Big liberal donors want to hear how money is corrupting politics

The country’s most influential group of left-wing political donors has invited speakers to talk about money’s corrupting influence on American politics during its winter gathering at a luxury D.C. hotel. 

Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and former Indiana Rep. Tim Roemer (D-Ind.) are slated to address the topic on Friday at the winter conference of the Democracy Alliance, which is meeting at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel overlooking D.C.’s tidal basin.

{mosads}”I’m not sure if I’m going into the lion’s den, or if I’m going to be eaten, or if I’m going to be applauded and raised up on a throne,” said Roemer in a telephone interview Thursday.

The DA, as it is known, comprises more than 100 donors who each contribute at least $200,000 a year to progressive causes. It is the closest thing the American left has to the powerful conservative donor network founded by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch.

Yet while the Koch network feels comfortable about spending hundreds of millions of dollars advancing its free market agenda, many donors on the left privately describe feeling sickened about their own spending, even though they believe in the goals they are supporting. 

Many of the DA’s liberal donors, which include former hedge fund manager Tom Steyer — the biggest spender on either side of politics last year, dishing out $75 million in the midterm election cycle — believe the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which removed restrictions on political spending by unions and corporations, is a disaster that should be overturned.  

But in the short term, the donors will keep spending for fear of losing yet more state offices, congressional seats and even the White House to Republicans.

Major Democratic donors have told The Hill privately that they feel queasy writing large checks to Hillary Clinton’s super-PAC but feel compelled to do so, fearing Republicans will win the presidency in 2016 if they “unilaterally disarm.”

Hagel and Roemer belong to Issue One’s bipartisan “ReFormers Caucus,” which brings together more than 100 former governors, House and Senate members, who all agree that unfettered spending is corrupting U.S. politics and that the problem needs to be solved in a bipartisan way.

The group includes former Utah governor and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman and the Democrats’ former Senate Majority Leader, Tom Daschle (D-S.D.).

“We’ve crossed a threshhold,” Roemer says. “There’s a governing crisis, and further inaction is simply not an option.” 

“All across America, Democrats, Republicans and Independents all agree that the system is corrosive, that it’s broken and that money is flooding our system resulting in people now not trusting our government.” 

Asked what he would say to the liberal donors on Friday, Roemer suggested that one thing they might consider is to send their money to his or other groups dedicating to curbing the influence of money in politics.  

Roemer says he would love to give a similar talk to the Koch brothers’ network, but he has yet to be invited.