The Money behind an Anti-Tea Party Hatchet Job
My colleague Lee Doren uncovers the money behind an online hatchet job on the tea party protests:
I just came across a new website titled: http://www.TheTeaPartyIsOver.org
It is paid for by the American Public Policy Committee. Well, according toopensecrets.org, the two donors for American Public Policy Committee this year are Patriot Majority and Patriot Majority West.
However, according to opensecrets.org, the 2nd largest contributor in 2008 to Patriot Majority was SEIU and other top Unions around America. I imagine the diversion of Union money gets much deeper than this.
Here’s some more on these groups. Patriot Majority founder Craig Varoga is a Democratic political strategist who once worked for former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack’s short-lived presidential campaign, and now runs a consultancy called Independent Strategies. His consulting partner, George Rakis, is a former political director of the Democratic Governors Association, which, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, was the largest single contributor to the American Public Policy Committee during the 2008 election cycle.
UPDATE: It’s worth nothing that the single biggest donor to Patriot Majority, by far, is the nation’s largest government employee union, the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which gave the group $5.8 million in the 2008 election cycle. Government employee unions, as would be expected, have a vested interest in promoting the growth of government.