PAC gearing up to back Clinton

It’s raising big-donor money in case she decides to run

Friday, January 24, 2014

The largest liberal super political action committee in the nation has begun raising money to elect Hillary Rodham Clinton president, formally aligning itself with Clinton’s undeclared presidential ambitions more than two years away from the election.

The group, Priorities USA Action, which played a pivotal role in helping re-elect President Barack Obama, also named new directors to steer the organization, appointments that will cement the group’s pro-Clinton tilt, and thrust veterans of Obama’s political and fundraising operation into the center of the post-Obama Democratic Party.

The move marks perhaps the earliest-ever start to big-dollar fundraising in support of a nonincumbent presidential candidate, providing a fundraising portal for wealthy Clinton supporters eager to help her White House prospects - and to the legions of others eager to ingratiate themselves with Clinton and her inner circle.

Six years after overwhelming Clinton with a superior grasp of small-donor fundraising and grass-roots organizing, the Obama world is now conferring on her some of the fruits of Obama’s successful re-election: data analytics expertise, new voter targeting techniques and experienced hands knitting it all together.

Jim Messina, Obama’s campaign manager in 2012, who has forged close ties with many Democratic donors, will serve as co-chairman of the revamped super PAC and an affiliated nonprofit, along with Jennifer Granholm, the former governor of Michigan who is among the most persistent voices calling for Clinton to enter the 2016 race.

Unlike other pro-Clinton organizations, which have focused on recruiting small donors or building lists of grassroots supporters, Priorities USA Action is seeking six- and seven-figure checks to power major advertising expenditures in support of Clinton - including, if necessary, responses to attacks by Republicans and conservatives in advance of a formal campaign declaration. Like all super PACs, the group would be barred from coordinating spending and strategy with Clinton if she enters the presidential race.

“I think the numbers clearly show that she’s the strongest presidential candidate on the Democratic side,” Messina said. “And Priorities is going to be there for her if she decides to run.”

Messina is now the most high-profile member of Obama’s inner circle to openly back Clinton for president, a move likely to fuel perceptions that Clinton’s potential candidacy has the tacit endorsement of Obama.

Donors and others involved with Priorities USA Action said they would look to far surpass the $67 million that Priorities spent on attack ads against Republican Mitt Romney during the 2012 election. Those ads - including one featuring workers laid off from a plant acquired by Bain Capital, Romney’s former firm - helped define Romney early in the campaign, a blueprint the group hopes to use on Clinton’s prospective opponents.

Messina’s role also adds to the Priorities USA Action team a top-tier rainmaker, with close relationships to the donors and bundlers who powered Obama’s billion-dollar campaign effort.

Steve Mostyn, a prominent Houston trial lawyer who, with his wife, Amber, was among the earliest major donors to Priorities USA Action in 2012, said he believed that liberal donors had largely overcome their reluctance to give to super PACs and would come out in force if Clinton enters the race.

“Amber and I are both excited about the prospects of being part of the super PAC for Hillary if she decides to run,” Mostyn said. “The first time was kind of a leap of faith for us - it was back when no one was giving Priorities money. I think it’ll be easier with Hillary.”

Messina said he would focus on importing to Priorities USA some of the advances in television microtargeting developed by the Obama campaign in 2012, which allowed it to achieve an unprecedented level of precision and cost-efficiency in finding and reaching voters, outhustling big-spending groups on the right.

“Priorities did not have that ability last time, because we were on the other side of the wall inventing it,” Messina said.

Priorities USA Action’s long-awaited relaunch has drawn intense scrutiny in recent months, with news reports detailing the group’s courtship of Messina and of Clinton luminaries like John Podesta, a White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton who ultimately took a position in the Obama administration.

Messina declined to say whether he had discussed his new role with Obama or with Vice President Joe Biden, another potential 2016 candidate, and it remains unclear whether the group would intervene in a primary campaign if Clinton faces other contenders for the Democratic nomination.

Messina will join other Obama and Clinton veterans at the group, including Buffy Wicks - a former Obama field director now serving as Priorities USA executive director; Jonathan Mantz, who was finance director for Clinton’s previous presidential campaign; and Peter Kauffmann, who was a press secretary during her first U.S. Senate campaign.

The announcement cements a broader takeover by Clinton allies of the Democratic Party’s burgeoning outside spending infrastructure, which has become steadily more interwoven with various branches of the Clinton diaspora.

The group expects to coordinate closely, for example, with Ready for Hillary, a super PAC that is focused on small-donor fundraising and building email lists of grass-roots Clinton supporters. Among the group’s new board members are David Brock, who is leading Correct the Record, a rapid-response squad dedicated to fending off attacks on Clinton; Allida Black, a co-founder of Ready for Hillary; and Maria Echaveste, a former White House aide to Bill Clinton who is now a fellow at the Center for American Progress, the liberal research group stocked with former Clinton aides.

“The Democrats are all cooperating, and the donors like it when they cooperate,” Mostyn said.

The new board also will include Stephanie Schriock, the president of Emily’s List, which works to elect women who support abortion rights. Schriock is considered among the contenders to manage Clinton’s presidential campaign if she runs.

But it is a different series of entanglements that may prove difficult to navigate. Echaveste and another board member, Charles Baker, are each founders of Washington-area lobbying shops serving an array of clients. Last year, Messina founded a consulting company to market the Obama campaign’s data innovation, a venture that is likely to be aided by his high-profile affiliation with the Clintons and with Priorities USA.

Messina also will remain chairman of Organizing for Action, the nonprofit advocacy group that grew out of Obama’s re-election campaign and raised $26 million last year to advance Obama’s agenda on the environment, health care and gun regulation. The group shares several major donors with Priorities USA, including New York philanthropist Amy Goldman Fowler; Barbara Stiefel, a Florida fundraiser; and Fred Eychaner, a Chicago media executive.

But Messina said he did not believe that the Obama group and Priorities USA would be competing for the same dollars, since Organizing for Action takes in most of its revenue from Obama’s army of small donors.

“What I think Priorities is going to do better than anyone else is continue our data advantage and be on the offense,” Messina said. “Whoever runs for president.”

Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/24/2014