Tom Steyer has faced a tough—and humbling—6 months after he “roared on the national political scene vowing $100 million to impose his agenda on this fall’s midterms.” The Wall Street Journal,
“Remember the liberal huzzahs that greeted the February pledge? The New York Times gave Mr. Steyer the front page, heralding a coming “hard-edge campaign of attack ads” that would pressure officials to “enact climate change measures” and persuade voters to back a climate agenda…
“Or not. Mr. Steyer at an Aspen conference this week revealed that little if any of this is happening. The left is as split over energy as it has ever been; the public isn’t buying the climate line; and the hedge-fund-manager-turned-activist looks to be regrouping…
“It might also help if Mr. Steyer had the $100 million. His February vow was to match $50 million of his money to $50 million from donors, and he bragged that might be a “lowball” number. By last month, Politico was reporting that NextGen had raised all of $1.2 million. Seems Democratic donors have higher funding priorities than climate.
“In a high-stakes midterm every race matters and every dollar counts. And so Mr. Steyer’s millions—a fair amount of which is going to Democratic political groups that are more effective than his own—still matter. But his NextGen meltdown is a lesson for liberal Democrats and activists looking to impose an anti-energy agenda on the country. The public isn’t buying it.”
Leave a Reply