- 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.
Daily Meme: White Men with Money—The Story of the 2014 Midterms
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