But so far only five have responded and he admitted: 'I still need to find a big backer or things will be really difficult.'

His remarks on pay are likely to infuriate unions, including some of the party's biggest financial backers.

The party was one of the measure's biggest financial backers.

No one has been a bigger backer than Governor James.

I thought his biggest backer was the public through 10 and 20 dollar bills.

Then the biggest backer smiled and asked, "How many minutes do you have on your calling plan?"

Softbank, which initially invested $20 million, became one of its biggest backers.

Otherwise, it is blue sky all the way, with predictions of breakthrough technology and big corporate backers.

"Do you know who the biggest backers of that graft were?"

State funding is seen by most sides as the only way to reduce dependence on big backers.