His [Soros] campaign began last summer with the help of Morton H. Halperin, a liberal think tank veteran. Soros invited Democratic strategists to his house in Southampton, Long Island, including Clinton chief of staff John D. Podesta, Jeremy Rosner, Robert Boorstin and Carl Pope.
They discussed the coming election. Standing on the back deck, the evening sun angling into their eyes, Soros took aside Steve Rosenthal, CEO of the liberal activist group America Coming Together (ACT), and Ellen Malcolm, its president. They were proposing to mobilize voters in 17 battleground states. Soros told them he would give ACT $10 million.
Before coffee the next morning, his friend Peter Lewis, chairman of the Progressive Corp., had pledged $10 million to ACT. Rob Glaser, founder and CEO of RealNetworks, promised $2 million. Rob McKay, president of the McKay Family Foundation, gave $1 million and benefactors Lewis and Dorothy Cullman committed $500,000.
Soros also promised up to $3 million to Podesta's new think tank, the Center for American Progress.
After an April dinner at his Manhattan apartment to discuss Mr. Podesta's project, Mr. Soros pulled aside two senior aides, Morton H. Halperin, a former Clinton aide who directs Mr. Soros's Washington-based Open Society Institute, and Michael Vachon, a personal assistant who is overseeing Mr. Soros's political projects.
To ensure an unbiased assessment, he hired two separate political teams to evaluate Mr. Bush's strengths and weaknesses, the tactics needed to beat him and how much it would cost. Heading one team was Tom Novick, a former Oregon state legislator who had recently done a report concluding that voter mobilization was a better investment than last-minute television ads. The second group was lead by Mark Steitz, a Washington-based political analyst who had done a similar assessment of President George H.W. Bush's 1992 re-election chances for some wealthy Democratic donors. Mr. Soros then set out to diversify his political investment. On Sept. 17, Wes Boyd, the California-based founder of MoveOn.org, a liberal online organization founded during the Clinton impeachment trial, arrived in New York for what he thought would be a get-acquainted session with Mr. Soros.
Also found, curiously enough an FR link concerning the memo that just happened to be found at Starbucks and handed over to Podesta that lists:
Personnel
Morton H. Halperin, senior vice president of the Center for American Progress. Halperin is also Director Open Society Institute and Open Society Policy Center [1]
Contact
Center for American Progress
805 15th St. NW
Suite 400
Washington DC 20005
202-682-1611
email:progress@amprog.org
Web: http://www.centerforamericanprogress.org
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States: Commission Members
Thomas H. Kean, Chair: Thomas Kean, chair, is former governor of New Jersey (1982-1990) and, since 1990, the president of Drew University.
Homeland Security Project: About TCF
The Homeland Security Project is guided by a coordinating committee co-chaired by Tom Kean, the former New Jersey governor and current Drew University president, and Richard Celeste, the former Ohio governor and ambassador to India and current Colorado College president. The coordinating committee will develop recommendations arising from analysis produced by expert working groups focusing on four topics: The federal response, including an exploration of the design and function of the Office of Homeland security; federal-state coordination; the challenge of media coverage and public information disclosure by government officials regarding homeland security stories; and immigration and national security.
About TCF: The Century Foundation
The Century Foundation was founded in 1919 and endowed by Edward Filene. Throughout most of the last century, the foundation was known as the Twentieth Century Fund.
Homeland Security Project: About Us: Coordinating Committee Members JOHN D. PODESTA: Professor, Georgetown University Law Center; former White House Chief of Staff