- Since 2014 is already two months in and the November elections only a short nine months away, we figured a brush-up on where all the money will be coming from is in order. As you might have guessed, this will mostly be a list of wealthy white men. Enjoy!
- As Kermit the Frog once crooned, “it’s not easy being green.” Billionaire Tom Steyer might disagree. The West Coast Rich Person of the highest order (retired investment muckety-muck; based out of San Francisco; has 1,800-acre ranch) made his official debut in today’s New York Times in a piece heralding him as the Koch brother of the left. Steyer’s PAC, NextGen Climate Action, is looking to spend as much as $100 million during the 2014 midterm elections. A sample of what he’s done so far with his greenbacks (pun most definitely intended)? “Mr. Steyer poured tens of millions of dollars into a successful 2012 ballot initiative in California that eliminated a loophole in the state’s corporate income tax and dedicated some of the resulting revenue to clean-energy projects. He also has helped finance opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, appearing in a series of self-funded 90-second ads seeking to stop the project.”
- The Koch brothers. C’mon, you knew they were going to have to be at the top of the list. They’re so good at this money thing. They raised over $400 million in the 2012 campaign, and they’re coming back for more in 2014.
- But you know they’re not acting alone. Thanks to a careless attendee at a recent Koch donor gathering at a Palm Springs resort who left a guest list behind to be found and turned over to Mother Jones, we now know the names of other big GOP funders this election cycle.
- Papa John, aka John Schnatter, who hates Obamacare and threatened to raise pizza prices on regular Americans in retaliation was at the Koch-fueled bash in Palm Springs, and will no doubt be pouring money into the brothers’ PAC this year.
- So was Carl Berg, billionaire Silicon Valley real estate mogul, out to prove that California money doesn’t need to come from Hollyweird.
- But speaking of Hollywood, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg gave $2 million to pro-Obama PACs in 2012 and helped raise much more. He’s likely to be active in 2014.
- Billionaire George Soros reportedly just gave a bit of moulah to the Ready for Hillary PAC. Yeah, we know, that’s 2016, but the year is still young and he could just be warming up!
- Alice Walton of the Wal-Mart fortune is also a Hillary fan. Go figure.
- Steyer’s NextGen climate PAC reportedly met with aides to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but Magic Mike also has his own PAC focused on firearms regulation, and recently made a $2.5 million donation to another PAC focused on maintaining the Democrats’ Senate majority.
- No word on what Sheldon Adelson’s role will be 2014 (he’s the guy who basically tried to personally buy the 2012 election … like, more so than other people). He’s currently trying to single-handedly get rid of online gambling, because it’s a danger to our children and to his casino gambling fortune. Gotta have hobbies.
