Anderson@Large

Steve Rosenthal Wants a Second Act

In the 2004 election cycle, Steve Rosenthal and Harold Ickes burned through $200 million. When the votes were counted, all they had to show for their record spending was the election of a Democratic secretary of state in Missouri and a handful of state legislators.

A former political director of the AFL-CIO, Rosenthal arrogantly claimed that minority groups, including the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, were “ineffective, inefficient and unaccountable.”

Many CBTU members wore this button in protest.
On Sept. 17, 2004, the Washington Times published a news story, “Black voter groups lose money, control to 527s; Demand resources ‘to do what we do best.’”

In a letter to the editor, I wrote:

Black leaders are rightly frustrated that funding has been siphoned away from groups that closed the racial gap in voter registration and turnout in favor of instant organizations that have parachuted into black communities.

Money is not the sole issue; it’s also about respect. Many progressives blamed low black turnout for Democratic losses in the 2002 midterm elections.

Steve Rosenthal, chief executive officer of America Coming Together, dismissed black voter groups as “inefficient, ineffective and unaccountable.”

But get this: The Census Bureau recently reported there was an increase in black turnout in 2002. Black turnout was 39.7 percent in 2002 compared to 39.6 percent in 1998, the last midterm election.

And in the mother of all turnout battles, black voters—mobilized by black elected officials, black union members, black clergy and black voter groups—enabled Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu to withstand the Republican Party’s best shot and win the Louisiana senate runoff election.

Landrieu’s reelection and Kathleen Blanco’s surprising win in Louisiana’s gubernatorial runoff election remain the only statewide Democratic upsets since the 2000 election debacle. Both victories predate the rise of 527s, including America Coming Together and the Media Fund.

It is an open question whether ACT, which is “big-pimpin’” black voters, will be able to turn the trick. On Nov. 2, we all will know the answer.

The whole world knows the answer. America Coming Together fell apart the day after the 2004 election.

But Rosenthal is back.

The Los Angeles Times reported:

Longtime Democratic organizer Steve Rosenthal is hosting the Monday meeting with many of the figures behind America Coming Together, an independent operation that financed voter outreach in 2004, to discuss the prospects for creating a new campaign vehicle for 2012. Among those expected to attend are Ellen Malcolm, the founder of Emily’s List, which backs candidates who support abortion rights, and Anna Burger, the vice chair of the Democracy Alliance.

F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said, “There are no second acts in American lives.”

With his 2004 record and toxic brand among black leaders, there should be no second ACT for Rosenthal.

UPDATE: The Huffington Post’s Sam Stein reports:

Though not done as an alternative to Brock, other big-named operatives within the Democratic tent have also begun discussions about a similar third-party outlet. On Monday, longtime organizer Steve Rosenthal is set to host a meeting bringing together several of the figures responsible for the last major independent operation: America Coming Together [ACT]. Attendees, as the Los Angeles Times first reported will include Ellen Malcolm, the founder of Emily’s List; Anna Burger, the vice chair of the Democracy Alliance; longtime Clinton adviser Harold Ickes; and labor leader and Obama ally Andy Stern.

“It is really just to get a group of people together to talk about whether or not we need something like this again,” said one official involved in the meeting. “In 2004, we created a center of gravity and it covered various aspects and places of the party... to some extent Rove and Gillespie did that in 2010.”

[...]

There are no dollar figures that either Brock or Rosenthal’s groups have discussed in terms of what they are hoping to raise and spend in 2012. The $200 million that ACT and Media Fund (another independent-Democratic arm in 2004) raised two presidential cycles back is a pipe dream. But $50 million has been thrown out as a baseline number.

Stay tuned.

Money for Nothing

In the midst of the AIG political circus, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that business as usual in DC is over.

Before the rise of citizen journalism, the story might have been swept under the rug. The American people’s demand for transparency revealed Sen. Chris Dodd’s and the Obama administration’s complicity in the AIG mess.

Now, both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue are swept up in a whirlwind of populist outrage. The House vote is a transparent exercise in CYA.

Ellen Miller, co-founder of the Sunlight Foundation, observes:

Our fears have materialized about what happens when no one reads legislation. Now we have proof that 13 hours wasn't enough time to read the 1100 page Stimulus Bill. Reports have emerged that Senator Dodd, at the behest of the administration, inserted an unnoticed loophole that allowed AIG employees to receive exorbitant bonuses. I am certain that if Congress had put that legislation online for 72 hours before it was considered -- if they had a chance to read it, or if you did -- someone might have caught that last minute loophole.

Citizen watchdogs are also shining sunlight on the scams run by lobbyists who convince corporations and special interest groups they need a “presence” in Washington.

The Center for Responsive Politics reports:

The résumé and pedigree of Harold Ickes mark him as a Washington power broker, exactly the type you’d hire if you needed a lobbyist to advocate for you with lawmakers. The son of Franklin Roosevelt’s Interior Secretary, Ickes was deputy chief of staff in Bill Clinton’s White House and a top adviser on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. As a lobbyist, Ickes and his partner reported earning $674,000 from their clients last year, but figuring out what they did to earn more than half their fees can be unusually difficult.

Ickes (sounds like icky) was one of the, um, brains behind America Coming Together. So, it was not surprising to see his name on the list. After all, folks are still trying to figure out what he did with the hundreds of millions of dollars he burned through in 2004.

The Center further reports:

A search of federal lobbying reports going back more than a decade reveals that Ickes & Enright is far from the only Washington lobbying firm to file such bare-bones reports with Congress. Reviewing reports filed with the Senate Office of Public Records (SOPR) since 1998, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics found nearly 19,000 reports totaling at least $565 million in payments to lobbying firms for activity that was almost entirely unaccounted for. Last year, more than one in 10 filings were the equivalent of a single page--no issues listed, no lobbyists named, no government agencies contacted.

In an era of transparency, there will be less money for nothing. And since politics is Hollywood for ugly people, it's safe to assume few lobbyists are getting “chicks for free.”

Black Voter Turnout: Act II

In the 2004 presidential election, black voter empowerment groups were upstaged by the fly-by-night America Coming Together. ACT was spearheaded by Steve Rosenthal who convinced major donors that he knew more about black voters than the organizations that closed the racial gap in voter registration and turnout.

In one election cycle, ACT and its partner, the Media Fund, burned through $200 million. The ROI was a Democratic Secretary of State in Missouri. Still, Rosenthal bragged that his high-tech ground operation was a success, but the patient died.

With no accountability, ACT packed up its PDAs and has not been heard from since.

Dr. Ronald Walters, director of the African American Leadership Center at the University of Maryland, is a longtime critic of outside groups big-pimping black voters:

In my book ‘’Freedom Is Not Enough,’’ I wrote that in the 2004 election, Americans Coming Together (ACT), a White Democratic-leaning 527 organization funded by a collection of rich donors like George Soros, went around Black civic and religious organizations and sponsored its own voter turnout drive in the Black community.

Legions of kids with Blackberries showed up in places where the NAACP, Urban League, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Black churches, Black labor unions and local Black civic organizations had worked for years to turn out the Black vote successfully. The result was that not only were many of the Black organizations de-funded, but our strong Black churches and civic organizations were pushed aside to make way for professional canvassers.

Walters has seen this play before:

The Obama campaign is using the same tactics of ACT, financing thousands of young kids coming into Black communities to register Black voters, when from my brief survey, traditional Black organizations who have done this for years have received no funding from the campaign. Now, there are some legal issues here that complicate non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations receiving direct funding from political campaigns and the fact that the Obama campaign has raised more money than the Democratic Party and leaned on 527s not to come into the game. But it seems to me that they could have been worked out to enable the Obama campaign to be an empowerment vehicle for the Black community.

So it was ironic to me that Michelle Obama would urge a convention of Black Baptist ministers to turn out their people to vote – at the last minute in the campaign, with no accompanying funding mechanism – when Blacks have criticized the Democratic Party for years for doing the same thing.

Ironic indeed. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Democrats and Black Voters: SOS

As predictable as the swallows of Capistrano, Democrats are hitting the panic button over whether black voters will show up on Election Day.

And they should be concerned. A high black voter turnout (and here) is crucial to victory in several states, including Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia.

While Republicans assiduously court their base, Democrats want to hook up with black voters in the final days leading up to the Nov. 7 election.

Tellingly, Democratic operatives didn’t sound the alarm when black folks were not at the table when the pie was being sliced. They said nothing as new organizations like America Votes, Americans United and the September Fund, reportedly named after the month in which its founder Harold Ickes (sounds like icky) was born, were being bankrolled by major Democratic donors.

Parenthetically, even folks with deep pockets have their limits. Ickes, who reportedly raised only $3 million of the $10 million to $25 million he was soliciting, has been told to get out of here.

So, while the money has gone to progressive (read: white) groups that have never won an election, traditional voting rights groups that have measurable track records are expected to jump through hoops for some last-minute crumbs.

Consider: The Census Bureau reported that in the 1998 midterm election “African Americans were the only race or ethnic group to defy the trend of declining voter participation in congressional elections, increasing their presence at the polls from 37 percent in 1994 to 40 percent in 1998."

Similarly, the Census Bureau found that a record number of people were registered and voted in the 2002 midterm election. Among those registered to vote, turnout was 71 percent for whites and 68 percent for blacks.

Simply put, the racial gap in voter registration and turnout was closed by black voter empowerment groups -- not white progressives.

BTW, traditional voting rights groups could have addressed black voters’ disillusionment following the 2004 presidential election when John Kerry arguably snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in Ohio.

Instead, they were pushed aside in favor of America Coming Together, an instant organization headed up by Ickes and the equally icky Steve Rosenthal.  Together, they burned through more than $100 million, and then packed up their PowerPoint slides and Palm Pilots and left black voters standing in the rain.

Yes, it’s a new election and the stakes are high (and here), but it’s the same old sh, well, you know.

What's the Plan?

The late Ossie Davis told us: “It’s not the man, it’s the plan.”  So, yesterday I turned my attention from the Seattle Space Needle to a National Public Radio report on how progressives are building an infrastructure to advance their agenda.

With PowerPoint presentation in tow, Rob Stein is spearheading an effort to raise money for a new think tank that will take on the conservative message machine – and win elections.

But just like Steve Rosenthal who wowed funders with his PowerPoint rap, Stein’s plan doesn’t include black folks in the takeoff.  And we all know where Rosenthal has landed.

No Second ACT

Steve Rosenthal and Harold Ickes (sounds like icky), the wannabe mack daddies of black voters, have put away their PowerPoint slides (and here).

In the 2004 election cycle, Rosenthal and Ickes undermined black voter empowerment groups and have little to show for it:

In the last days of the campaign it [America Coming Together] had made 23 million phone calls, sent out 16 million pieces of mail, and delivered 11 million fliers. And on top of it all, it had "launched the largest get-out-the-vote effort the Democratic Party has ever seen," turning out "unprecedented levels of voters in the battleground states."

It all sounded very, very impressive. And then ACT listed its accomplishments at the polls, and the results seemed far less impressive. ACT had "helped ensure George W. Bush’s defeat in several of the key states and made the race close in others." It had "enabled Democrats to take back the Oregon state legislature for the first time in 10 years." It had helped Missouri Democrat Robin Carnahan win election as Missouri secretary of state. And finally, "In New Hampshire, we saw wins for the presidential race and the governor’s race, as well as a gain of four state senate seats."

And that was it. Soros and all his colleagues had spent $200 million to elect a Democratic secretary of state in Missouri.

And that’s all the checks he’s writing. Sure, it’s déclassé to say I told you so but I told you about these arrogant hustlers.

Hey, guys, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

A Stern Rebuke

The Congressional Black Caucus is to be commended for telling the Service Employees International Union to back off. I obtained a copy of the letter SEIU's secretary-treasurer sent to the CBC asking it to distance itself from Wal-Mart:

I am writing on behalf of the 1.8 million members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to express our disappointment that the Congressional Black Caucus has given Wal-Mart an opportunity to fashion a false image as a friend of African Americans and of working people generally.

Mind you, I fully support the campaign against Wal-Mart (and here). It’s outrageous that taxpayers are subsidizing (here, here and here) the health care costs of the world's largest retailer. In Maryland, for instance, Wal-Mart’s human resources people counsel employees on how to apply for Medicaid (and here).

 

That said, it's sheer arrogance for SEIU to lecture the CBC about friendship and disappointment. As I’ve written, Andrew Stern, SEIU's president, is the biggest backer of Steve Rosenthal and America Coming Together. The dues of SEIU's members, who are heavily people of color, were used to undermine established minority voter empowerment groups (and here). Rosenthal burned through $200 million in the last election cycle and now wants to institutionalize his failure.

 

SEIU should put its own house in order (here, here and here) and leave other people's business alone.