Will the Revolution Be Monetized? Bernie Sanders' 'Dark Money' Org

[TomCADem]

Remember when Bernie said, “I do not have a super PAC, and I do not want a super PAC”? Yet, curiously, it seems that Bernie has a super PAC, Our Revolution, which has collected six-figure contributions and plans to run phone banks and organize rallies supporting Sanders. Our Revolution, which raised $6.8 million in 2016 and 2017, has released only limited information about the sources of its money.

Current campaign aides who helped found it include Nina Turner, and longtime Sanders strategist Jeff Weaver. Sanders also helped get the group off the ground. Moreover, the super PAC has not only helped Bernie, but it has helped and endorsed family members such as Bernie's step-daughter.

https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/will-the-revolution-be-monetized-bernie-sanders-dark-money-org/Content?oid=27314628

Sanders has decried the role of money in politics for much of his career — and, unlike his colleagues in Vermont's congressional delegation, he has mostly refused direct contributions from special-interest political action committees.

But as he ramps up his second bid for the presidency, Sanders is drawing support from a "dark money" nonprofit run by close associates and funded, in part, by anonymous six-figure contributions.

The organization, Our Revolution, led an effort earlier this year to draft the senator into the presidential race. After it succeeded, most of the group's staffers left to join the Sanders campaign. Its board is now considering whether to use its considerable resources to further bolster his candidacy.

"I think there's a certain amount of irony when a candidate who's said he's vehemently opposed to dark money then creates a dark money group," said Michael Beckel, a researcher and investigator for the campaign finance advocacy group Issue One.

[billpolonsky]

1. Easy Google search

Sounds like a shady and secretive organization...


"The organization officially launched on August 24, 2016, designated as a 501(c)(4), with a presentation that was live-streamed online via YouTube to meetings across the country and shown by Free Speech TV. Our Revolution's three main goals are to (1) revitalize American democracy by engaging millions of individuals in the political processes, (2) empower the next generation of progressive leaders, and (3) elevate political consciousness by educating the public about issues confronting the United States.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Revolution


https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?cycle=2020&strID=C00676684

[TomCADem]

3. Who Are Their Top Donors?

Also, what about Bernie’s attacks on SuperPACs and secret donors? Oh well, if Trump can claim to drain the swamp, Bernie can attack SuperPACS and nepotism.

[George II]

5. Little is known about those who contributed to them. Here's an article with some information:

This is prior to additional contributions - the collected close to $500,000 before shutting down.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rubycramer/bernie-sanders-institute-donations

High-Dollar Donations Funded Bernie Sanders' Policy Group A Year Before His 2020 Campaign
The Sanders Institute raised more than $361,000 last year from a total of 13 large contributions.

More than a dozen high-dollar contributions funded Bernie Sanders’ policy institute the year before he launched his second presidential bid, including one donation totaling $100,000, according to tax forms filed this month with the Internal Revenue Service.

The Sanders Institute, a progressive think tank founded in 2017 by the Vermont senator’s wife, Jane Sanders, raised more than $361,000 last year from a total of 13 large contributions ranging from $5,000 to $100,000, the tax filing shows.

The institute's executive director, Jane Sanders’ son from a previous marriage, Dave Driscoll, provided a copy of the filing, which is subject to public inspection, and said that most of the high-dollar contributions came from organizations or family foundations and grants. Bernie and Jane Sanders also provided some of that funding, Driscoll said.

Driscoll identified some of the contributors as the National Nurses United, a progressive network of nurses that helped fund Sanders’ 2016 campaign; Our Revolution, the political nonprofit Sanders founded after the primary; and Healthy Housing Foundation, a nonprofit branch of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation focused on providing housing for people with low incomes. The Sanders Institute listed National Nurses United, Our Revolution, and Healthy Housing Foundation as the three partners of the institute’s 2018 gathering.

Driscoll declined to disclose further details, or identify the source of each contribution.

[NurseJackie]

7. Did the "Institute" actually DO anything? If so, what? Do we know?

[Hav]

14. It provided 6 figure jobs

For their son, for instance.
Besides that, "promotional work" for liberal policies.

[yaesu]

9. Its just another hit piece from a far right rag, fake news. nt

[George II]

17. VT Digger is "a far right rag"? Far from it.

[msongs]

2. it's good to know to whom politicians owe their allegiance nt

[George II]

4. He now has three or four PACs or Super PACs working for him...

National Nurses United, Center for Popular Democracy Action, and two more whose names don't come to mind, I'll think of them later.

[NurseJackie]

6. Wait. Huh? Wait! What? But I thought...

... oh good grief. Just more of the same.

I still chuckle (and growl) whenever I hear someone falsely claim that a particular candidate "accepts money from big-pharma" or "accepts money from Exxon" because a secretary at Novartis made a contribution, or because a janitor at Exxon home office made a contribution and listed their employer.

Besides, it's illegal for Novartis and Exxon to contribute to candidates, right?

Anyway, all I'm trying to say is that there's a lot of misinformation out there and I think the American voters deserve to know the truth.

[yaesu]

8. I remember when Bernie started his campaign many here where crying but, but, but he made

a few dollars on a book deal but those same persons, not a peep about another candidate who spends multi millions of his own money to run. Another hit piece from a far right rag.

[redqueen]

10. How is it possible that this many people don't understand how super PACs work?

If more people understood how they work, garbage like this would get no traction.

[betsuni]

11. Why does Bernie Sanders think super PACS corrupt people?

He doesn't understand how super PACS work.

[redqueen]

12. They absolutely can, and do, have a corrupting influence.

However not all super PACs are the same

National nurses United is basically running a PAC for Sanders. We know who they are and why they're funding it.

Obviously not all super PACs exist because the average person would stand to benefit from their aims.

It would be stupid for Bernie to turn down help fr a nurses union, simply because he is willing to call out the corrupting influence of cash in politics.

Logic.

[TidalWave46]

15. You state something below that might want to make you rethink lecturing other people on this.

While said PAC is not doing much at all right now, as they have raised $27 for the 2020 campaign, they have spent a considerable amount of dark money on candidates in the past. Over half a million of dark money on Sanders in 2016. While not a majority, a good amount of their funding comes from someone or someone's giving in excess of $200.

"National nurses United is basically running a PAC for Sanders. We know who they are and why they're funding it." Redqueen

Who is funding it has always been the question. Not "who they are" and "why they are funding it." You left the most important metric out.

Friends of the Earth Action is another dark money group that has ran ads for Sanders.

The platform Clinton ran on in 16 included a portion of her platform addressing ways to remove dark money from the process. Sanders had nothing until reporters started asking him about it. It was a very funny part of that election cycle. Seeing Sanders have nothing to combat Clintons push to remove dark money from politics.

In my post below I highlight yet another PAC working on Sanders behalf.

[TidalWave46]

13. That's not the only PAC working on Sanders behalf.

https://www.southpawmi.com/

Sanders pulled some of his top staff from PAC's who have been working on his behalf for years. Many others came from a foundation set up for the sole purpose of aiding his 2020 campaign.

[George II]

16. One only need to click on your link to see who they're working for. I hadn't heard of that one....

....but it appears there are many Super PACs spending money to promote Sanders' campaign.

Yet he still goes on about others' getting help from Super PACs.

[TidalWave46]

18. The person who started and runs that PAC has endorsed Sanders....

and was standing on stage with Sanders last week.

That's how anti-PAC Sanders is.

Bet Sanders didn't return his $2800.

[George II]

19. Abdul El-Sayed - he's the guy that Sanders and AOC campaigned for last year against Whitmer....

....who won the primary and then got elected Governor.

So now he's got his own Super PAC!

[TidalWave46]

20. Appears to be a "pay back PAC"

"So now he's got his own Super PAC!"

[ehrnst]

21. Fascinating. (nt)

[TomCADem]

23. Look at all the Threads From Bernie Supporter Demanding More Media Coverage

If he got half the coverage that Biden got, then there would be more scrutiny of his hypocritical stances.

[PhoenixDem]

22. Fraud on the American people by misrepresentation n/t