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Friday, May 31, 2013

Ready for Hillary Super PAC Moves Forward With Big Funders, daughter Chelsea Joins CFR


According to the latest membership list, Chelsea Clinton is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).  Her father, former President Bill Clinton, is also a current CFR member. Source

 
Although Election Day 2016 is still more than three years away, powerful funders within the Democratic Party have been moving to support the potential campaign of Hillary Clinton for the presidency.

readyforhillary.jpegThe Ready for Hillary super PAC, which arrived on the scene in January, established its National Finance Council on Tuesday. Its founding members include Steve and Amber Mostyn, two lawyers based in Houston, Texas, who have contributed significant funds to political groups in recent years, along with Susie Tompkins Buell, a clothing entrepreneur who assisted Clinton's fundraising efforts in 2008. The trio's willingness to make financial commitments to liberal political groups in the past could be a good omen for Ready for Hillary's future fundraising.

The Mostyn family was among the nation's biggest political spenders in the 2012 election cycle. Over the course of the past two years, Steve and Amber Mostyn were the 10th biggest overall donors to super PACs, ranking fourth among liberal contributors with a total of nearly $4.3 million. Priorities USA Action, the pro-Obama super PAC, received significant funding from Steve Mostyn, who contributed $3 million to the group in the 2012 calendar year. Priorities devoted more than $65 million to his re-election campaign, all of which was spent targeting Mitt Romney.

Mostyn Law Firm ranked as Priorities USA's third highest contributor in the 2012 cycle.
Other liberal organizations also received support from the Mostyns in the months leading up to election day. Amber Mostyn contributed more than $1 million to House Majority PAC, a super PAC that helped Democratic House candidates. That made her the group's seventh top donor. Mostyn also pledged $200,000 to Planned Parenthood Votes, another super PAC, which supported candidates favoring abortion rights.

Steve Mostyn recently showed his commitment to the pro-gun control group founded by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and her husband, Mark Kelly, by donating $1 million to Americans for Responsible Solutions. Mostyn is also listed as the group's treasurer.

Mostyn Law Firm is similarly associated with Texans for America's Future, having contributed more than $400,000 -- or nearly one-third of the total amount raised by the group in the last cycle.

Rounding out the powerful trio of Ready for Hillary's finance committee, Buell, too, has been a big supporter of liberal political groups. In the 2012 cycle, she gave $200,000 to American Bridge 21st Century, a super PAC that worked against Republicans. The Californian has also contributed more than $140,000 to Democratic campaign committees since 2007. However, she ceased contributing to President Barack Obama's re-election effort last year, citing his  lack of decisive action against climate change.

Buell also led Bay Area fundraising efforts for Clinton's 2008 campaign for the Democratic nomination, and she appears to view Ready for Hillary as a key way to mobilize early support for the former Secretary of State and First Lady's potential campaign. “Ready for Hillary is the wisest investment right now for anyone who wants Hillary Clinton to be the next president," Buell said in a statement.

Information on how Ready for Hillary has spent its money so far will be revealed when its second quarterly report is submitted to the FEC in a few weeks. But the presence of three historically active liberal donors on the group's masthead indicates that additional funding will likely be pouring into the super PAC in the months to come.

OpenSecrets Blog