While Harry Reid rants about the Koch Brothers, big money liberal donor Tom Steyer escapes the scrutiny of the money-in-politics crowd. But make no mistake, Steyer is every bit the force in politics that the Koch brothers are. Steyer's relative anonymity just proves that the left doesn't care about money in politics - it's about the wrong money in politics.
Steyer is also finding that it's a bit harder to just pour money into races and win. As the Associated Press reports:
When he vowed to spend as much as $50 million of his own money, and raise the same from like-minded donors, billionaire Tom Steyer electrified the political world with his promise to make climate change an issue in this year's midterm elections.
"Our strategy is to do direct voter contact," Steyer said in a recent interview. "Particularly in an off-year election, which depends more on turnout, actually having people going out and directly speaking with voters face to face is actually the thing that changes elections."
But Steyer's burgeoning political operation will focus on only a handful of races, bypassing several coal- and-oil rich states where Democrats are in highly competitive Senate contests that could determine control of the chamber.
See how many times progressives - and especially, Democratic politicians like Harry Reid - condemn progressive money in politics and you'll see what they actually care about.