Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer has pledged to pour $100 million into midterm elections this year electing like-minded Democrats, but Politico reports that he’s on track to fall well short of that goal.
If fundraising doesn’t pick up, Politico notes, it could be a black eye for Steyer and other radical environmentalists who hope to make global warming a winning issue for Democrats.
His Super PAC, NextGen Climate Action, has raised just $1.2 million from other donors toward that goal, according to still-unreleased figures that his aides shared with Politico. And he appears to be struggling to woo wealthy allies in his effort to compete with big money conservative donors — leading some supporters to question whether his fundraising goal is realistic.
So far, the only really big donor to the Steyer cause is Steyer himself.
The numbers show just how hard it may be for Steyer to persuade rich liberals to spend their millions on climate change while voters focus on the economy, immigration, and Obamacare. They also call into question whether Steyer can really become the big money titan in Democratic politics — a counterweight to the dominance that deep-pocketed donors like the Koch brothers have achieved in conservative circles.
