Soros Planning Media Blitz
Politico:
The wealthy Democrats and giant organizations that spent $135 million to make John Kerry president in 2004 are reaching into their pockets for another round.
Sources involved in the nascent effort said representatives of Democratic powerhouses like MoveOn.org and the Service Employees International Union, along with super-wealthy individuals like the fund manager George Soros, are hashing out the details of a planned independent effort that could finance tens of millions of dollars of television advertisements.
But when they meet after the two-day conference of the Democracy Alliance in Washington, D.C. this week, the donors will aim not to repeat what they see as the mistakes of the last presidential campaign.
Unlike in 2004, the donors will probably put the field organizing in the hands of existing liberal groups, including environmental and labor organizations.
An SEIU spokesperson, Stephanie Mueller, said the union’s number two official, Anna Burger, is “part of an effort, outside of the Democracy Alliance, to encourage progressive donors to support existing 527 organizations for voter outreach and other general election work.”
The Democracy Alliance, which finances think tanks and advocacy groups aimed at building the “progressive movement” within the Democratic Party, does not engage in electoral politics, and isn’t itself involved in this campaign.
But its powerful circle of backers will meet Nov. 1 and 2 at a downtown Washington D.C. hotel, and they plan meetings on Nov. 3 to discuss 2008 electoral efforts, a source familiar with the plans said.
They are looking to learn from their 2004 investment in two linked groups: The Media Fund, which aired more than $57 million worth of television advertisements attacking President George W. Bush in swing states in 2004, and America Coming Together, which spent more than $78 million assembling a massive campaign of registered voters likely to support Kerry and bringing them to the polls on election day.
The wealthy Democrats who financed the groups later complained bitterly that their money had evaporated with the election, leaving no lasting mark or permanent infrastructure, and their disillusionment was a force behind the creation of the Democracy Alliance in 2005.
Sources involved in the discussions said that the donors have not agreed on how to structure their giving.
They aim to recreate America Coming Together’s powerful ground game, but to put it under the aegis of existing liberal groups.
“There won’t be a big independent organization like ACT,” said a Democrat who has been briefed on the discussions. “They intend to do the voter contact component, as opposed to the media component, through existing organizations.”
The aim is to use the election to strengthen their organizations — and the progressive infrastructure — for the long run.
“You make the road by walking. The key to building infrastructure is to get out there and do the work,” said MoveOn’s Washington director, Tom Matzzie, in an e-mail.
“There are a lot of discussions going on but nothing has been settled. The focus of a lot of work will be issue-based and local,” he said.
Soros’s political aide, Michael Vachon, declined to discuss the plans.
People involved said they donors were more likely to fund anti-Republican advertising directly.
The discussions are taking place amid a changed, and uncertain, landscape.
Democrats were rattled in late September by a report in the New York Times that a group that supports Republican policies and the Iraq war, Freedom’s Watch , aims to spend $200 million in the general election a sum one of that group’s leading donors, Las Vegas casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, could pay out of his own pocket. (A spokesman for Freedom’s Watch would not confirm the $200 million figure.)
Democrats also face the specter of increased independent spending by corporate America, which traditionally backs the Republican Party, after the Supreme Court ruled this summer that corporations can spend money on thinly veiled attacks on candidates at any time in an election cycle, striking down regulations silencing them in the run-up to an election.
On the other hand, Democratic candidates are currently dominating the presidential money race, with $224 million raised to the Republicans’ combined $151 million.
What’s more, unlike Republicans, Democrats have tapped a rich vein of energy and money among ordinary supporters who give small amounts of money on the Internet.
Those small contributions, known as “hard money,” are more valuable for political purposes than the equivalent checks from single donors to independent organizations, since they can be spent by the candidate or by a party committee that can coordinate with the campaign.
“Don’t underestimate how much money is going to go into the DNC and into the nominee,” said Simon Rosenberg, the president of the progressive advocacy group NDN, who said he might be involved in an independent effort. “It will lessen to some degree the need for outside groups.”
The small donors, however, will still be competing for space with Soros, Adelson, and the other members of the Forbes 400 who open their checkbooks next year.
And amid the uncertainty, one thing seems clear: next year’s election will be the most expensive ever.
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Every good man with a rifle ought to be out there and try and take these bastard traitors out.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:30 amSoros is once again trying to buy an election. Sorry there little “Adolph” Soros. in this country the people do the voting…so shove your money pal.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:43 amThis guy is a real piece of Sh*t! Wish this guy would just call Dr Kavorkian. Hes old so it shouldnt be too much longer
October 30th, 2007 at 11:49 amhe’s been classified as a “genius” by an UK organisation at almost the highest rank :
Soros
October 30th, 2007 at 12:31 pmA genius? You’d think they won the 2004 election. We’ll have to beat them down again! I am certain he will lose millions agains.
October 30th, 2007 at 1:17 pmI was myself very surprised, dunno what are the criteriums for being a genius there, hehe, I found no french, but I do feel I am a genius
October 30th, 2007 at 1:23 pmIs this a part of the cyber jihad?
October 30th, 2007 at 2:38 pmIm ashamed he is a jew he caused so much Anti-Semitism with that south Asian currency nonsense just so he could make money
October 30th, 2007 at 3:20 pmIs that nazi fossil still alive?
October 30th, 2007 at 8:32 pmI need that mask for Halloween, it’s so damn scary.
October 30th, 2007 at 8:48 pmYou’d think with that much cash a guy could get a face change.
dunno why the link doesn’t work, anyway :
“3. George Soros (born August 12, 1930, in Budapest,
Hungary, as György Schwartz) is an American financial
speculator, stock investor, philanthropist, and political activist.
Currently, he is the chairman of Soros Fund Management and
the Open Society Institute and is also a former member of the
Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations. His
support for the Solidarity labor movement in Poland, as well as
the Czechoslovakian human rights organization Charter 77,
contributed to ending Soviet Union political dominance in those
countries. His funding and organization of Georgia’s Rose
Revolution was considered by Russian and Western observers
to have been crucial to its success, although Soros said his role
has been “greatly exaggerated.” In the United States, he is
known for having donated large sums of money in a failed effort
to defeat President George W. Bush’s bid for re-election in 2004.
Soros is famously known for “breaking the Bank of England” on
Black Wednesday in 1992. With an estimated current net worth
of around $8.5 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 80th-richest
person in the world.
Genius Factor 25 Paradigm Shifter 3, Popular Acclaim”
http://www.synecticsworld.com/index.html
October 31st, 2007 at 1:55 am“I was myself very surprised, dunno what are the criteriums for being a genius there, hehe, I found no french, but I do feel I am a genius”
ROTFLMAO!!!!
October 31st, 2007 at 10:37 amhehe, while I wrote that, I was thinking of you though
“it’s not with vinegar that we can catch the flies” french proverb
October 31st, 2007 at 10:54 amthat’s NOT a french proverb. it’s Thai.
October 31st, 2007 at 11:16 amnext it will be the other french ‘geniuses’ like yourself invented the internet when EVERYONE knows it was Al Gore.
some “genius” you are…
Al Gore, that’s what you like to say
as far as the internet exists, I don’t care who created it, must be “some genius” though !
anyway, we created the language as marivaudage on the net though ! in that we must be “some genius”
October 31st, 2007 at 11:39 am