There’s a new super PAC for Bernie Sanders. It wants billionaire donors.

[babylonsister]

There’s a new super PAC for Bernie Sanders. It wants billionaire donors.
By Colby Itkowitz
July 15



A cornerstone of Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign is extracting billionaire influence from politics.

So imagine our surprise when a Sanders supporter seemed to miss that point and filed with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday a super PAC called “Billionaires for Bernie.”

Putting aside the fact that Eric C. Jacobson, the Los Angeles lawyer behind the effort, will have to change the name because unaffiliated PACs can’t bear the name of the candidate, the goal of “Billionaires for Bernie” is exactly as it sounds.

Jacobson is a self-described progressive, who likes Sanders because he’s “unbossed and unbought.” But to get Sanders to the White House means competing at the levels of a Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush.

And in today’s politics, that takes money.

Jacobson believes liberals’ general position against unlimited contributions in politics is limiting their ability to compete.

“I’m hoping to facilitate a level playing field where a billionaire of conscience can write a check … and I’m going to encourage them to do it,” Jacobson told the Loop. In his view, there are plenty of “well-heeled” liberals who should get in the big money game.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2015/07/15/theres-a-new-super-pac-for-bernie-sanders-it-wants-billionaire-donors/

[MoonRiver]

1. He wants to win.

Super Pacs are the only way he can accomplish that. Thanks, Citizens United.

[virtualobserver]

2. Bernie wants no part of it. n/t

[MoonRiver]

8. Yeah, right.

How many Bernie Sanders' supporters have I read here demonizing Hillary for the Super Pacs supporting her? HYPOCRISY some?

[virtualobserver]

10. Hillary raises funds for her SuperPAC

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/07/us/politics/hillary-clinton-to-court-donors-for-super-pac.html?_r=0

Bernie wants nothing to do with them.

[MoonRiver]

31. Has he disowned them?

[virtualobserver]

34. yes, he has

Sanders campaign spokesman Michael Briggs told Boston.com that Sanders does not want billionaires spending unlimited amounts of money for him, or any other candidate

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2015/07/16/supporter-creates-super-pac-for-bernie-sanders-who-hates-super-pacs/TTiyTWZkp7W09L0cwdmk4I/story.html

[sabrina 1]

17. Bernie has not endorsed this, so no, he doesn't just want to 'win', he wants the money

out of politics and he addressed this pac when asked, he said as he always does, he doesn't approve of them and he doesn't want their money.

[Aerows]

22. I heard that Sabrina 1 is a billionaire donor

and that Aerows is working for her campaign.

I also heard that Aerows is the most awesome person on the planet.

I also heard that the moon is made of cheese.

Out of all of those things I've heard, only the second one could be independently confirmed via a reaction panel of one.

[sabrina 1]

30. The Moon IS made of cheese, isn't it?

And Aerows, in a recent poll, WAS voted the 'most awesome person in the world'.

Is someone questioning any of this?

[Skinner]

3. Well, this is awkward.

[Aerows]

21. Here, let me cook up a story.

You are aware of the fact that there is a difference between saying something on the internet and it being a reality, right?

[Skinner]

27. The Internet in question here is the Washington Post. (nt)

[Aerows]

29. And the Washington Post

has never run with a story that turned out to be false before.

Ahem.

[MoonRiver]

33. Along with every other periodical in the world.

Your point is???

[Aerows]

38. Which part

of my post was not clear? Was it the "media doesn't always get it right" part, or was it the "falsehood mudslinging happens in political campaigns" part?

I'll assert that Iraq had WMD's as an example of ... oh wait.

[Cha]

52. Yeah, and it happens to be true.. no matter who tries to slime the messenger in this case..

"So imagine our surprise when a Sanders supporter seemed to miss that point and filed with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday a super PAC called “Billionaires for Bernie.”

It doesn't mean BS knows about it.. it just means that the title is correct.

Somebody better grab that guy and let him know.. what's what.

[hootinholler]

49. I don't see how it's awkward

Bernie has disavowed PACs. He has no power to prevent anyone from forming one. He cannot legally coordinate with one and I assume, but could be wrong, that knock it off is coordination, so he is powerless to even ask them to stop.

How is that awkward?

[TM99]

51. It is only awkward for those

projecting on Sanders what is unfortunately quite true of only Hillary Clinton alone.

You are correct.

And he has REPEATEDLY disavowed PAC's. His campaign has clearly stated this time and time again. Thanks the fucking Citizen's United, he can not do anything more than that to stop it. He will NOT take their money.

[JaneyVee]

4. But people here said 1%ers only vote for Hillary or repubs

[Comrade Grumpy]

5. I think we dealt with this meme already. n/t

[snot]

6. Sure it's not this kind of billionaires?

https://s16-us2.ixquick.com/cgi-bin/serveimage?url=http:%2F%2Fcdn.c.photoshelter.com%2Fimg-get%2FI0000Fs.Teu2563o%2Fs%2F860%2F860%2Fdebate-protest-018.jpg&sp=639793971d2b16161206935a0e614556

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

7. Sounds like either a totally clueless type, or a deliberate sabotage attempt.

So which is it, stupidity or malice?

[Cali_Democrat]

12. Although PACs aren't supposed to coordinate directly with candidates, many of them do

behind the scenes.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Bernie is coordinating in this case.

[PowerToThePeople]

20. Nice try

[Sheepshank]

36. Actually one of Bernie's national campaign coordinator

is also the CFO of a PAC that is associated with Bernie. To assume there is no coordination going on is pretty naïve. This is the the same PAC that was recently in the news and fined for forgetting a filing deadlines.

[PowerToThePeople]

37. Links?

[Sheepshank]

53. But of course

I have one for the Bernie affiliation and fines for the PAC. Although I'm tired of posting it over and over for that that can't believe their dude isn't perfectly scrubbed pure.


"The Burlington-based committee’s treasurer, Phil Fiermonte, a longtime Sanders aide and currently the field director for Sanders’ presidential campaign, received a letter from the FEC in December warning that the committee may have failed to file required...."

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20150704/THISJUSTIN/707049929


What is interesting many of the other media outlets have scrubbed their pages clean of that little tid bit.

[Luminous Animal]

40. He is no longer the treasurer of Sander's Leadership PAC.

• Phil Fiermonte, Sanders’ longtime state director, is the campaign’s field director. Fiermonte, who has worked for Sanders for 16 years, has long been in Sanders’ inner circle and helped manage his past campaigns. Most recently, he was heavily involved in coordinating the senator’s upcoming trip to Iowa. He was also previously listed as the treasurer of Sanders’ leadership PAC. In April, he joined Sanders, Sanders’ wife Jane and another adviser, Tad Devine, in Vermont for a planning weekend to discuss his bid. He’s a former member of the Burlington City Council and previously worked as executive director of the Vermont American Federation of Teachers. Both he and Weaver are Vermont natives.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/bernie-sanders-2016-campaign-staff-power-players-118282.html#ixzz3gC4AYFv2

And info on Progressive Voters of America here...

https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00406553

[Sheepshank]

54. The link I have in #53

Doesn't say this was a past relationship.....so we are to assume that the guy has nothing to do with Bermie at all..nothing, nada, zip. That's how close professional and personal relationships work? I don't think so.

[Luminous Animal]

55. The past "relationship" was was as treasurer of the leadership PAC. Complying with election law,

he no longer works with Bernie's PAC but rather works on Bernie's campaign.

Similarly, an officer with the Ready for Hillary PAC resigned and joined the Hillary campaign

On April 12, 2015, Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for president. Ahead of Clinton's announcement, Ready for Hillary experienced a surge in donations. Ready for Hillary filed an amended statement of organization with the Federal Elections Commission to revise its name to 'Ready PAC',[25] since federal election law mandates that "no unauthorized committee shall include the name of any candidate in its name."[26] Co-founder Adam Parkhomenko vacated his executive position to join Clinton's official campaign as Director of Grassroots Engagement.[27]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_PAC#Recent_developments

[Snotcicles]

23. I think you are just saying that. I think you would be surprized as hell, behind the scenes. nt

[Luminous Animal]

32. This appears to be a PAC of one man who is likely not a billionaire and it is very unlikely that he

has even met Bernie.

Summary

Eric C. Jacobson, 59, is a public interest lawyer and civil rights advocate in Los Angeles. He is a member in good standing of the California Bar (BN 170556), District of Columbia Bar (BN 453389) and U.S. Supreme Court Bar. Following a (first half of) student and career life in law, politics, activism, and (briefly) the military (the U.S. Naval Reserves in the 1990s), since 2004 Eric has litigated multiple federal court civil rights impact cases seeking an overhaul of California criminal justice and corrections law, public policy and budgetary priorities -- away from mass incarceration and toward mass rehabilitation; and seeking protection of the 4th Amendment rights of family members of paroled ex-offenders subjected to truculent warrantless residential parole searches. For 5 years prior to that Eric represented and counseled ~400 accused parole violators in parole revocation proceedings. In 2000,

Eric along with three of his fellow state appointed attorneys co-founded the California Association of Parole Defense Attorneys in 2000. His career includes 35 years of public interest advocacy and service in multiple forums, from a Congressional field office (Rep. Ronald V. Dellums) to political campaigns (those of Colorado Sen. Gary Hart [1984 and 1988] and 2 campaigns of his own for Congress [1986] and L.A. Community College District Board of Trustees [1993]), to op-ed pages, courts & websites. His was the chief author of a proposed Congressional resolution of censure of the five Supreme Court justices responsible for Bush v. Gore (www.censurethefive.org) and published an article (in the Los Angeles Daily Journal) and letter to the editor (in the Washington Post) on the first and tenth anniversaries of the infamous ruling in December 2001 and December 2010 respectively.

[OnlyBernieBurnsBush]

45. This lawyer's one of the good guys...

But this PAC is counterproductive.

[Warren Stupidity]

14. Results are in:

On Fri Jul 17, 2015, 02:11 PM an alert was sent on the following post:

Sounds like either a totally clueless type, or a deliberate sabotage attempt.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=453247

REASON FOR ALERT

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.

ALERTER'S COMMENTS

No comments added by alerter

You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Fri Jul 17, 2015, 02:25 PM, and the Jury voted 0-7 to LEAVE IT.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: There is nothing in the post outside TOS.
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: That is the poster's interpretation, which may or may not be correct, of the motives for the behavior of the person discussed in the article. We see much worse pejoratives used all the time. I'm not even sure why this caused an alert!
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: What? Why the alert? vote to "Leave it"
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: no comment from the alerter, not even a whiff of a personal attack in the post, wtf?
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #7 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: There is absolutely nothing wrong with this post.

Thank you very much for participating in our Jury system, and we hope you will be able to participate again in the future.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

15. Huh? Did the alerter think I was talking about another DU user?

Instead of the 'Billionaire for Bernie' setting up a SuperPAC against his wishes?

[Warren Stupidity]

16. totally fucking baffled.

I have no clue.

[Snotcicles]

24. Wow, somebody is not having a good campaign season. nt

[Doctor_J]

9. Can you guys please print a schedule of who's going to post this on what day?

My ignore list is pretty much empty, but I guess it's time.

[babylonsister]

13. Sorry, had no idea; I just saw this for the first time. nt

[Snotcicles]

26. Fur reel? nt

[babylonsister]

35. Yes. Been busy. nt

[WDIM]

11. Billionaire of conscience ha

Those dont exist. You have to be a greedy criminal to amass that much wealth.

I hope Bernie refuses their money.

[JaneyVee]

18. Yes they do.

[WDIM]

50. If they had a conscience they wouldn't be a wealth hoarder.

They wouldn't take more than they need when so many go without.

[Snotcicles]

28. I hope he donates it to my local humane society. We need it bad. nt

[Maedhros]

19. NOTE: Bernie has no control over this. [n/t]

[99Forever]

25. The stupid smear attempts are getting more pathetic by the minute.

One more time, neoliberal slimers:

Bernie Sanders isn't for sale and those of us that support him know it.

If you want to buy a candidate, there's a couple dozen others that are easy pickins.

[cherokeeprogressive]

39. "Eric C. Jacobson, the Los Angeles lawyer behind the effort"

[Aerows]

42. Sometimes

You just have to LOL.

[cherokeeprogressive]

43. Don't ya though? What's next I wonder? I can see it now...

"Sanders seen with prostitutes."

"Last year Bernie Sanders was seen on the same street known to be frequented by prostitutes."

"It is not known whether any prostitutes were on the street at the time."

[Aerows]

44. "Sanders supporter

seen on same street purported to be frequented by prostitutes."

"It is unknown at this time if the supporter is a gang member or engaged in illicit behavior."

[cherokeeprogressive]

46. "Possible gang tatoos."

[Aerows]

47. Allegedly ...

[olddots]

41. OY !

what bullshit .

[RiverLover]

48. I like it. Until we get money out of politics, pride goeth before the fall. Ask Russ Feingold.

And its especially good to know that "billionaires of conscience" exist!

Take the money & run Bernie!!