Soros/SEIU The Fund for America 527

George Soros, SEIU Each Contribute $2,500,000 to The Fund for America, a Recently Formed Pro-Democratic 527 Group

Monday, February 04, 2008

George Soros, SEIU Each Contribute $2,500,000 to The Fund for America, a Recently Formed Pro-Democratic 527 Group

In a report filed on January 31, 2007 with the Internal Revenue Service, The Fund for America, a recently formed pro-Democratic 527 group, reported receiving total contributions of $6,750,000 for the period from November 6, 2007 to December 31, 2007.
The contributions included $2,500,000 from billionaire George Soros, $2,500,000 from the labor union SEIU and $1,000,000 from Donald Sussman, President of Trust Assets Management, LLP.

The Fund for America was formed in November 2007 by Rob McKay, President of the McKay Family Foundation and a Taco Bell heir, Anna Burger, Secretary-Treasurer of SEIU, and John Podesta, President of Center for American Progress and a former chief of staff for President Bill Clinton.

McKay and Burger are also the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Democracy Alliance, a group of wealthy progressive donors that provide financial support to think tanks and advocacy groups.
The Fund for America is expected to be the leading 527 group making expenditures to support the Democratic presidential nominee in the 2008 presidential election.

It is the successor group to two 527 groups, ACT and The Media Fund, that played the same role for the Democratic presidential nominee in the 2004 presidential election and are no longer functioning.

George Soros provided more than $19,000,000 and SEIU provided $5,000,000 to support the efforts made by ACT and The Media Fund in the 2004 presidential race, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Three years after the 2004 presidential election, the FEC found in 2007 that ACT and The Media Fund made massive illegal expenditures to influence the 2004 presidential election.
The FEC found that ACT made $100,000,000 in illegal expenditures and The Media Fund made $53,000,000 in illegal expenditures in the 2004 presidential race. The FEC, however, imposed relatively minimal fines on each of the groups, equal to one percent or less of the total amount of their massive violations.

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