Billionaires for Greg Orman

Billionaires for Greg Orman

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It’s a dramatic twist for a candidate who staunchly opposes big money in politics. | AP Photo

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By KENNETH P. VOGEL and TARINI PARTI | 10/9/14 11:16 PM EDT
Updated: 10/12/14 8:02 AM EDT

A small group of free-spending wildcard donors, including investment tycoons Peter Ackerman and John Burbank, are rallying to support Greg Orman’s independent Senate campaign in Kansas. Michael Bloomberg and a Jonathan Soros-backed group are also considering entering the campaign on Orman’s behalf, POLITICO has learned.

It’s a dramatic twist for a candidate who staunchly opposes big money in politics but has been badly outspent on the airwaves after surging to a surprise lead over Republican Sen. Pat Roberts. The Roberts campaign and allied conservative groups including the Ending Spending Action Fund, the Koch-brothers-backed Freedom Partners Action Fund, the National Rifle Association and the National Republican Senatorial Committee combined to reserve $3.3 million in airtime between Labor Day and Election Day.
Orman’s campaign, by contrast, reserved $1.3 million for television and radio ads during that time period, according to ad tracking sources.

It appeared as if Orman might lack a natural big money constituency. The Democratic Party and its allied super PACs have mostly sat on the sidelines of the Kansas race, apparently unsure whether it’s worth investing in an independent candidate who has criticized both parties, and is not guaranteed to caucus with Democrats. That created the prospect that Orman, a wealthy private equity investor who has decried the role of big money in politics, might be dramatically outspent down the stretch.

Into the breach this week stepped a mysterious super PAC called the Committee to Elect an Independent Senate, which appears to have been created specifically to support Orman. It quickly reserved $220,000 in airtime, and began airing an ad praising Orman as a “bold, independent problem-solver,” who is “a businessman, not a career politician,” while blasting Roberts as “part of the Washington partisan mess.”

Felicia Knight, a spokeswoman for the super PAC, said it hasn’t determined its total budget because it’s still raising money. But she said it has received donations from Ackerman and Burbank, a pair who in 2012 combined to spend more than $1 million through the nonprofit group Americans Elect supporting Maine Independent Angus King’s successful Senate campaign.

Bloomberg, who is planning to spend $25 million boosting centrist candidates in the month before Election Day, also is considering spending in the race, but has yet to make any decisions on whether to jump in, according to his political adviser Howard Wolfson. The billionaire former New York City mayor has allied with Ackerman and Burbank in the recent past, donating $500,000 to Americans Elect for its pro-King push.

Americans Elect famously raised more than $30 million, including more than $5 million from Ackerman, in a quixotic butspectacularly unsuccessful effort to nominate a centrist third-party presidential ticket.

The Committee to Elect an Independent Senate has retained the services of three veterans of the Americans Elect effort — pollster Doug Schoen and strategists Kahlil Byrd and Cara Brown McCormick, according to Knight.

The Committee to Elect an Independent Senate was created by a wealthy tech entrepreneur named Thomas Layton, who has also donated to it, according to Knight. Layton, who served as CEO of the restaurant reservation service OpenTable from 2001 to 2007, has not been a major political donor in his own right, with his first federal campaign contribution on record coming in May when he gave the maximum $5,200 to Orman. But Layton, who could not be reached for comment, has known Orman for five years, according to Knight. They’re friends who have “mostly known each other socially but also professionally,” she said.

Orman’s campaign declined to comment on the creation of the super PAC or Orman’s relationship with Layton.

The two men have previously worked together on centrist public policy issues, and Layton has ties to a loose network of groups that is mobilizing to support Orman’s Senate bid.

Layton joined with Orman to co-found a nonprofit group called the Common Sense Coalition. Registered under a section of the Tax code — 501(c)(4) — that allows it to conceal its donors, it has become mostly inactive, though as recently as this summer it was expressing support on its Facebook page for Orman and other centrist politicians. In its early days, the group focused on advocating policy solutions, but it had discussed taking a more electoral approach in recent years, according to those familiar with it.

“I think the new strategy decision was Greg running for Senate,” said Pam Peak, spokeswoman for The Centrist Project, a separate 501(c)(4) group that has had discussions with — and been promoted by — the Common Sense Coalition and is supporting Orman’s campaign, including by helping it raise money.

This month, several backers of The Centrist Project, including wealthy tech types, convened in San Francisco for an Orman fundraiser. Attendees — such as Hotwire co-founder Gregg Brockway, Biomet CEO Jeff Binder and Centrist Project founder Charles Wheelan — donated more than $41,000 to Orman’s campaign, according to Peak.

The Centrist Project is also supporting the longshot independent Senate campaign of Larry Pressler in South Dakota and Jill Bossi in South Carolina, but Wheelan suggested his group is most invested in Orman.

“We’re looking at Orman as a proof of concept,” he said, adding that he’s met with Ackerman and other major bipartisan-minded donors about the challenges of advancing centrist causes, but that fundraising opportunities for Orman really opened up when the Democratic nominee Chad Taylor dropped out of the race last month. “The whole idea is to raise money and explain to our members why this race matters,” said Wheelan.

Orman, who has made a point of refusing direct PAC contributions, in a statement included in a Thursday release from the Centrist Project praised the group, which merely steers its members to Orman’s campaign as opposed to collecting cash for it.

“Like The Centrist Project and its members, I believe we need problem solvers, not partisans, in Washington,” Orman said in the statement, which identified him as a co-founder of the Common Sense Coalition.

Another group that fits slightly outside the traditional partisan spectrum that is considering coming to Orman’s aid is Every Voice. A new group, it was created in recent months through a merger of existing groups, including one supported primarily by Jonathan Soros, the son of billionaire financier George Soros.

The group, which mostly backs Democrats, plans to spend $3.7 million supporting candidates who favor reforms to reduce the role of money in politics, said its president, David Donnelly.

“Orman is certainly pro-reform. He has a very comprehensive plan,” Donnelly said. “We are exploring that one.”

While he needs the support, the arrival of the big-money cavalry might be something of a mixed blessing for Orman. Not only could it provide fodder for Republicans who have sought to make an issue of his wealth, it could also be used to raise doubts about his opposition to big money in politics.

Told of the funding behind the super PAC ads, Roberts campaign manager Corry Bliss said, “The fact that a small group of New York and San Francisco liberal millionaires are trying to hijack the Kansas Senate race on Greg Orman’s behalf should send a big message to voters about who he really is and what he will stand for if elected.”

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