Jim Cook at Irregular Times:
Last October, I noted the strong connection between Americans Elect corporate leadership and the 2014 Senate candidacy of private equity candidate Greg Orman through an entity called the Committee to Elect an Independent Senate, founded by Americans Elect CEO and private equity financier Peter Ackerman. Since then, this new politial enterprise of Peter Ackerman’s has filed additional reports that allow us to more fully characterize the connections between it and the old, failed Americans Elect political venture.
Let’s spell the connections out:
| Player | Americans Elect Role | Background | Contribution From | Expenditure to | |
| Peter Ackerman | CEO, Chairman | Private Capital | $233,334.00 | $33,334.00 | |
| Michael Bloomberg | Funder | Private Capital Information | $1,000,000.00 | ||
| John J. Burbank III | Funder | Private Capital | $50,000.00 | ||
| Kahlil Byrd | CEO | Political Consultant | $1,500.00 | ||
| Joshua Levine | Vice President | Corporate Executive | $500.00 | ||
| Douglas Schoen | Pollster | Political Consultant | $143,818.00 | ||
Notice how all of them are involved in the corporate world, either as executives or private equity funders or the consultants paid by these two groups. Not one of the contributors to the Committee to Elect an Independent Senate was anything but a political consultant, a corporate executive, or someone sitting on a large load of private equity wealth. This Committee of 2014 completed Americans Elect’s transition from a group that said it only wanted to empower the voice of the citizenry a group that funneled wealth into campaigns without any input from or communication to the little people.
Are they done with their efforts? Not if we take Kahlil Byrd’s latest political project, FFPCO LLC, as an indicator:
“Coming Soon.” Watch for it.
IPR Note: See also Level the Playing Field, the Organization that is Working for Better Presidential Debates, is the Successor of Americans Elect
I agree about Jim Cook. As discussed in previous threads, the idea of Ackerman and Bloomberg being a fit with the Green Party is a non-starter.
Jim Cook has done some of the best investigative reporting on Unity 08, and Americans Elect over many years now. As a Green Party voter, I would like to see Mike Bloomberg, Peter Ackermann, and Mr. Byrd take their many talents and resources into electing Green Party candidates to local, state, and federal office. Mike Bloomberg is the one candidate who could turn the Green Party into the third major party in the U.S. That would do the country, the economy, and world great good.
Thanks to Jim Cook for his reporting.
Watch Green Party Green TV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nH607ysOpw&list=UUJAvfgs4nK3Viu5HXZxv_bw&index=66
I’m keeping my eye on what develops. Could be good, bad, mixed, or not much of anything yet again.
George is right about Eugene McCarthy’s campaign. Funders included William Clay Ford (of the Ford car family), Stewart Mott, and Martin Peretz, who later became publisher of the New Republic.
In 1976 McCarthy was a co-plaintiff in a case challenging contribution limits, and he said his 1968 antiwar campaign would not have been possible without wealthy donors putting up money to get the campaign started.
We have a long history of unsuccessful candidates and efforts supported by a few wealthy people. The front end of Eugene McCarthy’s Presidential campaign, or so I have read, was substantially funded by four people who liked McCarthy.
So far they haven’t been very successful. Unity08 failed to unite, Americans didn’t Elect, Orman lost, etc. If they should succeed in opening up the debates or electing a true independent to congress, I fail to see the harm in it. If it’s just an attempt to create a third corporate party because someone feels two aren’t enough however, frankly I think they’ll fail anyway.