A
list of new members of the Democracy
Alliance offers a revealing look into the secret group of liberal
billionaires
A list of new members of the Democracy Alliance offers a revealing look
into the secret group of liberal billionaires
BY: Lachlan Markay
May 5, 2014 1:00 pm
The Democracy Alliance takes pains to ensure that its work disbursing
millions of dollars to top left-wing organizations remains secretive
and free from public scrutiny. But a document left on the floor of the
group’s recent gathering reveals for the first time the names of a
number of individuals involved in the effort.
It lists new Democracy Alliance “partners,” individuals who every year
must pay $30,000 in dues and contribute at least $200,000 to the groups
that DA supports. It also reveals names of DA “advisers,” foundation
participants, and individuals getting a “sneak peek” at the group’s
activities.
Among its new partners are top labor union bosses, financial and
business leaders, and heirs to billion-dollar fortunes who have made
names for themselves as high-dollar Democratic donors.
Security was tight at the Democracy Alliance conference last week at
the chic Ritz Carlton in Chicago. Politico reporter Ken Vogel was
manhandled by security when he tried to interview an attendee. Other
conference-goers ripped off their nametags when a Washington Free
Beacon reporter approached.
The Democracy Alliance does not actually accept donations. Instead, it
solicits contributions from left-wing millionaires and billionaires,
and serves as a “pass through” between those donors and top liberal
advocacy groups, including the Center for American Progress, Media
Matters for America, and Democratic Super PAC Priorities USA.
The group emphasizes secrecy in all of its operations, even as its
members and the DA “favored organizations” to which they donate decry
the role of “dark money” in American politics. DA does not disclose
details of any of the transactions it facilitates, and its members and
donation recipients are prohibited from speaking publicly about the
organization and its operations.
While few conference attendees would speak with the Free Beacon last
week, one mistakenly left a revealing document on the floor of a
publicly accessible area of the conference. The list of new partners
provides previously unreported details on one of the left’s most
powerful dark money groups.
Labor unions have for decades served as financiers for some of the
left’s most prominent think tanks and activist groups. The list of new
DA partner reveals increasing involvement by top labor bosses in the
group’s work financing those organizations.
New
members in 2014 include Noel Beasley, president of Workers United, a
textile union affiliated with the Service Employees International
Union, and Keith Mestrich, president of the union-owned Amalgamated
Bank, where Beasley, also a SEIU vice president, serves as chairman.
Amalgamated, which is majority-owned by the SEIU, is still owed $8.5
million by the Democratic National Committee for a pair of loans taken
out in 2012 to support the DNC’s work to reelect President Barack Obama.
“We are a partisan bank that’s owned by a union,” Mestrich told the
Washington Post last year. “There’s no question that unions are very
tight with the Democratic Party, and we make no bones about that.” He
would not answer questions about the bank’s involvement with the
Democracy Alliance at last week’s conference.
The addition of top officials at Workers United and Amalgamated comes
after DA added other top labor bosses in 2013, according to the list of
new members.
Larry
Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America, and Randi
Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, both
signed on as partners last year. The document also lists CWA senior
director George Kohl and Michelle Ringuette, Weingarten’s assistant, as
new partners in 2013.
Wingarten and Cohen both sit on the board of the Economic Policies
Institute, a labor-funded think tank. Richard Trumka, who attended last
week’s conference, is also a board member, as are SEIU president and DA
board member Mary Kay Henry, and one-time DA board member Robert
Johnson.
While union higher ups are well compensated—Weingarten and Cohen made
$550,000 and $200,000 in 2012, respectively, while Ringuette and Kohl
each pulled down more than $150,000—the $100,000 minimum aggregate
contribution requirement likely means that AFT and CWA, rather than the
individuals listed, are the entities providing DA pass-through funds,
with top union officials serving as liaisons.
Many of DA’s new partners, though, have the personal financial means to
support its favored organizations, due either to their own successful
business ventures or to large inheritances.
Amy
Goldman is one of the country’s foremost horticulturalists, but her
fortune comes from her status as heiress to one of the largest real
estate fortunes ever amassed. Goldman’s father, Sol, owned nearly 600
New York commercial real estate properties when he died in 1987. At one
point, he owned the famed Chrysler Building.
The ensuing legal battle over his $1 billion estate was at the time the
largest ever to take place in New York’s Surrogate Court, more than
doubling the previous record.
Amy Goldman has since become one of the Democratic Party’s largest
individual campaign contributors. Goldman has donated more than $6
million to Democratic candidates, party organs, interest groups, and
independent expenditure groups since 1990.
Those donations have included $1 million to Priorities USA in 2012,
$500,000 to House Majority PAC the same year, $1.75 million to Planned
Parenthood from 2011 to 2013, and $750,000 to Organizing for Action
last year.
Goldman has donated nearly $9,000 to Obama, and more than $13,000 to
Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and independent groups
supporting that effort.
Another benefactor of a massive inheritance that appears on DA’s new
partner list was donating tens of thousands of dollars to Democrats
while he was still in school.
Philip Munger is the son of Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman and Warren
Buffett lieutenant Charles Munger, whose estimated net worth is $1.2
billion, according to Forbes. Munger the younger is a professor at the
New School in New York City. Despite living on an educator’s salary, he
also manages to donate vast sums to Democratic politicians.
Munger has shelled out more than $700,000 in political contributions
since 1990, all to Democrats or liberal interest groups. He donated
$46,300 while he was still a student, according to FEC forms that
require donors to disclose their profession.
Munger was among the first donors to OFA, topping the group’s list of
“founding members” with a $250,000 contribution.
More inherited wealth will likely flow through DA from Henry van
Ameringen, heir to the International Flavors and Fragrance fortune. Van
Ameringen is another massive Democratic donor. He has donated more than
$900,000 to Democrats since 1990.
Van Ameringen was the 21st largest individual contributor to 527
“political action committees” in 2012, according to the Center for
Responsive Politics. He is the ninth largest donor to those groups in
the current election cycle.
Much of van Ameringen’s political activity is aimed at promoting gay
rights. He attended a $35,800 per-plate fundraiser for Obama in 2012
that solicited support from wealthy gay and lesbian individuals. The
event raised an estimated $1.4 million for the president’s reelection.
His promotion of gay rights has occasionally expanded into condemnation
of religious conservatism. In announcing a $100,000 donation from van
Ameringen to the group Truth Wins Out, TWO’s executive director
condemned “religious extremists” in the United States who are
“literally getting away with murder from Uganda to Russia.”
Van Ameringen has also contributed $100,000 to an effort to legalize
marijuana in Oregon. Democracy Alliance founder and automotive
insurance kingpin Peter Lewis donated to the same effort.
Some new DA partners include individuals with their own successful
business careers.
Adam Abram made his fortune in insurance and real estate. He sold his
company, James River Group, to Bermuda-based Franklin Holdings in 2007.
Abram is currently Franklin’s chairman. He also founded Adaron Group, a
commercial real estate developer in North Carolina.
Some of Abram’s recent ventures have come under scrutiny for alleged
cronyism. James River Group provided $15,000 in financing for an
economic impact study that recommended construction of an airport in
the research triangle region of North Carolina. The company indicated
that the airport was “’very important’ or ‘essential’ to [its]
business,” according to the study.
Some residents saw that as a financial conflict. “As a resident of
rural Orange County … I find it deeply disturbing that companies like
the James River Group fund an economic study and they themselves want
the airport because the airport will benefit their businesses,” one
resident wrote.
Abram has donated more than $110,000 to Democrats since 1990. He
cohosted Michelle Obama at a 2008 fundraiser in Durham, N.C.
Many of Abram’s political contributions have focused on specific policy
issues. In 2009, he offered to match all contributions up to $5,000 to
the North Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Abrams has been critical of the Obama administration’s civil liberties
record and tactics in the war on terror. He wrote a 2011 column for the
Raleigh News-Observer criticizing legislation eventually signed by
Obama that granted the executive wide latitude in detaining and trying
suspected terrorists.
Despite those misgivings, Abram has donated $4,600 to Obama, according
to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Other individuals on DA’s list of new partners have been far friendlier
to Obama. Rick Segal, CEO of financial services firm Seavest, bundled
between $250,000 and $500,000 for the president’s reelection campaign,
in addition to his $165,000 in political contributions since 1990.
Paul Boskind has contributed nearly $200,000 to Democrats since 1990,
and bundled between $100,000 and $200,000 for Obama’s reelection. He
also served on the DNC’s national finance committee.
Boskind is the CEO of Deer Oaks Mental Health Associates, a Texas based
mental health organization. He is also involved in theater, producing a
number of plays designed to promote liberal political sensibilities,
including Gore Vidal’s “The Best Man.”
These and other individuals (full list below) are some of DA’s newest
partners, but the list also includes a host of individuals with other
statuses at the organization.
The Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel was given a “sneak peak,”
according to the list. Lee Wasserman and Lisa Guide of the Rockefeller
Family Fund are listed as “committed.” Joan Davidson, heir to the Welch
juice fortune and president emeritus of the J.M. Kaplan Fund, is listed
under the status “convening.”
The Democracy Alliance did not respond to requests for comment or
additional information about the roles that DA partners and other
individuals listed on the document play.
On the back of the document, someone took notes that appeared to refer
to potential or actual donations by individuals and groups affiliated
with the DA.
“McKay 25k AV” likely refers to Rob McKay, and a $25,000 contribution
to America Votes, a group that DA has supported. “Nathan Cummings 500k
CCC” is likely a reference to a $500,000 contribution from the Nathan
Cummings Foundation to the Center for Community Change, which has
previously received Nathan Cummings grant funds.
Democracy Alliance new members list by Washington Free Beacon
NEW PARTNERS, 2013
Paul Boskind: CEO of Deer Oaks Mental Health Associates and theater
producer.
Larry Cohen: President of the Communications Workers of America.
Randi Weingarten: President of the American Federation of Teachers.
George Kohl: Senior director of the Communications Workers of America.
Michelle Ringuette: Assistant to the president of the American
Federation of Teachers.
Amy Goldman: Author, horticulturalist, and daughter of the late New
York City real estate magnate Sol Goldman.
NEW PARTNERS, 2014
Adam Abram: Founder of James River Group, chairman of Franklin
Holdings, chairman of Piedmont Community Bank Holdings, former
president of Adaron Group.
Noel Beasley: President of Workers United, vice president of the
Service Employees International Union, chairman of Amalgamated Bank.
Keith Mestrich: President of Amalgamated Bank
Philip Munger: New School professor, son of Berkshire Hathaway vice
chairman Charles Munger.
Colin Greer: President of the New World Foundation.
Heeten Kalan: Senior program officer at the New World Foundation.
Rick Segal: CEO of Seavest, Inc.
Ryan Smith: Unknown. It was originally reported that Smith was the CEO
of Qualtrics, but that was not the case.
Henry van Ameringen: President of the Van Ameringen Foundation, son of
Arnold Louis van Ameringen, founder of International Flavors and
Fragrances.
Dirk Wiggins: Founder of Code for Progress, former director of
targeting for Field Strategies, former outreach director for the
Florida Democratic Party.
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skoonj
Koch-backed political coalition, designed to
shield GOP donors, raised $400 million in 2012!
(WaPost)
Those evil Koch Brothers
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