Tom Steyer, retired hedge fund manager and founder of Farallon Capital Management, is planning to spend $100 million during the upcoming election this year to push his campaign on climate change.
The New York Times reported that Steyer will spend $50 million of his personal money and is trying to raise additional $50 million from other donors. His objective is to make climate change one of the major issues during the 2014 election.
NextGen Climate Action
Tom Steyer became involved in national politics when he provided $11 million in campaign contributions to help Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe win in the previous election last year. He also donated millions during the Democratic congressional primary in Virginia.
His organization, NextGen Climate Action emerged as a major player in the world of money and politics. According to The New York Times, Steyer’s plan to spend $100 million will position his organization “among the largest outside groups in the country” similar to the level of the conservative political network supervised by Charles and David Koch.
The report indicated that Tom Steyer invited some of the leading liberal donors and environmental philanthropists in the country at his ranch in Pescadero, California early this month. The former hedge fund manager encouraged them to support his effort. He is a vocal opponent of the Keystone XL pipeline.
Tom Steyer targets Florida and Iowa
Steyer through his political organization plans to support some politicians during the 2014 election. Some of his targets include the governor’s race in Florida and the Senate race in Iowa.
He will go after incumbent Republican Governor Rick Scott of Florida who previously stated that he does not believe that science has established that climate change is man-made. In Iowa, he want to help Cong. Bruce Bradley, a strong advocate of measures to limit climate change.
“Our feeling on 2014 is, we want to do things that are both substantively important and will have legs after that. We don’t want to go someplace and, win and move on,” according to Tom Steyer.
Tom Steyer was successful in managing Farallon Capital Management. He gained more than $1.5 billion during his tenure as hedge fund manager before his retirement in 2012.
