Committee letters somewhat understate things
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is looking into “Bloomberg Philanthropies for Partisan Activism with State Attorneys General,” starting with ‘Bloomberg Philanthropies’ and its project run out of New York University “embedding” activists in law enforcement offices to pursue the donor’s priorities.
GAO notes that the Committee’s descriptions have been made with even more particularity by the principals’ own hands. For example, while it is not inaccurate to state that “The State Impact Center’s database strongly indicates that the program prioritizes Democratic policies,” it is more precise to note the group was quite open in its initial recruiting pitch, clearly expressing in its overture the goal of “advancing progressive clean energy, climate change, and environmental legal positions” (emphasis added)—”progressive” having in recent decades come to mean the end of that political party’s spectrum furthest from the middle…
Also, “We’re based in DC and work on legal and communications strategy with AGs around the country who are promoting and defending progressive policies on clean energy, the environment and climate change,” reads an email from the communications director of the SEEIC to an AG’s office sent in August of [2018].”
One applicant, then-Attorney General of Massachusetts Maura Healey (favored with numerous “special assistant attorneys general” by the Bloomberg group), smelling what the recruiting pitch was stepping in, even boldly declared that she could use the extra troops to advance the group’s goals by “focus[ing] on ensuring Massachusetts and neighboring states meet the long-term commitments set forth in… the Paris Agreement.”
That reference by a chief law enforcement officer of a state would be to the “non-binding,” “not a treaty” Paris climate agreement. Readers may recall that the climate litigation campaign by progressive AGs was launched with the goal of “ensuring that the promises made in Paris become reality.”
While the Committee is surveying this issue of donors staffing government to advance the donors’ priorities, it might take note that these parties’ ambitions did not stop with AGs…