California hedge-fund billionaire – and Jay Inslee best friend – Tom Steyer is back in the news in his home state, as he readies himself for a run for governor in two years. However, the attention he is getting is not necessarily what a candidate trying to buy a public office would be hoping for.
Steyer must have thought that announcing his support for a statewide initiative that calls on California’s congressional delegation to support overturning the Supreme Court’s Citizens United campaign finance decision would be well received. A similar do-nothing/feel-good initiative is on the Washington ballot as well, in I-735.
Instead, Steyer is lampooned for his strong stance against big money in politics, after having been the biggest donor in Democrat politics for the last several years. As the story points out:
“You read that right: Tom Steyer, billionaire hedge fund manager and the top political contributor of the 2014 and 2016 cycles, wants to get big money out of politics. This is the same Tom Steyer who, just a few months ago, would not rule out spending $200 million this cycle. It is also the same Tom Steyer who has dodged questions about his political spending on a regular basis.”
Indeed, Steyer’s SuperPac “NextGen” spent about $20.7 million in independent expenditures in 2014, mostly opposing Republican candidates. Steyer has spent more than $13 million so far this election year, according to OpenSecrets.org.
And the headline certainly nailed Steyer’s hypocrisy: “Not ‘The Onion’: Top Spender Tom Steyer Condemns Citizens United”
Of course, regular Shift readers are well aware of Steyer’s duplicity, most prominently last seen in the millions of dollars he funneled into our state to try to buy a State Senate majority for Inslee. Voters can only hope that Steyer’s interest in running for office down South will keep him out of Washington campaigns this year.
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