Rick Santorum's campaign for the Republican nomination for president is getting a big boost from the support of a legendary stock picker from the 80s and 90s.
Foster Friess, who founded Friess Associates LLC, the investment adviser for the Brandywine Fund, has thrown his considerable funding weight behind Republican candidate Rick Santorum.
Mr. Friess is responsible for setting up the Red, White and Blue Super Political Action Committee, which The New York Times credited with helping fuel Mr. Santorum's three state sweep this week by purchasing TV ads on his behalf. Mr. Friess had donated $331, 000, or 40% of assets, to the fund as of Dec. 31, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission.
Mr. Friess is no stranger to backing presidential candidates. In 2008, he was a big supporter of Mitt Romney, this year's Republican front-runner. Mr. Santorum has a better shot of beating President Barack Obama in a general election this year though, Mr. Friess told ABC News.
“There would be nothing wrong with rallying around Gov. Romney, but the reason I'm not going to do it is because I think Rick Santorum has a much better chance of beating President Obama,” Mr. Friess told ABC News. “If you were to call up central casting and say, ‘Send me over someone to run against this dynamic, articulate, charismatic, 50-year-old president of ours, and then they listed Rick's qualities … 53 years old, starts each morning with 50 pushups, is the grandson of a coal miner, has demonstrated the ability to win blue-collar votes by winning in Pennsylvania, which had over 1 million Democratic registration advantage, and grew up on a Veterans Administration hospital grounds where his father worked, and is a fellow of modest means.”
Mr. Friess made a name for himself as a growth investor in the 1980s and 1990s. The Brandywine Fund, which he managed, had annualized returns of 20% throughout the 1990s. He retired from the day-to-day management of the fund in 2001, handing the reigns over to Bill D'Alonzo, who had co-managed the fund since 1985.
The Brandywine Fund has fallen on hard times since Mr. Friess departed, said Rob Wherry, mutual fund analyst at Morningstar Inc.
It peaked in 1997 with approximately $8.7 billion in assets but has since shrunk to $1.3 billion. The culprit has been consistently poor returns.
The fund's managed annualized returns of just 2.2% over the past 10 years compare with the midcap mutual fund average of 6.7% over the same time period. The underperformance has landed the fund in the bottom 5% of its category.
Spokesmen for Mr. Friess and the Brandywine Fund did not return calls for comment.
