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Subscribe to RSSOrganizing for Action, the issue advocacy-focused incarnation of President Obama’s successful campaign wing, is strictly non-partisan, the leaders of the new group said on Wednesday at a meeting of some of its members, volunteers, and donors.
“We are not a partisan organization,” Jon Carson, the group’s director, told a gathering of roughly 70 participants at OFA’s Founder’s Summit, held in a ballroom at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington, D.C.
“We are here to move this shared progressive agenda forward, and we will advocate to Democrats to move that forward. We will advocate to Republicans,” he said.
OFA is registered as a 501c(4) nonprofit social welfare organization, able to accept unlimited contributions and not required by the Federal Election Commission to disclose its donors, although it will voluntarily do so for contributions over $250.
The group, however, has been called out for accepting money from wealthy donors, even as Obama railed against the undue influence of big campaign contributors during his presidential campaigns.
But OFA National Chairman Jim Messina, who served as Obama's 2012 campaign manager, asserted that the group will keep its message strictly policy-based, emphasizing gun safety, immigration reform, and climate change as three top issues.
“There’s been some confusion about what OFA is and what it isn’t," Messina said. "I’d like to make sure that everyone is clear on that from the very beginning -- Organizing for Action is an issue-advocacy group, not an electoral one. “
Volunteer Carlotta Joyner, who leads OFA’s Western Maryland chapter, said she had no concerns about the large checks the organization may get from some wealthy donors.
“I trust the leaders of our organization when they say there’s no tit-for-tat -- if you give this amount of money you get to spend this amount of time with the president,” she said.
“I don’t see it as constituting a way for this particular group of people to have undue influence on the president or the administration.”
Through Wednesday and Thursday, the summit will feature discussions on topics like the structure of the organization, how it will execute an “issues campaign” as well as policy-specific conversations.
Among those leading the policy talks Thursday are outgoing EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, (who will discuss climate change) and Neera Tanden of the progressive think tank Center for American Progress (who will talk about gun safety).
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I don't agree with this or like it, but, Democrats can't drive 55 while the Republican'ts speed by us at 100 mph!
Until there is some serious campaign finance reform, this will be the name of the game...
The glaring difference is, OFA will disclose it's donors, while the right wing SuperPac's continue to hide behind the cloud of secrecy!
What is the right wing check writers so afraid of?
So what?
Rove has been doing it for years!......
Organizing for Action really is for looking out for social 'safety net' issues and programs!
feisty -- but you will compromise your personal ethics and principles becasue obama asks that you do so?
what possible difference can it make who donates. we know how the democrats have sold access in the past. it will be the millionaires and billionaires from hollywood, the climate change advocates, green energy advocates and so on.
have a nice afternoon.
There's not a liberal America and a conservative America - there's the United States of America.
.- Barack Obama, 2004 Democratic National Convention
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FORWARD...
Breaking news:
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We have a Pope
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Pope Francis hails from Argentina
Surprising that there are no Left Wing Progressive SuperPacs, like say MajorityPac or Priorities USA or Unions, like say SEIU or Teamsters, that are putting money out there. Oh wait there are. We need to be honest with each other. There is no spending cuts, only spending that was not going to happen anyway. There has been an increase on tax revenues without a corresponding reduction in spending and no real plan to. Please let's all be honest. There is not enough money to tax our way out of this problem. Sounds nice to tax "the rich". But there is not enough there. Spending cuts need to happen.
Excellent post Darien! It's too bad that not enough people believe that concept. The mantra of "tax the rich" doesn't work.
Proving once again, the redhead has no ethical integrity.
Isn't this the group that will allow you to meet with President Obama on a quarterly basis if you pay/donate $500,000?
Are they breaking the law? No, so who cares what any of you liberal complainers think. Besides, if any of you have a half million laying around you can buy and audience with Obama and complain to him. Which is government for sale, Obama style.
“We are not a partisan organization,”
I do believe that pill will require a glass of water ... or a suppository.
Neera Tanden (born 1970) is the President of Center for American Progress, a role she assumed in November 2011.
After graduating from Yale Law School, Tanden has worked on domestic policy both on Capitol Hill and in think tanks. She helped the 2008 Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign shape its policy proposals, and worked on President Bill Clinton's for new energy policies, health-care reforms, as well as her plan to end the Iraq War.[1] She was the domestic policy director for Barack Obama's campaign. She has also written on Indian-American affairs.[2]
Neera Tanden graduated from UCLA in 1992 and received her degree from Yale Law School in 1996. Neera was born in 1970 in Bedford, Massachusetts to immigrant parents from India. She appears frequently on CNN. Neera is married to Ben Edwards, an artist she met while working on the Michael Dukakis campaign.
I too chuckled at "not a partisan organization."
Edit: Source, Wiki.
She married an artist, someone who by nature thinks outside of the box ... cuddos to her.
Non-partisan my big, fat, old ugly butt!
Even those who love this guy know better than that because, if he wasn't, they wouldn't love him, lol!!!!
It's one thing to shove an agenda down the throat of an entire nation. It's quite another to then say that one isn't slanted in their approach.
I really don't like all this PAC stuff for either side but we can't let one side have all the money and tell all the lies or do all the campaigning without returning in kind. So if the Republicans don't like the Democrats raising money or having PACs then they shouldn't either.
Nobody believes that head line. "Obama group" claims it's mission is non partison. I don't really care that they are, as many on here have said, the fundraising method is used by any group. But stop pretending that it is not partison, and at the same time identifying yourself with a specific polititian. Even those that defend the group know that it is a lie when they make the claim.
On actual platform stances, I am a step or two to the left on most, (but not all), issues. Fundraising is an uncomfortable reality for democrats, the same way that morality is an uncomfortable reality for republicans. If you're gonna go around waving it in peoples faces, it's your hand that will, ultimately, end up stinking the worst.
Hellfire, try this..turn on the tap and let it run cold...take a small pool of water in your hands and splash it into your face! I don't think this will improve your reading comprehension, but it might save you from other acts of stupidity.
My point was that republicans present themselves as more moral than others...that's why it weighs heavier on them when one of them hires a 14 year old same sex prostitute. Transversely, when democrats employ big money superPACs, it seems hypocritical because they are the "champions of the working man."
Now...take a deep, slow breath. Go look up the big words I used. AND TURN OFF YOUR CAPSLOCK, BECAUSE SHOUTING DOESN"T MAKE YOU MORE RIGHT!
Democrats believe that killing babies in the womb is cool, that is about as moral as it gets. If hellfire requires a splash of cold water from the sink you my friend require a fire hose from a 4 inch hydrant.
Well said.
About as Non-Partisan as Hitlers Sturmabteilung......
Is it legal for the President or any other elected official to be directly associated with let alone finance a Lobbying group?
Yeah right, next they will say they didn't vote for Obama.
How about this people; we all demand that the feds go back to collecting tariff's and supplying an Army to protect us. Return the right to states to determine what is best for them, that would mean that there would be great sacrifices to be made, like no more EPA no more OSHA or oversight of our schools, no more of all that is wrong with our country today. Every wage earner pays 2% of their income and I mean every wage earner! Our collective problems stem from an intrusive government and their arrogant belief that they know what is best for us, all the while intensifying our misery.