Tom Steyer (makes the Koch bros look like saints)

[russ1945]

[h=2]Steyer Successfully Buys Keystone Opposition[/h]After taking millions in Steyer cash, left-wing senators sink pipeline bill


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Tom Steyer / AP​

BY: Lachlan Markay
November 19, 2014 11:45 am
Tom Steyer’s multi-million-dollar investment in Senate Democrats paid off Tuesday evening with the defeat of a bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline.
“With today’s vote, the Senate chose to stand up for the American people,” Steyer declared in a statement after the bill fell one short vote of the 60 necessary to break a Democratic filibuster.
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D., La.) pushed hard for the measure as she faces a tough runoff battle against her Republican challenger, Rep. Bill Cassidy, who sponsored companion legislation in the House.
Landrieu has attracted Steyer’s ire for her Keystone support. His super PAC, NextGen Climate Action, even threatened to attack her directly over her pro-energy positions.
Thirteen of Landrieu’s Democratic colleagues joined her in supporting Keystone on Tuesday. Just one more Democratic vote would’ve sent the measure to the president’s desk.
Leading the anti-Keystone charge were a number of senators who have vocally supported Steyer’s efforts since he ramped up his political efforts last year.
Six Democratic Senators attended a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser at Steyer’s home in February. They included Mark Udall (D., Colo.), Jeanne Shaheen (D., N.H.), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.), and Sens. Ben Cardin (D., Md.), Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.). All six voted against the pipeline.
NextGen spent more than $7 million supporting Udall’s (D., Colo.) reelection bid, or attacking his opponent, Rep. Cory Gardner. Gardner prevailed, but Udall voted with Steyer on Tuesday.
The group also dropped more than $3 million attacking unsuccessful New Hampshire Republican Senate candidate Scott Brown. His opponent, Shaheen, voted against approving the pipeline.
NextGen eventually spent more than $60 million on federal elections, primarily a handful of Senate races. A majority of its chosen candidates lost their races.
Despite a resounding defeat at the polls in the midterms, Democrats are increasingly relying on campaign cash from hardline environmentalists. Those groups say that a purist Democratic Party without energy policy dissenters such as Landrieu is preferable to a Senate majority.
“We think the value gained in showing the Democratic Party that they need to be better on climate issues outweighs the marginal differences,” an operative with the radical environmentalist group 350.org told the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank.
“This is about sort of instigating a cultural shift and a political shift that sends a message to politicians that they all need to be better on climate issues,” she added.

 

[russ1945]

[h=2]Major Dem Donor Arrested for Sexual Abuse of Teen Boy[/h]

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Terrence Bean and President Barack Obama / terrybeanpdx Flickr​

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
November 21, 2014 10:14 am
Terrence Patrick Bean, a prominent gay rights activist and donor to the Democratic Party, was arrested on Wednesday for allegations of sexual abuse of a 15-year-old boy, according to The Oregonian.

The indictment charges Bean with two counts of third-degree sodomy, a felony, and one count of third-degree sex abuse, a misdemeanor, police said.
Bean, who bailed out of jail by late Wednesday afternoon, will be arraigned on the indictment in Lane County.
​

Bean has raised $1,036,895 for Obama’s political campaigns since 2007. The Oregonian also notes that Bean’s relationship with Obama has included multiple meetings with the President, including a ride on Air Force One.

Bean’s Flickr account shows him talking with Obama at several events, posing with first lady Michelle Obama and numerous other political figures, including former President Bill Clinton. A blog post from his sister, Sue Surdam Bean, detailed her brother’s work on a July 24, 2012 Obama fundraiser in Portland. She included three photos of Terry Bean’s ride on Air Force One with Obama to a subsequent event in Seattle.
​

 

[russ1945]

[h=2]Tom Steyer, Democracy Alliance Funding Support Network for Iran Deal[/h]

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Tom Steyer / AP​

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
November 20, 2014 11:45 am
Both billionaire donor Tom Steyer and the Democracy Alliance are funders of a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C., that is calling for a “all-hands-on-deck effort” to rally support for any Iran deal the Obama administration may reach.
Power Line reports:

We have written often about Tom Steyer, the coal magnate turned “green” energy crony who has become the largest funder of the Democratic Party, and the Democracy Alliance, an umbrella group of left-wing donors that supports a variety of liberal organizations. Steyer and the Alliance are usually associated with domestic issues, but one foreign policy organization that both support is the Truman National Security Project.
​

The Truman National Security Project’s effort to create a network of supporters of the White House efforts to come to a nuclear agreement with Iran on its nuclear program, even before the details of a final nuclear deal have emerged, was revealed in internal emails obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
Power Line’s John Hinderaker writes that the support of Truman from Steyer and the Democracy Alliance donor network says a lot about the effort.

This is highly revealing: Truman was formed for “exactly” this purpose, that is, to generate an astroturf campaign in blind obedience to Obama administration foreign policies, whatever they may turn out to be. Global warming, no way; Iranian bomb, no problem. Truman parrots the Obama administration’s foreign policy priorities, however perverse they may be.
​

 

[russ1945]

[h=2]Steyer Fundraising Goal Falls $40 Million Short[/h]

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Tom Steyer / AP​

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
December 5, 2014 1:26 pm
Tom Steyer pledged to raise $50 million for his personal Super PAC during the 2014 election cycle. He failed miserably, public records show.
Federal Election Commission filings for Steyer’s group, NextGen Climate Action, show that it raised just $10 million from donors other than Steyer.
The billionaire hedge fund tycoon donated $57 million of his own money to the effort.
Despite its sizable war chest, NextGen fared poorly on election day. It won just three of the seven races in which it got involved. In all but one, polls improved for Republican candidates after NextGen began running ads.
Steyer continues to insist that he succeeded in making climate change a “wedge issue” during the midterms despite significant polling data to the contrary and statements from pollsters who say the issue barely registered for midterm voters.

 

[russ1945]

[h=2]Steyer’s Controversial Hedge Fund Could Thwart Senate Bid[/h]Environmentalist billionaire’s career in finance offers Democratic rivals a populist line of attack


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Tom Steyer / AP​

BY: Lachlan Markay
January 15, 2015 5:15 pm

Tom Steyer’s Tuesday column in the Huffington Post laying out his rationale for a potential U.S. Senate run had one glaring omission: He neglected to even mention his 20 years at a hedge fund whose shady business practices could weigh down his candidacy.
The billionaire environmentalist’s column made a passing reference to his “private sector” experience, but only discussed his and his wife’s founding of Beneficial State Bank, which recently teamed up with an environmental activist group to reward customers for flying carbon-spewing commercial airlines.
It made no mention of Farallon Capital Management, the hedge fund management firm that Steyer founded in 1987 and led until late 2012. Steyer, who has an estimated net worth of $1.6 billion, made the fortune that he has since poured into American elections at Farallon.
His conspicuous silence on this issue could be a sign that Steyer recognizes the potential liabilities of a career financing ventures that many progressives have dubbed socially or environmentally destructive.
While Steyer led Farallon, it was tied to illegal attempts to manipulate the Russian economy, an alleged $67 million Ponzi scheme, the construction of numerous coal-fired power plants, and an attempt to effectively drain a small Colorado town’s water supply.
Steyer’s firm so irked the left that it inspired a student divestment movement aimed at convincing university endowments to drop all of their holdings in Farallon funds. The movement began at Yale University, Steyer’s alma mater.
Farallon’s record would likely hurt him during a contest for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.). Steyer has signaled interest in running for the seat, and says he will make a decision soon.
Steyer is arguably the most politically prominent environmentalist in the country, having poured $74 million into Super PACs during the 2014 midterm election cycle. However, experts say that Steyer’s history at Farallon provides easy fodder for attack ads from candidates running to his left.
The phrase “hedge fund” is a political epithet in California, explained Hoover Institution fellow and Republican media consultant Bill Whalen.
If Steyer starts throwing punches at California attorney general Kamala Harris, who has declared her candidacy in the race, Whalen said, “the easiest punch to throw back would be how he made his money.”
That narrative provides an easy target for left-wing critics of both Farallon’s specific investments in environmentally destructive ventures or ones that profited from neoliberal development in the third world, and of the American financial system more generally.
“The critique was partly just the model, not just that Farallon is a particularly awful hedge fund,” Andrea Johnson, an activist in the Farallon divestment campaign, told the Washington Free Beaconin 2013. “That’s just the way the financial sector works: you tend to make a lot more money off of things that are bad for the environment.”
Steyer may recognize the potential pitfalls of his career in finance. In an online Q&A on the website Reddit on Thursday, he distanced himself from the hedge fund he founded and ran for a quarter century.
“While my decades of investing taught me an awful lot, my conscience wouldn’t let me stay any longer in the private sector,” he wrote. “I want to be part of the solution.”
Whalen noted that Steyer’s nascent political operation is already attempting to define him in ways that avoid any references to his work at Farallon in order “to minimize the wealth issue” and “sell him as a do-gooder.”
A December poll commissioned by that operation—which has dubbed itself “Team Cincinnatus” in an apparent reference to the revered Roman statesman—purported to find significant support in California for a candidate with Steyer’s background.
The poll described his environmentalist work in detail, and asked respondents about their views on “a successful businessman who understands how the global 21st Century economy works.” But the poll did not describe Steyer’s actual business background.
The structure of California’s “top two” primary system, in which the top two vote-getters of either party are placed on the general election ballot, could increase the intensity of attacks against Steyer, Democratic operative Kalee Kreider told National Journal.
“He and his family haven’t faced the political colonoscopy of a statewide campaign in a jungle primary system which would be different than the scrutiny he has received in the past,” Kreider said.
The top-two primary system could also result in a head-to-head contest between two Democrats, increasing the likelihood that attacks against Steyer from the left would continue right up until November.
Steyer’s conservative opponents seized on some Farallon-backed ventures to attack his efforts to elect Democrats around the country during the 2014 midterms.
One group, American Commitment, ran an advertisement calling Steyer one of the “biggest hypocrites in America.”
“Tom Steyer made his fortune as an international coal financier while enticing investors with a tax-avoidance strategy featuring offshore shelters in the Caymans, Mauritius, and Singapore,“ said Phil Kerpen, the group’s president. “Now he’s using that fortune to support liberal Democrats who want to hike taxes and deny hardworking Americans access to the same affordable energy resources that made him rich.”
Kerpen said in an email that he expects Steyer’s business background to be a liability if he decides to run for Senate.
“Steyer made billions running hedge funds in offshore tax havens and investing in dirty coal projects abroad. He’s written his apologies, but it’s still where the money that will fund his campaign came from,” Kerpen said.
Some of Farallon’s controversial business practices involved projects in California, which could make them particularly appealing targets for political opponents.
In 1999, a Farallon-owned golf course opened in San Martin, Calif., a town south of San Jose. Its use permit from Santa Clara County required that it maintain at least 60 percent of the land for public use and that it take measures to protect the habitats of two threatened species on the land.
A 2002 review by the county’s planning commission found that it had reneged on both agreements. The club charged $250,000 for an annual membership to the course, and hadn’t built two agreed-upon ponds to accommodate the threatened species.
By 2005, Farallon was looking to sell its stake in the venture for “at least 20 percent and perhaps as much as 30 percent on their original investment,” a return “likely worth millions,” according to theSilicon Valley Business Journal.

This entry was posted in Politics and tagged Tom Steyer. Bookmark the permalink.

 

[DogDaze]

Gee, another Russ copy and paste thread that no one reads....yipee.

 

[Dave007inVegas]

Gee, another Russ copy and paste thread that no one reads....yipee.

Are you insinuating that you are no one?

 

[russ1945]

Gee, another Russ copy and paste thread that no one reads....yipee.

So you comment on things you don't read, that is retarded. I started this thread because you liberals were making the Koch Bros out to be evil. I would be willing to bet you never heard of Steyer before this thread. This thread has perpetuated since 4-21-14 and why, because Steyer represents everything you kind of guys do not want to acknowledge. Guys like Steyer define the Democratic Party. Steyer does not get exposed by the lame stream media. Yes the uninformed got Obama into office along with guys like Steyer. But, last November, the informed prevailed and you guys lost the Senate and now are the minority in both houses. Yippee, that would be a response from someone who is happy because he has nothing to add to the conversation and that the topic is too much for him to cope with honestly. The Dog Daze ended in November, remember. LOL Guys like you don't get it and you never will.

“Steyer made billions running hedge funds in offshore tax havens and investing in dirty coal projects abroad. He’s written his apologies, but it’s still where the money that will fund his campaign came from,” Kerpen said.

 

[DogDaze]

Are you insinuating that you are no one?

Is this actually supposed to be funny?

 

[DogDaze]

Don't get what, Russ? LOL

I just like coming into your threads so I can count the "lame stream media" and "Benghazi" references.....

 

[Dave007inVegas]

Is this actually supposed to be funny?

If the shoe fits.

 

[russ1945]

If the shoe fits.

That dude wears loafers because he does not know how to tie shoes.

 

[Dave007inVegas]

That dude wears loafers because he does not know how to tie shoes.

 

[russ1945]

I was thinking clown shoes lol

 

[DogDaze]

You are a regular riot, Russ.

I hope you have a great weekend.

 

[russ1945]

[h=2]Tom Steyer’s Deep Ties to Oregon Corruption Scandal[/h]Top advisers to billionaire Dem donor helped run group accused of illicit payments to Oregon’s first lady


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Police outside outside the home of Gov. John Kitzhaber of Oregon. / AP​

BY: Lachlan Markay
February 13, 2015 1:20 pm

Top advisers to the billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer helped run a green group, financed in part by Steyer himself, that is at the center of a corruption scandal that could force the Democratic governor of Oregon to resign.
An executive at one of Steyer’s nonprofit groups and a political vendor who has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the hedge fund manager’s political operations helped run the group, which is accused of influencing state energy policy through undisclosed payments to Oregon’s first lady.
The controversy centers on Gov. John Kitzhaber’s fiancée, Cylvia Hayes. She was paid $118,000 by the Clean Economy Development Center (CEDC) to advocate for environmentalist policies in Oregon.
Hayes never disclosed those payments, despite acting as an informal adviser to the governor as he pushed a low-carbon fuel standard for the state.
Dan Carol, then a strategic adviser to CEDC, helped Hayes land the position. He was given a $165,000-per-year job in the Kitzhaber administration.
Kitzhaber is expected to resign today under intense scrutiny over the scandal. The scandal could extend beyond Oregon given Steyer’s involvement. Steyer has donated millions to a group that helped finance Hayes’ position, which could ensnare one of the Democratic Party’s most prominent fundraisers in the scandal.
Hayes was reportedly a fellow at the CEDC in 2011 and 2012, but as of late as August of last year, she was still listed on a since-deleted page of its website.
Also listed on that page was Kate Gordon, a member of the CEDC’s board. Gordon leads the energy and climate division of Next Generation, an environmental nonprofit group founded by Steyer.
Another director of the group, according to the website, was Mike Casey. Casey runs a media and public relations firm called Tigercomm that does polling and advertising work for Steyer’s Super PAC, NextGen Climate Action.
Casey reportedly wrote NextGen’s communications strategy for its involvement in elections in Massachusetts and Virginia in 2013. NextGen and another Steyer group, the CE Action Committee, paid Tigercomm $387,000 that year.
CEDC executive director Jeff King said in an email that Casey and Gordon were never board members, “but were erroneously listed as such at one point.” He would not say who listed them, why, when, or what their roles with the organization were. The IRS revoked CEDC’s tax exempt status in August after it failed to file annual reports for three straight years.
Former CEDC board members, according to the website, include Andy Stern, the former president of the Service Employees International Union. His former assistant, Josie Mooney, is a strategic adviser to NextGen.
David Chen, a former member of CEDC’s advisory board, has hosted Steyer at events held by his investment firm, Equilibrium Capital. Steyer also sits on the board of the Center for American Progress, whose senior fellow in energy and environmental policy, Bracken Hendricks, was listed as a CEDC adviser.
As his team and others to which he has ties helped run CEDC, Steyer steered funds to the group financing Hayes’ fellowship.
Internal Revenue Servicing filings show that the Energy Foundation provided $75,000 to CEDC in2011 and 2012. The foundation said the funds would help “build support for dean energy policy in the Northwest.” It told the Oregonian that it was supporting the fellowship specifically.
Steyer’s TomKat Charitable Trust has donated more than $3 million to the Energy Foundation.
Steyer is arguably the nation’s most prominent environmentalist financier, but other high-dollar donors to similar groups also bankrolled CEDC generally and Hayes’ fellowship specifically.
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a foundation that provides significant financial support for U.S. green groups, granted $25,000 to CEDC in 2012 specifically earmarked for its Clean Economy Acceleration Fellowship Program.
That came after a $100,000 grant to CEDC the year before, itemized as “general support.”
Jessica Bailey, until 2012 a program officer for sustainable development at RBF, also served as a strategic adviser to CEDC.
A former CEDC director, Aimee Christensen, also worked with RBF through her consulting firm, Christensen Global Strategies. According to its website, another of her clients was the Sea Change Foundation, which has quietly poured hundreds of millions of dollars into U.S. environmentalist groups.
Among those groups is the Energy Foundation, which has received nearly $65 million from Sea Change.
Updated: Comment from CEDC’s Jeff King added above.

This entry was posted in Issues and tagged Corruption, Cronyism, Governor, Green Energy, Oregon. Bookmark thepermalink.

 

[russ1945]

[h=2]Complaint: Extensive Campaign Finance Violations by Clinton-Tied Data Firm[/h]Democratic firm Catalist may have facilitated illegal coordination by Dems, outside groups


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AP​

BY: Lachlan Markay
February 20, 2015 11:36 am

A Democratic data firm run by supporters of a Hillary Clinton presidential campaign may be illegally supporting and coordinating with the Democratic Party and the offices of senior members of Congress, according to a legal complaint filed on Friday.
Democrat data giant Catalist is providing below-market services for its ideological and partisan allies and providing a forum for those allies—which include political and policy groups that are legally required to operate independently—to coordinate their electoral and advocacy efforts.
The allegations are spelled out in a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission on Friday by a new conservative ethics watchdog called the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust.
The FEC complaint names as respondents the Democratic National Committee, dozens of members of Congress, the Clinton presidential campaign, and top contributors to and supporters of that campaign.
According to the complaint, Catalist, a limited liability corporation, operates as a de facto political group. According to news reports, it is less concerned with turning a profit than with providing data services to Democrats at favorable rates.
However, political entities that receive services at below-market rates are required to disclose those services as in-kind contributions. FACT alleges that scores of Democratic politicians and political groups have failed to do so.
“Since Catalist’s rates appear not to be the ‘usual and normal’ charge for these services, the Commission should investigate whether this constitutes an excessive, prohibited, and unreported contribution from Catalist to its federal campaign and party clients,” FACT wrote.
Catalist’s clients include members of Congress, Democratic Party organs, and independent expenditure groups that are legally prohibited from coordinating with political campaigns. Citing statements by Catalist clients, FACT argues that the firm has served as a means to coordinate all of their efforts behind the scenes.
Its independent expenditure clients “have access to the Democratic political party and federal candidate client lists and voter files through the ‘seamless links across the activist left’ created by Catalist,” FACT notes.
“Accordingly, the Commission should determine if the ‘independent expenditures’ made by these soft-money outside groups satisfy” requirements that they operate independently of political parties and campaigns.
Allegations in the complaint also raise questions about Catalist’s origins. Its founder and president, Harold Ickes, currently sits on the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, which Ickes said in 2013 is “the most important committee at the DNC because of its role in shaping the nomination process.”
“The Commission should investigate the relationship” between Catalist and the DNC to determine if the firm is “financed, maintained, or controlled by the DNC and is, therefore, subject to the soft money ban,” FACT wrote.
The Ickes connection could also draw Clinton’s expected presidential campaign into the controversy. “When I saw Harold reappointed to the DNC [in 2013], he surely, in my judgment, symbolizes the return of the Clintons,” said Donna Brazile, another member of the committee.
Ickes, who served as Bill Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, founded Catalist in 2005 after John Kerry’s failure to unseat President George W. Bush. It quickly began laying the groundwork for Clinton’s failed 2008 presidential run.
Shortly before returning to the DNC, Ickes took a position on the board of Ready for Hillary, a Super PAC pushing her candidacy. Ickes has donated to the group, as has Janice Enright, his partner in the eponymous Democratic consultancy Ickes and Enright.
Catalist derives revenue from its paying clients, many of which are named as respondents to FACT’s complaint. Listed clients include 382 Democratic congressional campaign committees, the DNC, its House and Senate campaign arms, the Clinton presidential campaign, the Obama reelection campaign, and eight state Democratic Parties.
The firm also gets money from numerous donors. Chief among them is liberal billionaire George Soros, who gave the group $2.5 million in 2013.
Soros is one of the top political financiers associated with the Democracy Alliance, a shadowy network of liberal and Democratic donors that has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to leading left-wing political and policy groups.
Catalist is one of 21 organizations that benefit from the lion’s share of DA support. Because it is a private company and not subject to political disclosure requirements, it is difficult to know which DA partners contributed to the firm.
Other internal Democracy Alliance documents lend credence to FACT’s allegations. A PowerPoint presentation at the group’s November donor conference in Washington, D.C., suggested private data firms could be used as a means to circumvent legal prohibitions on coordination between various political entities.
One slide in that presentation described the “legal firewall” between independent expenditure groups and political parties and campaigns. But it noted that that political vendors that focus on “data, analytics, and research” can work with all categories of groups.
It illustrated the point with arrows between groups that cannot legally cooperate traversing the firewall.
Catalist recently teamed up with another Democratic technology firm, NGP VAN, which controls the DNC’s voter database and counts virtually every federal Democrat as a client.
FACT alleges that cooperation between the two firms is an effort “to create a seamless mechanism for the Democratic Party’s federal candidates and political party committees to join with liberal outside groups” in sharing voter data.
“This collaboration has provided an opportunity for Democratic federal campaigns, Democratic Party committees and liberal outside groups to use the advantages of a common vendor to ensure that their voter contact efforts are complementary,” FACT says.
That was the explicit purpose of creating a central Democratic data hub, according to news reports cited in the complaint.
The 2008 Obama campaign, which bought data from Catalist, looked to “create seamless links across the activist left, including outside groups with whom candidates were legally prohibited from coordinating directly,” according to Sasha Issenberg’s 2013 book The Victory Lab.
Catalist itself admitted that its work with various clients that could not legally coordinate served all of their interests. “Results suggest that targeting differences between federal and independent groups, and their new, sophisticated data, were complimentary,” the firm said after the 2008 election.
The complaint against Catalist is FACT’s first salvo as a newly formed conservative ethics watchdog group. The 501(c)(3) nonprofit is run by Matthew Whitaker, a former U.S. Attorney and an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Iowa.
FACT’s formation comes shortly after groups with ties to the Clintons and the Democratic Party have stepped up their use of official legal complaints to ding ideological and partisan opponents.
The network of groups run by Clinton supporter David Brock recently absorbed Citizens for Responsibly and Ethics in Washington, the left-leaning watchdog group that has recently played a role in efforts by Democratic operatives to stoke ethics controversy over the personal finances of a member of House Republican leadership.
Brock’s network also includes the American Democracy Legal Fund, which exists to lodge legal complaints against Republicans. The ADLF is run by Brad Woodhouse, the president of pro-Clinton Super PAC American Bridge.
“We are dedicated to exposing unethical behavior and making sure it receives the attention it deserves,” FACT says on its website. “The mission of FACT is simple: To strengthen our democracy by demanding the truth.”

This entry was posted in Politics and tagged 2016 Election, Democracy Alliance, Democratic Donors, Hillary Clinton.

 

[russ1945]

[h=2]Federal Court Blocks Dem’s Attempt to Out Conservative Donors[/h]Citing First Amendment, judge enjoins California from forcing Koch-backed nonprofit to disclose supporters


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Kamala Harris, California's attorney general and a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate / AP​

BY: Lachlan Markay
February 19, 2015 1:35 pm

A federal court on Tuesday blocked efforts by officials in California to force a conservative group to hand over the names of its donors, saying the order could violate those donors’ First Amendment rights.
Kamala Harris, California’s attorney general and a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, demanded last year that the Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFPF) turn over its donor rolls. The court enjoined that demandpending the outcome of AFPF’s suit attempting to invalidate the order.
AFPF claims that the disclosure would subject its donors to “grotesque threats” similar to the routine attacks against Charles and David Koch, the group’s founders, and would therefore chill their free speech. The court agreed.
“Donors who have witnessed harassment of those perceived to be connected with plaintiff’s co-founders have experienced their unwillingness to continue to participate if such limited disclosure is made,” said Judge Manuel Real of the District Court of the Central District of California.
AFPF, the judge said, “has proffered sufficient evidence establishing that public disclosure would have a chilling effect on free speech.”
Harris’ does not have adequate measures in place to compartmentalize and protect sensitive personal information contained in AFPF’s annual tax filings, the court noted.
Its policies regarding the treatment of identifying donor information, the court said, is “impermissibly entirely discretionary and could change at any moment.”
Attorneys representing Harris objected to the orderon the grounds that it enjoined the attorney general from gathering any information that would identify donors, not simply the specific tax filings that the state initially demanded from the group.
Harris did not object to the more narrow provisions of the injunction, which protects AFPF from having to furnish those tax filings specifically.
In a separate injunction last week, Real blocked the public disclosure of that information in light of death threats and other instances of harassment and intimidation against the Kochs and others affiliated with AFPF.
The judge noted at the time that AFPF had presented evidence suggesting that merely disclosing that information to the state would leave donors vulnerable to harassment. It cited previous attempts by high-ranking California officials to erroneously link the Kochs to campaign finance violations in the state.
Tuesday’s ruling is not a final determination on the merits of AFPF’s position, but rather an effort to prevent violations of its donors’ First Amendment rights while the court considers the case.
However, the ruling is a major victory for AFP and other groups fighting mandatory donor disclosure for 501(c)(4) issue advocacy groups that generally are not required by federal law to disclose their donors.
It is also a setback for Harris, whose focus on AFPF dovetails with a national Democratic strategy of vilifying Republican donors, especially the Kochs.
Harris is already running a scorched earth campaign, targeting potential Democratic rivals for a U.S. Senate seat that will be left vacant next year with the retirement of Sen. Barbara Boxer. “I make no apologies,” Harris said of her aggressive campaign style.
Attacks on the Kochs could be a useful populist foil for her campaign.
Anti-Koch sentiment has paid dividends for Ann Ravel, until 2013 the chair of the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission. Ravel made headlines that year when she accused the Kochs of supporting two groups that copped to campaign finance violations during the 2012 elections.
Ravel was forced to retract her claim after the Kochs denied any involvement with the groups, but not before President Obama appointed her as the co-chair of the Federal Election Commission.
Harris and Ravel teamed up to win a $1 million settlement from the two groups in 2013. That helped establish the former’s anti-Koch bona fides, pleasing many progressive commentators looking toward the 2016 Senate race.
Dan Newman, a political consultant in California, has been sounding the alarm on the hundreds of millions of dollars that the Kochs and their allies plan to spend during the 2016 election cycle.
Such warnings have boosted Democratic fundraising efforts in the past. Newman is also working for Harris’ 2016 campaign.

This entry was posted in Politics and tagged Americans for Prosperity, California, Democratic Party, Koch Brothers.

 

[russ1945]

[h=2]Clinton Foundation Raked in Millions from Big Oil, Pro-Keystone Groups[/h]Environmentalists: 'It certainly raises a red flag'


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AP​

BY: Brent Scher
February 19, 2015 9:39 am

The worlds biggest oil and gas companies were major financial supporters of the Clinton Foundation last year, according to aNational Journal report.
Also contributing to the Clinton Foundation was a major Canadian trade agency pushing for approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.

According to publicly available records, ExxonMobil, Anadarko Petroleum, and the Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Development Canada agency all opened up their checkbooks for the Clintons’ charitable organization last year.
ExxonMobil has donated between $1 million and $5 million to the foundation, which works with individuals, nonprofits, and the private sector to advance a range of charitable causes. The Canadian foreign affairs, trade, and development agency donated between $250,000 and $500,000. Anadarko, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, donated between $50,000 and $100,000.
The Canadian trade agency lists strengthening ties with the United States, an aim it suggests could be achieved by building the Keystone XL pipeline, as one of its top priorities, according to the agency’s website. And the CEOs of ExxonMobil and Anadarko have publicly urged the president to green-light the pipeline, which would haul heavy crude from Canada to the Gulf Coast. [...]
BP, ConocoPhillips, Chesapeake Energy, CITGO Petroleum, and Occidental Petroleum have also each donated between $10,000 and $25,000 to the foundation. In addition, Dow Chemical, a chemicals manufacturer that has also backed construction of Keystone, contributed to the foundation last year, donating between $1 million and $5 million.
​

Hillary Clinton has thus far refused to take a stand on the Keystone XL pipeline.
Her foundation holds that no donations are given to win favor from Clinton, saying “the Clinton Foundation is a philanthropy, period.”
Environmental groups that oppose the Keystone XL pipeline are not convinced. They are growing frustrated with Clinton’s ties to the oil industry and her refusal to take their side on environmental issues.

“We’ve long been concerned about Hillary Clinton’s ties to the oil and gas industry,” said Ben Schreiber, the climate and energy program director for Friends of the Earth. “It doesn’t shock us to see that these companies have been giving to the foundation, but it certainly raises a red flag. We’re concerned about the influence that these petrodollars have.”
Friends of the Earth and dozens of other environmental groups, including Greenpeace, penned a letter to Clinton last year calling on her to take a stand against the pipeline.
But Clinton has so far kept quiet when it comes to Keystone. In January, Clinton dodged a question about her stance on the project, saying she does not want to weigh in while the Obama administration’s review of the project is underway. That stance has frustrated environmentalists, who want to see Clinton demonstrate that environmental issues would be a top priority if she were to run for president.
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[h=2]Fossil Fuel Hypocrite Mark Ruffalo Attacks Koch Brothers[/h]

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Mark Ruffalo / AP​

BY: Brent Scher
March 25, 2015 3:49 pm

Leftist actor Mark Ruffalo, best known for his supporting role in 13 Going on 30, has not let his crusade against fossil fuels get in the way of his mass consumption of them.
Ruffalo is part of a movement of individuals pledging to use their “unique financial power” to divest from fossil fuel companies and “invest in climate solutions” called Divest-Invest. The combined pledged assets of the movement is over $2.8 billion.
Though Ruffalo has committed himself to divesting from fossil fuels, he is far from committed to reducing his own fossil fuel use.
Ruffalo is currently offering to fly (presumably on a fossil fuel-burning jet) the winners of a raffle he is running to the world premiere of Avengers: Age of Ultron.

“I appreciate you caring about the world as much as I do—or even a fraction, I’ll take,” says Ruffalo in a promotional video.
He offered the same flight deal during the filming of the movie, offering to fly the winners to the London set.
The winners of Ruffalo’s raffles will be burning just a fraction of the fossil fuels burned during the filming of the latest Avengers movie, which was filmed at 23 locations across the globe. He and the rest of the Avengers filmed in locations ranging from England to South Korea to Bangladesh to South Africa to Italy.
Airplanes are known for “consuming huge amounts of fossil fuels,” according to activists from the Campaign to Cut Airplane Pollution. Airplane travelers produce between two to three times as many emissions per mile compared with those traveling by car.
Ruffalo has asked all of his fellow Avengers to join him in divesting from fossil fuels.
In recent weeks, Ruffalo has joined the fight to convince museums to stop taking money from David Koch because he is a “science denier.”