Liberal Billionaire Spearheads Big Ad Campaign on Climate
Change
by Robert Wilde 18 Feb 2014, 2:56
PM PDT
A billionaire hedge fund maestro
on a mission to combat climate change is looking to up the ante. Tom Steyer, a 56-year old Democrat who
accumulated more than $1.5 billion as founder of Farallon Capital Management, is galvanizing donors to raise as much
as $100 million. His mission is to enact climate change measures through a
campaign of attack ads aimed mostly at Republican lawmakers.
Steyer is seeking to raise $50
million from donors that he will match with his own $50 million to make his PAC
NextGen Climate Action one of the largest in the country. The billionaire came
into prominence last year when he infused $11 million into Virginia Governor
Terry McAuliffe’s campaign against former Virginia Attorney General Ken
Cuccinelli and bolstered a Democratic congressional primary in Massachusetts with
millions.
In February Steyer rounded up the
troops of the country’s leading liberal donors and hosted a climate change and
environmental mastermind session at his 1,800-acre ranch in Pescadero, CA,
which raises prime grass-fed beef. The money raised will be allocated to target
key 2014 governor and senate races. Many of the deep-pocket donors hail from Silicon Valley, where climate change is ranked as the
most important political issue. This round of fundraising appears to be focused
more on specific political elections and less on philanthropy and education,
toward which donations used to gravitate.
One particular target is
first-term Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), who ruffled Steyer’s feathers when he
stated that he does not believe that science has established that climate
change is man-made. Moreover, NextGen is targeting five congressional mid-term
races and opposing four republicans, including Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. However, the
fifth is Democratic incumbent Senator Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana because she maintains close ties
to the oil and gas industries and is a supporter of the Keystone XL pipeline.
Steyer is an outspoken activist against the pipeline and has made a series of
short documentaries arguing that it would wreak havoc on the environment.
However, the single-issued Super
PAC is still drawing criticism from some non-profit groups that discourage big
money in American politics. “A small number of the richest individuals in America are
attempting to use their enormous wealth to purchase government decisions to
advance their own personal interests,” said Fred Wertheimer, president of
Democracy 21. “This is about as far away as we can get from ‘representative
government.’”
It appears that money not only
talks but walks; President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have both
stepped up the rhetoric on climate change as of late. Perhaps the $100 million
soon to be available to underwrite key mid-term campaigns may be the underlying
impetus to their recent homage to climate change and to Mr. Steyer.
Tom Steyer
Thomas
F. Steyer was the founder of Farallon
Capital Management LLC, is a director at the Center for American Progress, and married to Kathryn A. Taylor.
Note: George Soros was a
supporter for the Center for American
Progress, and the chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Center for American Progress, the Climate Reality Project, and ProPublica.
Carol M. Browner
is a senior fellow, director for the Center
for American Progress, was the energy czar for the Barack Obama administration, and a director at the Climate Reality Project.
Albert
A. Gore Jr. is the chairman for the Climate
Reality Project.
Kathryn A. Taylor
is a director at ProPublica, and
married to Thomas F. Steyer.
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