOISE - H. Ross Perot III, the grandson of the quirky Texas billionaire who ran for president twice in the 1990s, has made a last-minute campaign contribution to Idaho GOP congressional hopeful Raul Labrador, and so have three of his family members. “Good, solid conservatives, the Perots,” said Phil Hardy, spokesman for Labrador’s campaign, who said the candidate had never met the young Perots. “They know when it’s time to get rid of someone who’s not good for our country. It really did lift our day.” H. Ross Perot III is a recent graduate of Vanderbilt University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in history last spring. He gave Labrador $2,000 on Friday, as did Peter Hunter Perot and Sarah Catherine Perot, while Sarah Fullinwider Perot donated $1,000. The contributions showed up in required 48-hour notices of last-minute campaign contributions, which must be filed for contributions of more than $1,000 within two weeks of the election. Labrador has received $36,800 of those contributions, including $5,000 from a Washington, D.C. group called “Every Republican is Crucial.” Incumbent Congressman Walt Minnick has received $92,300 in such contributions, including $5,000 from the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons and $2,000 from Hecla Mining. In addition to those donations, Labrador reported raising $60,749 for his campaign from Oct. 1 to Oct. 13, and closing that period with $83,604 on hand. Minnick reported raising $61,899 in the same period and having $372,645 on hand. Those figures are prior to the last-minute contributions in the campaign’s final two weeks.