Elizabeth Warren and a Very Strange Bedfellow

Everyone knows that Elizabeth Warren is a champion of financial reform, right?  She's got a good reputation, which is one of the reasons that she's running for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts.  She's the darling of Occupy Wall Street people looking for real reform of the American political system, supposedly free from the corrupting influence of big-money politics.

They say that politics makes for strange bedfellows.  Need a blatant example?  He's an invitation for a fundraiser for Elizabeth Warren's campaign.  See anything unusual?  Let's just focus on one name.

Why would ANYBODY pretending to be a champion for middle-class, against the supposed oppression and corruption of the super-rich, associate themselves with George Soros?

George Soros is a speculator and hedge-fund manager who currently ranks at number 7 on the Forbes list of richest Americans.  While the fortunes of most Americans plummeted  during the financial crisis, his increased.

George Soros is also the #4 top funder of shadowy 527 committees.

George Soros is also one of the founding members of the so-called "Shadow Party" within the Democratic Party.

Soros is a New York resident.  Ms. Warren is running for office in Massachusetts.  George Soros is active in the politics of other states, including here in California.  He and other well-connected, big-money Democrats funded Proposition 27, designed to eliminate citizen-based reforms of California's redistricting process.

In my opinion, Proposition 27 was a very anti-democratic piece of legislation (which was supported, naturally, by various Progressive politicians and labor unions).

Be careful, people.  You can tell a lot about someone by the people with whom they associate.

Resources for Tracking Campaign Spending

A variety of people have requested information on how to track campaign spending. Here are a few of my personal favorites. I would love to hear if you have others to suggest.

Center for Responsive Politics

My all-time favorite tracking tool for campaign spending is OpenSecrets.org, run by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Their search engine could use some work, but the information is generally there for those willing to dig a little deeper.

Here are some of the things that you can find.

• Which groups are the biggest political spenders in U.S. federal politics?
• Who are the biggest contributors to my Congressman, Sam Farr over his career?
• Who are the top-spending Political Action Committees (PACs) in the 2010 election and how are they spending their money?
• Who are the top-spending 527 committees in the 2010 election and where do they get their money?
• Who were the top individual donors during the 2008 election and where did they spend their money?
• Who or what organizations are funding a specific 527 committee?

Also read their free online guidebook, "Follow The Money: A Handbook for Do-It-Yourself Data-Digging".

Influence Explorer

Influence Explorer is a great tool courtesy of the Sunlight Foundation. It doesn't provide as much detail as OpenSecrets.org, but it's a great starting point to see overall spending and relationships.

MAPLight.org

The MAPLight.org web site is another great resource. I find it particularly useful for tracking Californian politicians, my home state. Here are some of the things that I can find using MAPLight.

• What are the top political interests contributing to my California Assemblyman, Bill Monning?
• Who are the top donors to Bill Monning?
• By default, MAPlight only shows current year donations. However, with the search engine, you can dig deeper and into prior years.

Influence Tracker

Influence Tracker is a fun tool courtesy of Wired Magazine, MAPLight, and OpenSecrets.org. Enter the name of a federal-level politician, last name first. It then creates a web page showing the contributions to the politician and (my personal favorite), a NASCAR-like shirt with the logos of the largest contributors.

The text box in the lower left corner includes code so that you can embed the result in your own website. Here's an example screen capture for Harry Reid, who is running for U.S. Senate in Nevada.

Don't confuse Influence Tracker with Influence Explorer listed above.

National Institute on Money in State Politics

FollowTheMoney.org is another good site that is very complementary to OpenSecrets.org, which focuses primarily on national races.

CampaignMoney.com

I find the CampaignMoney.com site itself difficult, but it often comes up during Google searches. It only shows contributions to a campaign, and not spending with a PAC or a 527 committee.

I find it easiest to enter a search string directly in the browser address field. For example, here is a search for George Soros spending during the current election cycle. This gives you the general pattern.

http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/george-soros.asp?cycle=10

ElectionTrack.com

ElectionTrack.com is a great resource for tracking campaign spending in California. It's fairly simplistic, but timely and easy.

For example, I used the specific page on those funding Yes on Proposition 27 to write a recent article revealing how the donors supporting Proposition 27 are well-connected to a single political party. It's easy to search for a specific donor or amount.

Federal Election Commission (FEC)

The Federal Election Commission web site is the ultimate resource for tracking federal elections spending, including PACs and 572s.

• Click the Campaign Finance and Data link.
• Then, click Search the Disclosure Database link.
• You can search for donations from a specific individual.
• You can search for a Political Action Committee (PAC). For example, here is the search result for "Patriotic Majority PAC" for a recent article about this fake Tea Party group.

Internal Revenue Service

• Search for Political Organization Disclosures
• Tips for Successful Searching of Political Organization Disclosures

California Secretary of State

The ultimate resource for tracking campaign spending in California is the Secretary of State's office. Likely, there are similar sites for other states.

For example, I needed historical data on those funding opposition to 2005's Proposition 77, a previous attempt at redistricting reform.

FundRace

The Huffington Post FundRace tool is another tracking tool for campaign donations. It has some relatively good top-level tracking tools on where money is going by occupation and city.

NPR

Here's an oldie but goodie from NPR dated from 2008. NPR has had some good journalism about "shadow money" (examples here and here), but I do have some concerns about possible corrupting influence going forward due to the Soros/Open Society Foundation investment.

"Who's Who: Key Leaders Of Independent Groups", September 2008.

The Big Spenders Behind the Scenes

Many political pundits and even the President and Vice-President themselves are decrying the amount of money being spent behind the scenes in the 2010 election. I happen to agree, as I have been concerned about this for about a decade now. Nearly half a trillion dollars, some $480 million, was spent just on 527 committee activity in the 2004, 2006, 2008, and so far in the 2010 elections.

However, look at who and which organizations are spending behind the scenes by examining the contribution to 527 political organizations, otherwise known as "soft money." This money is not subject to the same legal constraints as direct contributions to a state or national candidate.

Fortunately, organizations like the Center for Responsive Politics (www.OpenSecrets.org) scour the required campaign disclosure statements and publish the results.

Here are the total for the top contributors to 527 committees for the time period covering the 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010 election cycles. Obviously, not all the 2010 contributions are included as the 2010 election is still in progress.

(link to table)

A few things are notable from the table and chart.

• The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is the 800-pound gorilla of 527 campaign funding, providing nearly 30% of the total 527 funding. SEIU was a major contributor to the Obama Presidential campaign and various current and former SEIU executive members are now part of the Obama Administration, including frequent White House visitor, former SEIU President Andy Stern on the President's Deficit Commission and SEIU Secretary/Treasurer Anna Berger at the President's Small Business Summit.
• Many of those funding the Joint Victory Campaign 2004 are also major campaign contributors including George Soros of Soros Fund Management and the Open Society Institute, Peter B. Lewis of the appropriately named Progressive Corp., and Stephen Bing of Shangri-la Entertainment.
• Those contributing to the Victory Campaign 2004 (not to be confused with the Joint Victory Campaign) were primarily smaller donors.
• Nine of the top ten donors gives primarily to Democratic Party candidates. The one Republican-oriented group is Perry Homes. Robert J. Perry is perhaps most infamously known for the Swiftboat campaign against John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential race.
• Golden West Financial is the brainchild of Herbert Sandler and Marion Sandler. Well Fargo Bank, who purchased Wachovia Corp. during the height of the 2008 financial crisism was forced to modify loans sold by Golden West Financial's World Savings, which was later purchased by Wachovia. Both of the Sandler's are major contributors to the Center for American Progress, a leftist, progressive think tank, also often connected with George Soros.

It is also interesting to see the contributions by election cycle. It becomes obvious that SEIU is the dominant 527 committee donor. It also becomes obvious of the huge sums spent in the 2004 and 2008 elections, which were Presidential election years.

(link to table)

See also ...

NPR: "Who's Who: Key Leaders Of Independent Groups"