A liberal Super PAC at the heart of attacks on Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital was funded last year in part by Bain Capital executives, BuzzFeed reported Tuesday.
Launched last year, American Bridge 21st Century PAC specializes in opposition research, and the delivery of oppo news tips to media organizations—including information about Romney's time at Bain. The group is part of a larger network of liberal organizations, including Media Matters. Two of the donors to that network, Jonathan Lavine and Joshua Bekenstein, are actually Bain executives.
American Bridge ceased its public attacks on Bain last year at the behest of a top fundraiser, who worried such attacks might damage her relationship with the Bain executives, BuzzFeed reports:
The fact that Bain executives would double as major liberal donors also complicates the portrait of the group as a conservative bastion of high finance. One person familiar with the internal conversations at American Bridge said Bonner, battling "donor fatigue" from donors being tapped for Media Matters, American Bridge, and other groups, was particularly concerned about two men. The attacks could "ruin her relationship" with two big donors, the person privy to internal conversations said Bonner warned: (Jonathan) Lavine, a Bain Capital managing director who was also a major fundraiser for President Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012; and (Joshua) Bekenstein, another top Bain executive who also contributed more modestly to Obama’s campaign. Because American Bridge and Media Matters keep their donors secret, public records do not show either man’s contributions and BuzzFeed was unable to determine who had given to which group, and how much.
Despite ending the public attacks on Bain, the group — funded in part by Bain donors — was a "prolific" source of Bain attacks for news organizations, according to BuzzFeed:
American Bridge officials also argue that those public forays were never their main goal. As a group focused on opposition research, American Bridge was prolific source of tips on Romney’s record at Bain to news organizations (including BuzzFeed), much of it provided on the condition the group not be credited, some of it provided with credit. They were also a key source of research to other liberal groups, said several progressive leaders prompted by the group to contact BuzzFeed.
It’s impossible for an outsider to arbitrate whether the group’s decision to operate largely behind the scenes was driven by Bonner’s relationship with Bain capital, as some people close to the group charge; or whether it was a purely strategic decision on the merits, as the group’s leaders forcefully argue. There is no dispute, however, that the group produced reams of research, much of which made its way into the slashing attack ads produced by Priorities USA.