Created by Democratic political operative Rob Stein
Goal is to raise money to fund a leftwing political movement and Democratic electoral victories
Supported by George Soros and Peter Lewis
Founded in the spring of 2005, Democracy Alliance is a self-described "liberal organization" whose long-term objective is to raise $200 million to develop a funding clearinghouse for progressive groups. Democracy Alliance is a non-tax-exempt nonprofit entity registered in the District of Columbia. The Alliance's hope is that liberals and leftists can replicate what it views as the success of the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Leadership Institute, and the Young America's Foundation, and other aspects of the conservative movement in building effective institutions for developing new ideas and promoting public policies.
Political operative Rob Stein, who served as chief of staff to Commerce Secretary Ron Brown during the Clinton administration, conceived of the project and is directing it. Stein explains that he awakened one morning after the 2002 elections to the realization that he was "living in a one-party country." He vowed to study the conservative movement to determine why it was winning the political battle. After a year of analysis, he compiled his conclusions into a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation, which he set out to show to prospective big-money donors.
"Progressives should not emulate what conservatives have done," says Stein. "Conservatives have built remarkably successful institutions and strategic alliances in the 20th century that presumably are consistent with their values and, we know, are effective in promoting their beliefs. . . . Progressives have different values, this is the 21st century, the conservative infrastructure is in place and will continue to grow, and so we have to do it all differently."
As of August 2005, Stein had shown his PowerPoint presentation, titled "The Conservative Message Machine Money Matrix," to more than 700 key people in private meetings. The presentation, designed to persuade potential donors to invest in Democracy Alliance, carefully maps out the right's networking and funding in diagrams and bullet points. Stein claims that a few well-connected, wealthy clans -- including the Scaife, Bradley, Olin, and Coors families -- founded a $300-million network of groups that now dominate American policy.
Democracy Alliance was forged from the remnants of the Phoenix Group, an assembly of financiers who backed pro-Democratic 527 organizations such as MoveOn.org during the 2004 election cycle.
Major donors George Soros and Peter Lewis, who each gave roughly $23 million to 527s for the 2004 elections, have latched onto the Democracy Alliance cause and are attracting other donors. A constellation of Hollywood elites (including Rob Reiner), are also backing the cause. As of August 2005, some 80 founding donors were already onboard.
Prospective donors are asked to make an initial pledge of $200,000 per year for five years to Democracy Alliance-endorsed think tanks and advocacy groups. "There is enormous capacity for financial giving," said former Clinton White House spokesman Mike McCurry, who is now a spokesman for Democracy Alliance. "There are enormous resources not being invested effectively, and the Democracy Alliance will make giving more purposeful. If anything, I think the pie will grow as more people want to be a part of it."
According to author Joseph Klein, Democracy Alliance also has "received significant support from some of Hillary Clinton's most important backers including Susie Tompkins Buell and her husband, Mark Buell, and financier Alan Patricof." Moreover, Democracy Alliance reports that one of its officials, Jonathan Adler, served as Regional Campaign Coordinator for Senator Clinton's successful 2006 Senate re-election campaign. The current Managing Director of Democracy Alliance, Kelly Craighead, is, according to Newsday's Glenn Thrush, "one of the Clintons' closest friends." In the 1990s Craighead worked as an assistant to President Clinton and as director of the advance team for Hillary, who was then the First Lady. The depth of the friendship between Craighead and Mrs. Clinton is evidenced by the fact that Hillary, acting as a justice of the peace, performed Craighead's 2001 marriage ceremony to political consultant Erick Mullen, a former aide to Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York and a former informal advisor to Mrs. Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign.
Recipients of Democracy Alliance grants are sworn to secrecy about the funds they receive from this organization, thus only a small percentage of its grantees are known to the public. Among them are Media Matters, EMILY's List, ACORN, and the Center for American Progress.
According to Glenn Thrush of Newsday, Democracy Alliance members report that their organization "advises Democratic donors on where to spend their political contributions" and, in so doing, "steered more than $6 million to [David] Brock's group" -- Media Matters -- between 2004 and 2006.
On January 14, 2008, the Canada Free Pressidentified the Treasurer of Media Matters, Rachel Pritzker Hunter, as a Board member of Democracy Alliance (which helps to fund Media Matters). A generous donor to Democratic candidates and causes, Hunter in recent years has given money to the presidential campaigns of Sherrod Brown, John Kerry, Howard Dean, and Wesley Clark.
