May 2014 - Article about dark money in both Republican & Democratic Parties - NewDEAL & Symmetry

[RiverLover]

A pro-Hillary poster posted this article in GD tonight, apparently with approval of this NewDEAL & only to prove his case that O'Malley is DLC/Third Way just like HRC. But it does spell out the forces we're facing as we try to bring Democrats back to being Democrats. And we can thank them, I think, for Democrats running as Rethug lites in 2014 & losing massively.

If this has been posted here before & is old news, my apologies~

Looking for the fight over the heart and soul of the Democratic Party in the waning days of the Obama administration? Next Tuesday morning, take the elevator to the eighth floor of a downtown Washington, DC, building and step into the offices of America's Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA), the premier lobbying group for some of the largest fracking companies in the world.

While much of the talk about a progressive revival revolves around populist figures like New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Senator Elizabeth Warren, there are other, better funded efforts afoot. Corporate titans from finance to natural gas to big retail to telecom are attempting to steer the party, and as the midterms shape up, these interests are pushing to ensure they continue to have wide sway over America's only viable outlet for center-left expression at the polls. Which brings us to the latest venture in corporate-centered party-building and the group hosting a chat in ANGA's headquarters: The NewDEAL.

Created by Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley and Senator Mark Begich of Alaska, the NewDEAL is one of several cash-rich efforts to resurrect the Democratic Party's flailing bench of electable candidates.

This NewDEAL has little in common with President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal platform, which pledged to save capitalism from itself by cracking down on predatory banking institutions and restoring workplace rights for Americans. No, this NewDEAL is a 501(c)(4) issue-advocacy nonprofit, a tax vehicle which allows campaign activity without disclosure of donors, and its name is an acronym for "Developing Exceptional American Leaders."

The group, touted as a platform to "highlight rising pro-business progressives," is led by Democrats who have made a name for themselves by bucking the populist trend. They include NewDeal co-chair Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, whose zeal for the charterization of public schools and love of Wall Street makes him indistinguishable from many across the aisle. The other co-chair, Governor John Hickenlooper of Colorado, has staked a position in his state's energy wars as a staunch defender of drillers.

VICE has obtained a "supporter list" showing donors of the NewDEAL, which reads like a who's who of corporations seeking government access: Comcast, Fluor, Merck, Microsoft, New York Life, Pfizer, Qualcomm, Verizon, Wal-Mart, the Private Equity Growth Capital Council, among others, including, of course, the host of Tuesday's event, ANGA.

While the disclosure of a secret list of political funders is always a worthwhile revelation, it's also worth noting that the same corporate forces that Democrats are leaning on are propping up the far-right tilt of the Republicans as well. On the local level, meaning state legislative races, there are two competing committees, the RSLC for the GOP and DLCC for Dems. A VICE review of recent campaign filings show that the two committees share many of the same top 25 donors: Wal-Mart, Pfizer, tobacco giant Reynolds America, PhRMA (a drug industry trade group), AT&T, and Comcast cut the biggest checks for both the RSLC and the DLCC.

This incredible symmetry exists for the committees seeking to elect governors of their respective parties this year, as well. The RGA, chaired by Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, has collected its largest checks from the exact same corporations pumping the most generous donations into the DGA, its Democratic counterpart: WellPoint, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Pfizer, Wal-Mart, and Reynolds America.

Back to the NewDEAL, which promises to serve as the latest vanguard for Democratic outreach. The organization is staffed by many of the lobbying world's top Democratic allies, including those who have worked to channel the party's election efforts into backchannel corporate influence. The fundraiser for the NewDEAL, Helen Milby, previously served as the "chief fundraiser" to the New Democrats, a caucus of business-friendly lawmakers whose last period of influence, in 2009 through 2010 when their party controlled Congress, featured a massive campaign to water down health care and financial reform in exchange for corporate donations, as chronicled by an investigation in ProPublica. After many were wiped out by the Republican tidal wave in Obama's first midterm—the president identified himself as a member of this coalition right after he was first elected—most of the New Democrats became lobbyists...

<SNIP, don't want to, please read!>

Of course, not every corporate Democrat organ is a Koch front. But the Koch brothers probably didn't have a progressive renaissance is mind when they invested in one camp of the Democratic Party's civil war. And corporations don't bankroll candidates out of a sense of charity; they expect something in return. In this corporate cash-driven system, choosing Democrats that don't offend business interests is an old story. Which is to say there's not all that much new about the NewDEAL.

http://www.vice.com/read/the-democratic-party-future-dark-money-fracking

Thank God for grass roots movements.

Will keep thinking about Chicago & the amazing things Progressives are doing there, against the 'dark money.'

[Enthusiast]

1. Members of NewDEAL should be ashamed to show their face in public.

Apologists for corporate Democrats are destroying the party.

There is no way the liberal wing of the party can compromise with pay for play.

This will split the Democratic Party, fundamentally.

Corporations will still win because their Republican candidates will be elected.

[RiverLover]

2. & they spit in the face of FDR's New Deal, which made our country great, with that name "newDEAL"

Democrats vs. the New Deal: Who really runs the party — and why it might surprise you
Dems taking pride in FDR's historic legacy need to reckon with a basic truth: The party is now firmly anti-New Deal

http://www.salon.com/2014/12/09/democrats_vs_the_new_deal_who_really_runs_the_party_and_why_it_might_surprise_you/

[RiverLover]

3. Interesting story from an environmentalist who was invited/uninvited to that newDEAL meeting

with frackers~

Last week in Washington DC, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley’s political dark money group met with corporate funders at the DC headquarters of the American Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA). ANGA is the lead lobby group for the fracking and shale industry, with a budget of $69 million in 2012. O’Malley’s group is called newDEAL, which describes itself as a “national network searching the country for state and local elected leaders who are pro-growth progressives to help them share their innovative ideas.”

I found out about the meeting when I was forwarded an invitation. When I replied to a RSVP, I was initially sent a welcoming “see ya there” from Lauren Wessler, the organizer for the event. Wessler works for Helen Milby, who runs HM&CO, a fundraising group that connects corporations with legislators. Her work has been described as

“To communicate behind the scenes with power brokers in government and in the corporate world, and create events so that they can come together to make exchanges of money and influence.”

...Given the corporate connection, the newDEAL is an attempt to grow O’Malley and company’s political war chests with corporate dollars, more “deal” than “new.”

A few hours after receiving confirmation of my RSVP, another email buzzed into my inbox from Lauren. Apparently she had made a mistake. “The room seats less people than I originally thought…So sorry,” read her retraction of my RSVP. Sounds fishy, but OK. Maybe there just isn’t enough space at the largest fracking lobbyists’ headquarters for a researcher from Greenpeace. But there are always those people who RSVP and don’t show, so I went to ANGA the day of the event, just in case they could squeeze me in.

The O’Malley connection to ANGA is particularly interesting given the battle the gas industry is waging in his state. ...

...When I arrived at ANGA’s headquarters I told them my name and showed them my RSVP. The front desk person gave me a leery eye, and within minutes a large man named Pablo came out of an elevator bank and walked up to me.

“You have to leave the premises.” he said.

Why? I asked

“They said that if you come in we aren’t allowed to let you up” He said.

“Who is they?” I asked.

“You know who” he said.

“America’s Natural Gas Alliance?”

“Yes” Pablo said

“But I have an RSVP, did they say my name specifically”

“yes” he said.

O’Malley and company plan on using newDEAL to fund campaigns of like minded politicians, basically creating a money laundering dark money pipeline from corporate interests to campaign coffers.

As Ruth Marcus said in her Washington Post editorial last week:

"Big money is troubling; secret money is toxic. Having millions of dollars from outside groups pumped into elections distorts the democratic process. Not knowing what interests are behind those millions magnifies that distortion."...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/27/1302362/-What-Happened-When-Martin-O-Malley-s-Dark-Money-Group-Met-With-The-Fracking-Industry

[djean111]

4. Great. Two Third Wayers. Here we are - between the Walrus and the Carpenter. We are just the

oysters. I was thinking that The Walrus and The Carpenter rather neatly sums up today's politics.