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People with Bain ties give $3m to pro-Romney super PAC

Over the past year, Mitt Romney’s former Bain Capital colleagues gave $3 million to the super PAC that supports the Republican presidential candidate, Restore Our Future.

The super PAC raised $18 million from 200 donors in the last six months of 2011, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission released at midnight. Bain-related people provided 10 percent of the $30.1 million collected over all of last year.

Domenic Ferrante, a managing director and portfolio manager with Bain’s Brookside hedge fund, gave $250,000. Bain Capital managing director John Connaughton gave $250,000, while managing director Steven Barnes and his wife gave $125,000 each.

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Romney’s other big backers over the year at Boston-based Bain are Paul Edgerley, a managing director for Bain Capital’s hedge fund group who goes way back to the firm’s start with Romney. He and his wife Sandra each gave the super PAC $500,000. Another partner, Stephen Zide, gave $250,000.

A retired Bain Capital partner, Edward Conard, gave $1 million in April last year.

The super PAC has also received support from other well-known Boston business figures, including $500,000 from Jim Davis, chairman of New Balance Athletic Shoe Inc.; $250,000 from Reebok founder Paul Fireman; and $250,000 from David Mugar, whose family founded the Star Market supermarket chain.

Numerous hedge fund and private equity investors contributed to the super PAC. Kevin Landry and Andy McLane of the Boston private equity shop TA Associates gave a combined $170,000.

The Bain donations are on top of the political support Romney has received from Bain employees that is subject to the federal limits on campaign giving. Edgerley, Ferrante, Connaughton and Zide also gave the Romney campaign the maximum $2,500 each last year. Employees of Bain Capital and Bain Co., the consulting firm where Romney started out before launching the investment firm, contributed $1.4 million directly to the Romney campaign last year.

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Beth Healy can be reached at bhealy@globe.com.