Democrat Super PAC Has Out-Of-State Billionaires Investing Heavily To Flip Arizona’s Legislature Blue
By Staff Reporter |
A major Democrat super political action committee, the PAC for America’s Future, is investing heavily in Arizona this election year. PAC for America’s Future is not only the largest PAC in Arizona; it is a top donor to the Democratic Party.
PAC For America’s Future has focused on Arizona, one of the more contentious of the six key swing states for the election, alongside Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, and Nevada. According to the Arizona secretary of state’s campaign finance portal, the PAC is the second-largest in the state with over $9.5 million in income and $4.2 million in expenditures, after Arizona for Abortion Access ($12.3 million income, $9.6 million expense). However, PAC for America’s Future has the highest cash balance in the state: over $8.3 million.
These funds are from out-of-state interests, not Arizonans. AZ Free News reviewed all finance reports and found that total funds from Arizonans amounted to slightly less than $13,500 across 122 donations (some of whom were recurring donors). That’s .0014 percent of total donations since last year.
Most of the other funds come from sizable contributions by wealthy out-of-state Democrats. Jonathan Soros, heir to father George Soros’ $25 billion empire, has given $2 million to PAC for America’s Future this year and remains their single-highest donor.
Other top donors from last year to this year include:
- $500,000 from Lynn Schusterman, an Oklahoma billionaire and wife of the late oil and gas founder Charles Schusterman
- $1 million from Wendy and Barry Munger, Californians and children of former Berkshire Hathaway vice chair and late Charles Munger
- $400,000 from Indiana philanthropist Deborah Simon, daughter of billionaire shopping mall magnate Melvin Simon
- $400,000 from Steven Laufer, economist with the Federal Reserve Board
- $300,000 from Debra Ann Efroymson, a New Mexico descendant of the wealthy Efroymson dynasty
- $250,000 from New York property management tycoon Gideon Friedman
- $245,000 from billionaire California philanthropist John Pritzker, son of Hyatt Corporation founder Jay Pritzker
- $200,000 from David Karp, former CEO of major social media platform Tumblr
- $100,000 from a Paul Karp (Paul Haahr), a Google software engineer out of California
- $100,000 from Linda Schlein, the wife to venture capitalist Ted Schlein out of California
- $170,000 from multiple members of the billionaire Pigott family out of Seattle, Washington
- $75,000 from Juan Sebastian Scripps, an angel investor out of Kentucky
- $75,000 from Andrew Beck, a New York-based philanthropist
- $50,000 from Steven Spielberg, the acclaimed Hollywood director
- $50,000 from Kate Capshaw, a Hollywood actress
- $50,000 from Jacqueline Asplundh, the Asplundh Tree Expert Company scion out of Florida
- $50,000 from Brian Rosenthal, the engineering director for Facebook residing in New York
- $50,000 from Lorin Silverman, the New York descendant of business tycoon Marty Silverman
PAC for America’s Future’s affiliates have also brought in millions for the cause. These affiliates serve as holding entities for transferring funds to the PAC.
PAC for America’s Future formerly went by the “Future Now Fund” up until 2021. It’s a repository for funds from major Democratic dark money donors like George Soros and funder to one of the state’s leading dark money nonprofits, Progress Arizona, the outfit led in part by Governor Katie Hobbs’ former press secretary Josselyn Berry. (She rejoined after resigning from the governor’s office due to her posted gun violence threat to “transphobes” last year within hours of the Nashville elementary school shooting.)
Given its most recent name, it should come as no surprise that PAC for America’s Future is listed as “related” on tax returns to two similarly named 501c4 nonprofit entities: Future Now Action and Future Forward USA Action. The two nonprofits also operate a super PAC, Future Forward PAC, which has received nearly $19 million so far this year from Future Forward USA Action ($12 million in 2022).
This network of millions is a critical resource for the Democratic Party during election years.
Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, White House deputy chief of staff and Biden’s 2020 campaign manager, told The New York Times that the Future Forward ecosystem was “critical” in the 2020 presidential election, and would be again this year.
The Biden team directed his 2020 campaign finance director and White House deputy assistant Katie Petrelius to join the Future Forward team.
The Soros family’s Open Societies Foundation gave $15 million to Future Forward USA Action in 2022 and $5.5 million in 2021. The Arabella Advisors dark money network has also given millions to PAC for America’s Future and the two related “Future” nonprofit entities.
Although few of this mega PAC’s funds come from Arizonans, the Arizona Democratic Party, its candidates, and close-knit organizations have benefitted. In this most recent quarterly campaign finance report, as well as the last, the Arizona Democratic Party received nearly $300,000.
In the last campaign finance report, PAC for America’s Future reported spending over $140,000 on Arizona’s Democratic candidates, with all candidates receiving $10,800 boosts each. AZ List PAC also received $27,000.
For the State House, these donations went to candidates Deborah Howard, Stephanie Simacek, Oscar De Los Santos, Brandy Reese, Nicholas Gonzales, Matias Rosales, Mariana Sandoval, Karen Gresham, and Kevin Volk. For the State Senate, these donations went to Christine Marsh, Analise Ortiz, John McLean, and Stacy Seaman.
PAC for America’s Future is technically a “hybrid” committee — or “Carey” committee — meaning it’s capable of making independent expenditures as well as direct contributions to candidates.
A donor’s first $5,000 goes to a contribution account per PAC for America’s Future’s donor site. All funds beyond that $5,000 cap go into a non-federal account. That latter account is for PAC for America’s Future’s 527 committee, a tax-exempt type of committee that allows for unlimited donations to support or defeat political candidates but requires disclosure of all donors and expenses.
PAC for America’s Future’s 527 Committee then funnels the donations in excess of $5,000 — estimated to amount to tens of millions — to PAC for America’s Future’s joint initiative with Future Now Action, “The States Project” (TSP).
TSP took credit for moves undertaken to flip the Arizona legislature blue, dating back to their initial claim of victory in 2018 with four seats flipped for Democrats in the state House; then two new seats in the House and one new seat in the Senate in 2020; and then defense of won seats in 2022.
“Flipping both chambers in Arizona is possible in 2024. In the Senate 1,500 voters changing their minds would have shifted the balance of power in 2022. And in the House, we see a clear path to governing power, as less than 1,000 voters shifting would have ended rightwing control. Investing in the districts where we see the opportunities to shift power now gives us the strongest shot at achieving our goals in the state.” – TSP
Based on the influx of funds through their various PAC for America’s future tributaries, it appears that wealthy out-of-state interests have a vested interest in ensuring Arizona goes from a swing state to a firmly blue stronghold.
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