Liberal billionaire George Soros is throwing his support and resources behind Philadelphia District Attorney candidate Larry Krasner.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Justice and Public Safety filed with the city earlier this week. The group is reported to already scheduled $280,000 in broadcast and cable ads.
While the group’s filings did not name Soros, the address the group filed with has been used in the past for Soros backed groups. The treasurer, Whitney Tymas, is also the same as other Soros backed groups.
“Philadelphia Justice and Public Safety is supporting Larry Krasner for district attorney because of his commitment to public safety and criminal justice reform,” Tymas told the Inquirer in an email.
The group did not say how much money they are planning on spending on the election.
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20 Responses
Souros getting involved in politics? Frankly, I’m shocked altho in truth, I am disappointed in the level of comments on the story. I do like the idea of mentioning everyone who is an outsider who attempts to influence elections…let’s see, there is the RNC and the NRCC and the DNC and their congressional campaign arm. There are all the Obama advocacy groups. There is billionaire Souros who probably doesn’t know where PA is…oh yeah, it’s somewhere west of Philadelphia and probably near West Virginia and the Koch Brothers who do know where PA is and of course the sometimes Republican and former mayor of NYC who likes to add his two cents or a million dollars into all kinds of local races. Oh yeah, I didn’t know that the new editor is a Republican until I read all the comments. I have not seen a bias but I frankly doubt there is one unless the reader does not like the article — then of course, there is terrible bias. Of course if my position is upheld, then the editor is a person of remarkable wisdom. Accusations of bias are cheap shots and short-cut ways to ignore a story’s substance or lack thereof.
Unless you get a quote from Soros to prove he even knows who is running in the Philly DA’s race, it’s really not correct to say he’s trying to influence the race.
The reason the Koch Brothers were not mentioned in the article is because they had yet put their noses in the Philly DA’s election. If they do so then they should be mentioned also.
And you know what, if the Koch brothers invested $300k in the Philly DA race I would want to know about it and more importantly I’d want to know why they were doing it.
So why is Soros investing in DA races in major cities all over the country? In case anyone wants to know, this is a start. And for the record, Politico tends to leans to the left
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/george-soros-criminal-justice-reform-227519
All the Dems on here boo-hooing that this is a PoliticaPA story and claiming partisan bias are ridiculous. The story was actually covered first by reporters in the Inquirer and Philly Mag who are liberal in their world views. So it has. I thing to do with the party affiliation of any of the reporters. Crying foul every time there is a story that is somewhat negative of a Democratic candidate is getting old. Like the boy who cried wolf, nobody is going to listen to you anymore.
I don’t see the GOP hacks crying about Koch brother supported candidates.
Still, the “best” dot-connecting you have is Soros-affiliated groups, but that doesn’t mean it’s even money from Soros. I’m sure if he gave $10 dollars to Krasner, he’d be accused of influencing the election by the GOP JV squad here.
Sklaroff – it’s clearly not shrouded that well if there’s an article about it and everybody seems to be able to connect the dots.
Soros is the moneyman, and Larry Krasner is his intended proxy.
From the article in question on the Philadelphia Inquirer website, 25 April:
“A group calling itself Philadelphia Justice and Public Safety filed a political committee registration statement Tuesday — three weeks before the May 16 primary — with the city’s Board of Elections.
“The group, as a political action committee, can spend above and beyond the city’s campaign finance limits as long as it does not coordinate efforts with any candidate or campaign.
“A media buyer, unaffiliated with any of the campaigns for district attorney, said Philadelphia Justice and Public Safety is listed as spending $280,000 in campaign commercials on broadcast and cable television channels in the city for a week, starting Wednesday.
“Krasner called the filing “interesting news” and said he had not heard about it until a call from a reporter.
“Tuesday’s filing does not mention Soros by name. But the new group filed with the same Washington address for the law firm Perkins Coie that Soros-backed political action committees have used in other states.
“The treasurer of the new group, Whitney Tymas, is known to have visited Philadelphia to meet with potential candidates for district attorney late last year. Tymas has served as treasurer for other Soros-backed groups with similar missions.”
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
The complete article is certainly worth a read.
@ d2:
You demonstrate a shocking level of political naïveté when formulating a high-threshold sine-qua-non…when you know that such $-flow is layered and shrouded; could it be that you also are empowered in a comparable fashion when engaged in your machinations?
@Smarter. By all means, report all such funding. However, Soros’ efforts are on a scale far beyond that of the Koch brothers.
We don’t need covert, behind the scenes funding of political campaigns by dark money. But it is so useful to those it has already elected that they are not inclined to get rid of it. It is and has always been a threat to our government and politics. And part of it.
@David Diano. Just follow the money. Soros funds, directly or indirectly, all manner of front groups and networks to extend his tentacles into government. He usually hides his tracks quite well, ironic for someone who uses the “Open Society Foundation” as one of his main tools to buy or otherwise influence candidates.
Unless you get a quote from Soros to prove he even knows who is running in the Philly DA’s race, it’s really not correct to say he’s trying to influence the race.
What rightwing GOP are funding Scott Wagner? Besides himself, I mean.
PoliticsPA looks uber-partisan with this story of a rumor that Soros might be connected to a group supporting a Philly DA candidate who is Democrat. What about a story on whether or not this guy is qualified?
George must do everything he can do stop extremist Scott Wagner.
Smarter and Ches-Mont have it right. We get a story here because the editor is a Republican now. We will never see a story about the Koch’s and other right-wing groups intervening in Pennsylvania elections, not because it doesn’t happen, but because Republicans don’t want us to know it happens.
Krasner’s record warrants a few tv commercials. This is excellent.
At best it’s “a group with possible links to Soros”
I guess it helps when the new editor is a Republican…
Why not mention all the Koch brother money fueling arch-conservatives? Or the many other extreme-conservative billionaires influencing PA politics? This happens dozens of time each year, but I’ve never seen it mentioned once. It only seems fair.