The Left's 'Blueprint for Perpetual Power

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Washington Examiner:


The Left’s 'Blueprint' for perpetual power
By: MATTHEW VADUM
Special to The Examiner
05/20/10 5:54 PM EDT

There’s an extraordinary new book out that explains Democrats' long-term strategy for winning and maintaining power.

It's called The Blueprint: How the Democrats Won Colorado (and Why Republicans EVERYWHERE Should Care), by journalist Adam Schrager and former Colorado state Rep. Rob Witwer.

The book explores in depth the efforts of the Democracy Alliance, a donors' consortium made up of left-wing millionaires and billionaires such as George Soros and Progressive Insurance magnate Peter B. Lewis. The mission of the low-profile Democracy Alliance is to build a lasting political infrastructure of think tanks, activist groups, leadership schools, and media outlets to help the left gain and keep power.

It was created after Democrats failed to reclaim power in the 2004 election -- despite favorable polls and record contributions by high-dollar donors.

The Democracy Alliance, which counts both SEIU and AFL-CIO as institutional members, helped Democrats give Republicans a shellacking in 2008. Now it’s organizing state-level chapters in at least 19 states, and once-conservative Colorado, which hosts the Democracy Alliance’s most successful state affiliate, has turned Democrat blue. Colorado funders such as heiress Patricia Stryker, technology tycoons Tim Gill (Quark Xpress) and Rutt Bridges, poured money into state-level projects and it paid off. (Jared Polis, now a Democratic congressman representing Boulder, Colo., was also involved but it's unclear if he is or was an actual member of CoDA -- Colorado Democracy Alliance.)

The national Democracy Alliance funds key institutions on the left: Center for American Progress, Media Matters for America, Catalist, People for the American Way, EMILY's List, (the now-dissolving) ACORN, and the Secretary of State Project which has helped elect the chief electoral officials in at least nine states.

The Democracy Alliance's ultra-secretive "Committee on States" project has office space in SEIU's D.C. headquarters a few blocks away from here in Dupont Circle.

To get a 35% discount (excluding shipping and handling) order the book through the publisher. The telephone number for Fulcrum Books is: 1-800-992-2908. The discount code is "Blueprint1".