American Opportunity Alliance

<p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); line-height: 22.799999237060547px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">===<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">group of major GOP donors, led by New York billionaire Paul Singer, is quietly expanding its political footprint ahead of the midterm elections in an increasingly assertive effort to shape the direction of the Republican Party.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The operation was launched discreetly last year, with the previously unreported formation of a club called the American Opportunity Alliance to bring together some of the richest pro-business GOP donors in the country, several of whom share Singer’s support for gay rights, immigration reform and the state of Israel. Around the same time, Singer and his allies also formed a federal fundraising committee called Friends for an American Majority that raised big checks for a select list of the GOP’s most highly touted 2014 Senate hopefuls.

Those candidates are among the big names expected at a two-day retreat organized by the American Opportunity Alliance set for the last week of February at a swanky Colorado resort. The closed-door event — which is also expected to draw House Speaker John Boehner and New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, according to Republicans familiar with the plans — is seen in GOP finance circles as a grand debut of sorts for Singer’s still-amorphous club.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">( <a href="http://politico.com/tag/fundraising" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(1, 93, 166);">POLITICO's full coverage of political fundraising</a>)<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">On its face, it in some ways resembles a much smaller-scale version of Charles and David Koch’s fabled network, which <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/48277.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(1, 93, 166);">brings together hand-picked operatives</a> and politicians twice a year at tony resorts to make presentations to dozens of rich conservatives. At the conclusion of the <a href="http://www.kochfacts.com/kf/koch_seminars/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(1, 93, 166);">Koch </a><a href="http://www.kochfacts.com/kf/koch_seminars/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(1, 93, 166);">seminars</a>, as they’re called, donors commit massive sums into a pool of cash disseminated to various Koch-backed groups for seven- and eight-figure advertising and organizing campaigns that have made them a force in Republican politics rivaling the official party.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">That doesn’t appear to be the goal of Singer and his donors. While many of them — including Singer himself — have attended the Koch seminars and also maintain their own independent spending groups, their approach with the American Opportunity Alliance is more donor-centric, focusing on comparing notes about one another’s political projects and funneling limited hard-money contributions effectively.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Still, the list of big-name pols expected at the American Opportunity Alliance’s upcoming Colorado gathering highlights the influence that only a few big donors can command in the post- Citizens United era, when a small group of wealthy individuals can reorder elections with just a few huge checks. That new reality has shifted some of the power and control once maintained by the parties and their candidates to factions of major donors, like the libertarian-infused Koch network on the right or the Democracy Alliance <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/73534.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(1, 93, 166);">club of major liberal donors</a> on the left.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">( <a href="http://www.politico.com//story/2014/02/barack-obama-fundraisers-2014-elections-103499.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(1, 93, 166);">Also on POLITICO: Barack Obama fundraisers add up</a>)<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The ideological and tactical contours of Singer’s plans remain somewhat unclear, as does the membership of the American Opportunity Alliance, which is registered as a for-profit corporation in Delaware. If nothing else, though, the group appears to represent a new center of gravity in the world of GOP money, anchored by a famously prolific Republican bundler with a distinct ideological agenda.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Singer, who founded the hedge fund Elliott Management, has long been a key player in GOP money circles, espousing a nontraditional brand of conservatism that includes aggressive backing for gay marriage and immigration reform, as well as more traditional GOP stances like lower taxes and less government regulation. Contributors to the joint fundraising account for Senate candidates — a list that likely dovetails at least partially with the American Opportunity Alliance’s member rolls — include a mix of gay marriage supporters like <a href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/sweet/23344139-452/todd-ricketts-takes-over-superpac.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(1, 93, 166);">Todd Ricketts</a> and billionaire investor <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/nyregion/the-road-to-gay-marriage-in-new-york.html?pagewanted=1&r=3&hp&" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(1, 93, 166);">Cliff Asness</a>, as well as more conventional fiscal conservatives like brokerage titan Charles Schwab and real estate developer Harlan Crow.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The Colorado summit appears to be the first organized under the American Opportunity Alliance banner, but it comes after a series of other political gatherings organized by Singer and his cohort that paved the way for it. At the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Singer put together an economics panel featuring at least one congressman, plus he teamed with fellow hedge funder Dan Loeb — another prominent gay rights supporter — to host a dinner at the Hyatt Regency headlined by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.<p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); line-height: 22.799999237060547px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); line-height: 22.799999237060547px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); line-height: 22.799999237060547px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And the Kochs are by no means the only rich guys aiming to elect more Republicans. As Politico <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/paul-singer-republican-gop-fundraising-campaigns-donors-103600.html" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(157, 157, 157); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">reported</a> Tuesday:<blockquote style="border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 1.4em 42px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: ''; max-width: 100%; line-height: 22.799999237060547px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); width: auto !important;">A group of major GOP donors, led by New York billionaire Paul Singer, is quietly expanding its political footprint ahead of the midterm elections in an increasingly assertive effort to shape the direction of the Republican Party.The operation was launched discreetly last year, with the previously unreported formation of a club called the American Opportunity Alliance to bring together some of the richest pro-business GOP donors in the country … Around the same time, Singer and his allies also formed a federal fundraising committee called Friends for an American Majority that raised big checks for a select list of the GOP’s most highly touted 2014 Senate hopefuls.Those candidates are among the big names expected at a two-day retreat organized by the American Opportunity Alliance set for the last week of February at a swanky Colorado resort. The closed-door event — which is also expected to draw House Speaker John Boehner and New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte,according to Republicans familiar with the plans — is seen in GOP finance circles as a grand debut of sorts for Singer’s still-amorphous club. …[T]he list of big-name pols expected at the American Opportunity Alliance’s upcoming Colorado gathering highlights the influence that only a few big donors can command in the post-Citizens United era, when a small group of wealthy individuals can reorder elections with just a few huge checks.</blockquote><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); line-height: 22.799999237060547px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Singer’s group is backing Alaska Senate Republican hopeful Dan Sullivan, who was appointed by Sarah Palin to serve as state natural resources commissioner. Sullivan used the position to advocate for his state’s right to exploit natural resources and against federal efforts to protect Alaskan land.=