Sanders Institute has little to show for first year and $500K

[TomCADem]

Last edited Mon Mar 23, 2020, 12:13 AM - Edit history (1)

While Bernie's campaign continues to aggressively attack Democrats, perhaps Bernie should be held accountable against the standards he claims he upholds. For example, Bernie has made it a point to attack opponents with private foundations. Yet, he has not been taken to task for his own private foundation, which appears to have been formed mainly to promote him politically. Moreover, Bernie took the taxpayer proceeds and paid his son-in-law a six figure salary even though he had no experience running a non-profit.

https://vtdigger.org/2018/07/29/sanders-institute-little-show-first-year-500k/

Last summer, Jane Sanders launched The Sanders Institute, a Progressive think tank backed by star power and big money. It’s goal: “revitalize democracy.” The initiative represented the second stage in what was originally envisioned by Jane and her husband, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., as a three-pronged progressive political machine.

Sen. Sanders announced this vision shortly after bowing out of the last presidential race, in a July 2016 interview with USA Today. He explained that the first organization, Our Revolution, would train, support and recruit candidates, while the Sanders Institute would spread awareness of the country’s “enormous crises.” Sanders also imagined a third organization, described broadly as a political ad agency, that has not materialized.

* * *
Less attention has been paid to The Sanders Institute, a 501(c)(3) non-profit without disclosure requirements whose mission must be chiefly non-partisan. A VTDigger analysis of organization’s maiden year found little original work from the think tank, which took in nearly a half-million dollars in contributions and grants last year.

* * *
Jane Sanders wears many hats at the institute: founder, fellow, fundraiser and a non-voting member of the board of directors. The institute is being run by her son, David Driscoll, a political neophyte who previously worked at Burton Snowboards. His estimated salary for the job is $100,000.

The Sanders family has faced charges of nepotism in the past, including when Jane Sanders, as president of the now-defunct Burlington College, brokered a favorable partnership with a woodworking program run by her daughter, Carina Driscoll. Carina was also a paid campaign staffer for her stepfather in his 2000 and 2004 House campaigns. In January, Our Revolution endorsed her unsuccessful bid to be Burlington mayor, and sent out a national fundraising email on her behalf.

[Thekaspervote]

1. I will be so glad when sanders finally drops out!

[madaboutharry]

2. None of this surprises me.

Bernie is an old revolutionary who got stuck in a time warp. His wife’s moral compass is another matter.

The sooner he ends his campaign the better it will be for the country.

[TomCADem]

5. What is Notable The Article's Reference to Bernie Creating An Ad Agency...

Last edited Mon Mar 23, 2020, 12:11 AM - Edit history (1)

The article notes that "Sanders also imagined a third organization, described broadly as a political ad agency, that has not materialized."

If you look at Open Secrets, Sanders campaign has paid close to $12 million to Aisle 518 Strategies:

https://www.opensecrets.org/2020-presidential-race/expenditures?id=N00000528

What is Aisle 518 Strategies? It is political ad ageny and it was formed by a close Bernie Sanders associate:

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/14/bernie-sanders-campaign-2020-election-1098795

Tagaris, a member of Sanders’ inner circle who was expected to be part of any 2020 campaign, is known as a trailblazer in small-dollar fundraising. Now the owner of Aisle 518 Strategies, he has been running Sanders’ email program and digital advertising. Curran, in addition to working on Sanders’ 2016 campaign, was the Democratic National Committee's email director during the 2018 midterm cycle.

Asked about their future roles, Tagaris confirmed that, along with him and Curran, who is now vice president of digital strategy at Aisle 518 Strategies, his firm’s Hal Irish and Saron Olkaba have also pledged to be part of any 2020 Sanders campaign.

https://aisle518.com/about-us/tim-tagaris/

Tim Tagaris, the owner of Aisle 518 strategies, served as the Digital Fundraising Director for Senator Bernie Sanders’ historic 2016 presidential campaign that set records by raising $218 million online with an average contribution of just … $27.

So, as noted in the OP, it seems like Bernie did help for a political ad agency, and his campaign is now paying close to $12 million to a new political ad agency formed by a Bernie associate, his former Digital Fundraising Director.

[SCantiGOP]

3. What's the point of the post

You know we have a nominee.
What’s gained by continuing to trash the other side? I don’t see where that helps the upcoming campaign or the November election.

[TomCADem]

4. Wait. Has He Dropped Out?

I was critical of Tulsi Gabbard, but she dropped out, so there is no need to criticize her. But, I think it is a mistake to give Bernie a free pass until he drops out. We tried that before. It did not work. Bernie continued to make personal attacks that were subsequently adopted by the Trump administration until Bernie finally conceded the very end with many of his surrogates loudly declaring that they would not support the Democratic nominee. We cannot fall for this again.

At this point, Bernie Sanders is acting as a virtual surrogate for Trump. This is why you have his surrogates like David Sirota continuing to attack Biden. This is why we need to expose Bernie for what he is. He is not some white knight nor is he free from controversy. As the article above shows, he is far more guilty of the very sames types of conflicts of interests that he himself criticizes.

At best, it seems like Bernie just wants to keep the gravy train going to his family who have been hired in some shape or form by many of his enterprises. After all, does Bernie have an immediate family member who has not been on his payroll? At worse, Bernie really is just trying to damage Biden so that Trump will win.

[comradebillyboy]

7. When Sanders concedes and endorses the presumptive

nominee we can have a truce. He's still running for the Democratic nomination. The contest still goes on distracting from the bigger picture, the need to get rid of Donald Trump. Bernie can't win the nomination. He has only two choices, help defeat Trump or help reelect Trump. So long as he is contesting the nomination and his campaign is attacking Biden, and they are, he is helping Donald Trump.

[Aquaria]

13. When he and his minions stop attacking Democrats and concedes

Then we'll let up.

Why? Because campaigning candidates get scrutinized. That's how politics work, and how they've always worked.

He's the one who insists on remaining a candidate; therefore, he can't complain when voters and the press treat him like one. As long as he keeps campaigning, he remains open to criticism for things that reflect on him as a candidate. It's called vetting, and no one is immune from it as long as he continues to run for the highest office in the land.

If BS wants people to stop digging around in his every move, all he has to do is stop being a candidate by conceding and throwing his support behind the voter's choice. It will all stop then and there, and he can go back to being the backbencher Senator he's always been. Until then, he's fair game for criticism and scrutiny.

The choice is his.

Welcome to political reality.

[NCProgressive]

6. Didn't Bernie's son work at the "Institute" for $100K a year?

[TomCADem]

12. No, His Son, Levi, Has Permanently Worked On Bernie's Campaign...

...as a "Senior Policy Strategist":

https://www.linkedin.com/in/levi-sanders-8a112825

So, Bernie pays Levi with campaign moneys. What does Levi do? Well, it seems like Jeff Weaver has no idea:

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/09/bernie-sanders-son-loses-campaign-for-congress

As The Boston Globe reported in February, nearly all of Bernie’s campaign aides, advisers, and allies in New Hampshire warned Levi—whose title on his father’s campaign was senior policy analyst—not to run, and not to expect their endorsements if he did. Jeff Weaver, Bernie’s presidential campaign manager, could barely disguise his disdain: “[He] really doesn’t know much, to be honest with you.”

The person you are talking about is the son-in-law of Jane Sanders, David Driscoll. He was hired to lead the Foundation even though he had no prior non-profit experience.

You can start to see why Bernie wants to keep the campaign going. He needs to keep all of the family member employees of Bernie, Inc. fully employed.

[BidenBacker]

18. Lots of kids making money off their politician Daddys' names these days

Hunter Biden, Levi Sanders and the whole rotten Trump litter along with that Kushner creep.

Thankfully they don't all go on to then become equally rotten Senators like Rand Paul.

[TomCADem]

19. Joe Biden Did Not Hire Hunter Biden

Hunter Biden is like Megan Markle's dad trying to use his connection to Joe to profit, but Joe is not putting him on Joe's payroll.

Blaming Joe for Hunter is like blaming Megan Markle for her dad's actions.

[BidenBacker]

20. I didn't say Joe hired his boy

Just that Hunter used his Dad's name to make some good dough...that seems irrefutable. Not saying I wouldn't have done the same thing if my Pop had been famous and had some political influence if I didn't really have to do anything for it.

I wouldn't have done anything illegal, unpatriotic or used my Pop to then influence peddle...which I do not believe Hunter did. No matter how much the GOP tries to say he did if/when they have a show hearing later this year.

Just looks real bad and wish he hadn't put his father in such a position, is all. Seriously doubt it will derail him, thankfully. And it's not like Dems don't have a target-rich environment when it comes to corrupt kids who've done FAR worse than anything Hunter ever did.

[TomCADem]

21. With Bernie and Trump, They Put Their Kids on Their Payroll...

...in Bernie's case he is paying his family members with either charitable donations to his foundation or with campaign contributions.

If Levi Sanders got a job with moveon.org or a TV commercial capitalizing on his celebrity as the son of Bernie that is one thing. You can't blame Bernie for the actions of his adult son.

However, Bernie has hired family members using his campaign funds and charitable donations. That's on Bernie similar to Trump putting his family on the payroll.

[Gothmog]

8. A couple of family members got paid

[TomCADem]

11. Slate - What did $220 million buy? Ads, consultants, and a dispiritingly conventional campaign.

Not only family members, but close associates of Bernie, since nearly $12 million has gone to Bernie's former Director of Fundraising who founded Aisle 518 strategies.

Bernie's funneling of money to close associates who are running newly created businesses is not first time Bernie did this. Back in 2016, most of Bernie's millions went to Old Towne Media, a company that did not exist, accept to funnel money from contributors to buy ads as noted in Slate:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2016/07/how-bernie-spent-his-millions-was-anything-but-revolutionary.html

The top-billing vendor among all candidates during this campaign cycle is Old Towne Media. Located in a residential home on a leafy suburban street in Alexandria, Virginia, Old Towne Media is, from all outward appearances, a black box. Incorporated as an LLC in 2014, it lists no employees, and its only clients this cycle have been the Sanders campaign and a small PAC supporting an Ohio gubernatorial candidate. A close examination of the Sanders campaign’s ad buys suggests that Old Towne Media is a front company for Canal Partners Media, a well-known media firm aligned with the Democratic Party. According to Federal Election Commission data compiled by Open Secrets, Canal Partners Media billed $45 million during the 2014 midterms, half of which came from the Senate campaigns of Mary Landrieu in Louisiana, Michelle Nunn in Georgia, and Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire, the only winner of the three. During this cycle, however, the company has taken in only $515,000 as of May 23. It appears most of its business was shifted into Old Towne, which billed the Sanders campaign $82,773,463 by the end of May.


Buying ad time doesn’t take rarified skills, but it’s a major source of revenue for political consultants—who typically receive a 15 percent commission on ad expenditures for scheduling commercials, negotiating with broadcasters, and settling accounts on behalf of a campaign. Ad buyers are one of a number of businesses that saw a huge surge in revenues during the $2.6 billion 2012 presidential campaign. A study published in May by researchers at Emory University found that in the three most recent election cycles, “less than 1% of total expenditures by federal candidates for the purpose of purchasing television advertising are paid directly from the campaign committee to a provider.”

An examination of 5,800 Sanders ad buy contracts and supporting documentation found that one Canal Partners Media employee, Jeff Scattergood, and two partners, Barbara Abar Bougie and Shelli Hutton-Hartig—all three working as representatives of Old Towne Media—are listed on over 1,000 documents related to air-time purchases for the Sanders campaign. Keeping the different companies’ names straight appears to have been difficult, even for the people filling out paperwork for the ad buys. In one document submitted in February, Canal Partners Media was listed as the agent of the Sanders campaign requesting rates for television time from stations in Columbus, Ohio.

* * *
Why create a front company at all? One possible explanation relates to another Canal Partners client: Friends of the Earth Action Fund, which made ad buys supporting Sanders in early primary states. Friends of the Earth Action Fund is a 501(c)4 organization, meaning it’s a “dark money” group that isn’t required to disclose its donors. FEC rules prohibit such groups from coordinating with the campaigns they support, but Canal Partners received $20,971 from Friends of the Earth Action; documents acquired by Slate confirm that Canal Partners Media staff made ad buys on behalf of Old Towne Media for the Sanders campaign. Campaigns and independent expenditure groups can use a common vendor, but they can’t coordinate in any way and the vendor cannot be a conduit for nonpublic strategic information.

[Aquaria]

14. Just like a couple of the Nitwit Sopranos

are getting paid out of campaign funds, and their girlfriends, too. But I don't see any of you BS supporters thinking that's all right. So why is it okay when your guy does it? Do you not get how that reeks of hypocrisy?

Wrong is wrong. It's wrong for Agolf Twitler to do it. And it's wrong for BS to do it, too.

This isn't a difficult concept to grasp, you know.

[Cha]

9. shock-ing

[The Magistrate]

10. This Is Palin-Class Grifting, Sir

It certainly opens a window to sme interesting speculations regarding motive....

"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."

[Aquaria]

15. I've been calling him a self-serving fraud for a while.

There was a reason for it.

[Tarheel_Dem]

16. Yup. I think even Jim & Tammy Faye Baker would be impressed. n/t

[NurseJackie]

17. This pretty much confirms many of the feelings I've always had about Bernie and Jane.