Democracy Partners (DP)

Democracy Partners (DP)

Overview


Founded in 2011 by Robert Creamer and several others, Democracy Partners (DP) is a Washington-based consulting firm that provides a wide variety of services for left-wing political candidates and organizations, and also for issue-oriented activist groups. Specifically, DP offers assistance and guidance with: Fundraising; Direct Mail; TV & Radio Advertising; Digital Advertising; Online Organizing; Public Relations; Opposition & Candidate Research; Campaign Staffing & Training; Campaign Planning, Management and Consulting; High-Intensity Field & Voter Mobilization; Coalition Building; Community & Labor Organizing; Planning & Executing Events; and Issue and Electoral Phone Programs.

In addition, Democracy Partners provides assistance with:

(a) Impact Philanthropy and Donor Advising: DP has helped numerous philanthropic organizations – including such notables as the New Israel Funds, the Arca Foundation, the Democracy Alliance, the Ford Foundation, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, and the Rockefeller Family Fund – find ways to maximize the impact of their grantmaking.

(b) Grasstops Engagement & Grassroots Advocacy: DP has coordinated issue-based field programs for dozens of corporations, associations, and issue-based entities such as the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (now called the American Association for Justice), USAction, Americans United For Change, and People For the American Way.

Among DP’s most prominent leaders, officially known as “partners,” are Robert Creamer, Heather Booth, Marilyn Katz, and Mike Lux. Additional noteworthy partners include:

DP also lists two “associates” as key supporters of its work: (a) Lauren Windsor, executive director of American Family Voices; and (b) Aaron Black (actually named Aaron Minter), who has worked closely with the DNC, Americans United For Change, and (in 2011) some of the activists who subsequently helped establish Occupy Wall Street.

In October 2016, investigative journalist James O’Keefe’s “Project Veritas” released a series of undercover, hidden-camera videos showing that DP and its co-founder Robert Creamer were collaborating with the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign to dispatch trained provocateurs to instigate violence and chaos at Republican events nationwide – especially at rallies for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and vice presidential running-mate Mike Pence – throughout that year’s election cycle. The purpose of this strategy – dubbed “bird-dogging” by Creamer and his allies – was to create a public perception of “anarchy” surrounding Trump, on the theory that the shock value of such a spectacle would undermine and erode his political support. For a detailed explanation of the strategy’s genesis, activities, and key operatives, click here.

Whenever the media began to cover any of these DP-directed disruptions in 2016, Democracy Partners promptly provided video footage of the incidents to the Clinton campaign, the DNC, and a number of pro-Clinton Super PACs and activist organizations that were also involved in this “bird-dogging” project. Foremost among these additional groups were Americans United For Change, the Alliance for Change, the Alliance for Retired Americans, and Priorities USA.

In an undercover video segment released by James O’Keefe, one of Creamer’s consultants, Scott Foval – a former Americans United For Change and People For the American Way employee who in 2011 had founded a political consulting firm called the Foval Group – provided key details about the Democrat bird-dogging strategy. Specifically, Foval explained that the operation was structured in a manner that – if the public were ever to find out about it – would allow the DNC and the Clinton campaign to pretend that they knew nothing of it. “The thing that we have to watch is making sure there’s a double-blind between the actual campaign and the actual DNC and what we’re doing,” said Foval. “There’s a double-blind there, so that they can plausibly deny that they heard anything about it.” To help ensure that this plausible deniability was not in any way compromised, Democratic Party funding for the Foval Group was channeled through a highly circuitous path. Said Foval: “The campaign pays DNC, DNC pays Democracy Partners, Democracy Partners pays the Foval Group, the Foval Group goes and executes the shit on the ground.”

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