GOP Wave Deals Blow to Tom Steyer

[Geee]

Free Beacon:

Tom Steyer and environmentalist groups backed by millions of dollars in his personal fortune were dealt a significant blow on Tuesday in races including Colorado’s Senate contest, where Republican Rep. Cory Gardner unseated incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Udall.

 

Steyer personally poured more than $73 million into outside political groups this cycle, making him by far the largest donor to such organizations, with former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and his $20 million in contributions coming a distant second.

 

Steyer’s record on the night was three wins and four losses, but the details of the races paint a grim picture for the billionaire environmentalist.

 

Colorado was a prime battleground for Steyer’s Super PAC and other environmentalist groups, but Gardner bested Udall by a 4.2 percent margin on Tuesday.

 

Udall was one of the few vulnerable Senate Democratic incumbents who refused to publicly back the Keystone XL pipeline, opposition to which was Steyer’s litmus test for his sizable financial support.

[Geee]

Environmental groups: 'We lost far too many races'

 

Environmental groups boasted ahead of Tuesday's elections of the $85 million they were spending and talked boldly of how they would become a potent political force.

 

On Wednesday, they were licking their wounds.

 

"Let's be clear — we lost some champions last night," League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski said at a Washington media conference.

 

The League of Conservation Voters was the second-biggest environmental spender behind NextGen Climate Action, the Super PAC founded by billionaire ex-hedge fund manager Tom Steyer. Other groups, such as the Environmental Defense Action Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund and the Sierra Club also contributed.

 

None saw a great return on their investments.

 

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/environmental-groups-we-lost-far-too-many-races/article/2555824

[Valin]

Have large bags of money is always helpful in a campaign, but it is not the only thing. Good candidates with the right message put in the right way is just as important. How many times have we seen candidates with tons of money lose? The problem people like Steyer don't get is most Americans don't buy the Man Made Climate Change message. They do themselves and their message no good when they keep declaring The End Is At Hand!

[Geee]

Teachers unions get schooled in 2014 election

 

The American Federation of Teachers abruptly canceled a planned 10 a.m. Wednesday press call with its president, Randi Weingarten, to discuss Tuesday's election returns. No explanation was given, but it likely would not have been a fun experience for her, since AFT spent an estimated $20 million of its 1.6 million members' dues this election with little to show for it.

 

Another union, the 3-million member National Education Association, reportedly committed $40 million and possibly as much as $60 million. Both aimed to send a message to lawmakers pushing conservative education reforms.

 

"The market-based reforms, the top-down reforms, the testing and sanctioning as opposed to supporting and improving has taken hold so much and has been so wrong-headed that you’re seeing this fight back," Weingarten told the liberal magazine The Nation last month. AFT even created a Tumblr page called "You Got Schooled" to hit Republican candidates.

 

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/teachers-unions-get-schooled-in-2014-election/article/2555796

[Valin]

Steyer, Steyer, Pants on Fire

Steven Hayward

November 5, 2014

 

Tom Steyer is delusional. Or living in a parallel universe where Al Gore is emperor. Probably comes with hanging out with Nancy Pelosi in Pacific Heights too much. He tells the San Jose Mercury News that I feel as if we did better than we expected.

 

The story adds:

 

 

Steyer and his camp stress that they have created an infrastructure which includes identifying 250.000 climate voters for the long haul.

250,000 climate voters, eh? Ill bet thats less than one quarter the new jobs created by the fracking and new oil production he opposes. And Im guessing most of those folks vote, as coal county people did in much larger numbers in Kentucky this year, for example.

 

The story adds this:

 

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Steyer was by far the largest known single donor in the 2014 elections.

Kinda harshes the Koch brothers chant, doesnt it?

 

(Snip)