Inside a green billionaire's Virginia crusade

Politico ^ | November 11, 2013 | By ALEXANDER BURNS and ANDREW RESTUCCIA

[Brad from Tennessee]

Tom Steyer is Virginia’s $8 million man.

The California billionaire spent nearly that much from his personal fortune to make an example of Republican Ken Cuccinelli for his arch-conservative views on the environment. The sum is more than three times the investment that’s been previously reported, and it nearly matched what the Republican Governors Association, the largest GOP outside spender, put into the Virginia governor’s race. It is more money, on a per-vote basis, than the famously prolific conservative donors Sheldon and Miriam Adelson spent in the 2012 presidential election.

Steyer’s political committee, NextGen Climate Action, publicly entered the Virginia race in August by paying to air a wave of television ads produced by Democratic Gov.-elect Terry McAuliffe’s campaign. The spots blistered Cuccinelli for launching an investigation into the research activities of a University of Virginia climate scientist.

What unfolded in the ensuing months was an overwhelming flood of spending from the coffers of a single donor determined to inject climate into a race in which state education and transportation issues, and a federal government shutdown, almost certainly played a more decisive role. Steyer paid for $3.1 million in TV advertising, $1.2 million in digital ads, 12 different pieces of campaign mail, a field program that hit 62,000 households on get-out-the-vote weekend and even a Cuccinelli impersonator who showed up at public events carrying a briefcase of mock cash to attack the Republican’s ethics. . .

[Zathras]

Ahh, so this is the CA Global Warming Nazi.
Let me guess...he has connections all over Silicon Valley ending with Al Gore.

[elpadre]

What’s his connection with George Soros??

[Resolute Conservative]

Beard? Masseuse?

[GeronL]

I thought campaigns and PACs could have no coordination? but the McAwful campaign produced his ads?

[nascarnation]

Private equity.
Made his money just like Romney.
Apparently it’s OK if you’re a liberal.

[nascarnation]

Goldman Sachs alum.

[central_va]

Everyday more info comes out and makes the Cuch near victory even more amazing.

[EverOnward]

Tom Steyer info (never heard of him until now):

http://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/hedge-fund-news-george-soros-thomas-steyer-paul-singer-27719/

http://jewishbusinessnews.com/2013/09/11/tom-steyer-makes-a-stand-against-the-proposed-keystone-xl-oil-sands-pipeline/

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/business/hedge-fund-chief-takes-major-role-in-philanthropy.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://inagist.com/all/377438314363883520/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2011/09/21/an-accidental-billionaires-political-emergence/

[dennisw]

ping

[shoff]

I can’t find the connection but is it just a coincidence that the one of the software programs fostered on Doctors to communicate with Obamacare is called NextGen. Using “stimulus” money healthcare providers were given incentives to use government approved programs Nextgen was one. Those that didn’t use government approved programs will face fines in the future. (If you like your program you can keep it)

[Brad from Tennessee]

Steyer may have borrowed the Nextgen name. Al Gore's UK-based hedge fund is called Generation Investment Management LLP. Like Gore, Steyer manipulates enviro-politics to enrich himself. Steyer is known for his campaign against the Keystone pipeline expansion and was a speaker at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Steyer is invested in an existing pipeline that would compete with Keystone.

http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/08/tom-steyer-the-shady-billionaire-with-millions-of-reasons-to-kill-keystone-xl/

[shoff]

I am shocked to find another crony capitalist involved in global warming, err…cooling…climate change