Washington Post
By Matea Gold
May 4, 2014
A
group of wealthy liberal donors who helped bankroll the Center for
American Progress and other major advocacy groups on the left is
developing a new big-money strategy
that could boost state-level Democratic candidates and mobilize core
party voters.
The
plan, being crafted in private by a group of about 100 donors that
includes billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros and San Francisco
venture capitalist Rob McKay,
seeks to give Democrats a stronger hand in the redrawing of district
lines for state legislatures and the U.S. House.
The
effort reflects a sense among many top donors on the left that
Democrats missed opportunities in 2010 to shape the redistricting
process and contain the tea party
wave that helped propel Republican victories around the country.
Discussions
about the new plan began last week in Chicago at a four-day conference
of the Democracy Alliance, the invitation-only donor group founded in
2005 to build
the kind of network of think tanks and activist groups that has long
flourished on the right.
The
focus on ground-level politics would mark a new emphasis for the
Democracy Alliance, whose members have helped finance influential
national liberal groups such as
Media Matters for America, the media watchdog group; America Votes,
which coordinates the efforts of allied interest groups; and Catalist,
which provides voter data. The Center for American Progress, created
during the George W. Bush years, has emerged as
one of Washington’s powerhouse think tanks, serving as an intellectual
engine for the liberal movement and the Obama White House.
The
alliance’s new president, Gara LaMarche, is pushing the group to take a
“fresh look” at its overarching strategy as part of a regular
three-year review of the organizations
that it recommends for funding. The existing groups “have gotten to a
certain scale that puts us in a better place,” he said. “The question
we’re asking ourselves is, what are the capacities that need our
resources now?”
Early
ideas that have garnered support include directing more money to
state-level donor groups, voting rights projects and organizations
working to rally “the rising
American electorate,” LaMarche said. “It’s becoming increasingly clear
that mobilization and engagement of women, Latinos, African Americans
and young people is the way to win elections,” he said, “and there’s a
strong desire to invest more heavily in those
communities.”
While
maintaining a low public profile, the alliance plays an influential
role as the left’s central money hub, attracting political donors
interested in more than simply
making campaign contributions. Last week’s meeting at the Ritz-Carlton
in Chicago drewan array of Democratic powerbrokers eager to influence
the donors’ thinking, including White House senior adviser Valerie
Jarrett, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Planned
Parenthood President Cecile Richards.
Many
of the group’s top contributors come from the party’s liberal wing.
That was evident last week in the conference’s theme — “A New
Progressive Era?” — and the focus
by speakers such as New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on economic
inequality.
The
Democracy Alliance does not make contributions itself. Instead, donors
who join the alliance, known as “partners,” are required to contribute
at least $200,000 a year
to groups it recommends. Among the partners are some of the country’s
largest labor unions.
The
system has pumped an estimated $500 million into an array of
organizations on the left over the past nine years, according to the
alliance. The group’s leaders had
originally hoped the sums would be larger by now. By comparison, a
network of politically active nonprofits backed by the Kochs and other
conservative donors raised $400 million just in the 2012 elections.
But
alliance membership has been ticking up recently, group officials said.
Well-known Democratic patrons such as San Francisco hedge fund manager
Tom Steyer and Houston
trial lawyers Steve and Amber Mostyn joined in the past few years.
Eleven new donors have come aboard in the last several months alone,
officials said.
In
Chicago, alliance partners pledged to give about $30 million this year
to 20 liberal groups endorsed by the group, a slight boost over the
amount raised for the same
organizations last year.
A
topline concern of many attendees: keeping Democratic control of the
Senate. Speakers included Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Kentucky Democrat
challenging Senate Minority
Leader Mitch McConnell, as well as White House political director David
Simas, who discussed how the president’s health-care legislation can be
a boon to Democrats on the ballot.
“There’s
a lot of anxiety about the midterms,” said McKay, the outgoing
chairman, who said substantial investment this year will go to local and
state minimum-wage campaigns
that can help drive turnout for federal races.
But
much of the conference, more than in past meetings, was dedicated to
long-range strategy, attendees said. One participant, requesting
anonymity to discuss private
deliberations, described a sense in the group that “it is time to
evaluate everything.”
That
process could change where the money flows on the left. The alliance
will determine in November which groups it will recommend for funding
over the next three years.
The
Chicago conclave — which featured a wine party in the Ritz-Carlton’s
sky-view presidential suite and a private tour of the Art Institute of
Chicago — drew accusations
of hypocrisy from Republican Party officials, who noted that the
wealthy donors met privately even as Senate Majority Leader Harry M.
Reid (D-Nev.) was railing about the behind-the-scenes influence of the
conservative patrons Charles and David Koch.
Democracy Alliance leaders rejected that, saying its members are seeking to reduce the influence of money on politics.
“There
is a degree of irony in using the current system to change the system,”
LaMarche said. “But the alternative is a kind of unilateral
disarmament.”
Still,
after long operating under the radar, the organization is considering
ways to share more details about its workings. McKay said he is open to
releasing information
about what organizations the alliance recommends for funding. “I
believe that we should be on a path to greater transparency about
certain things,” LaMarche said, “and I aim to get there.”
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