https://amgreatness.com/2024/09/10/bringing-dark-money-operatives-out-of-the-shadows/
The term “dark money” gets thrown around a lot, and when politicians make claims about “dark money” coming from the lurid corners of opposing political party backers, it is hard to take such vague claims seriously. When an exposé is conducted by a research group that focuses solely on “dark money” matters, the claims become clearer, the culprits are brought into the light, and, most importantly, the money is followed. Scott Walter, “dark money” hawk and president of the Capital Research Center (CRC), has accumulated a wealth of information on “dark money” sources from the left.
In his new book, “Arabella: The Dark Money Network of Leftist Billionaires Secretly Transforming America,” Walter guides the reader through this network of billionaires and multi-billion dollar charity organizations who use their 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) tax statuses to funnel money toward social and political movements, ranging from abortion to climate change to lobbying against the appointment of conservative judges. The billionaires involved include some of the most famous Americans, like Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, and the most usual suspect, George Soros. Charity organizations include the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, OpenSociety, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Sierra Club. But how do all of these organizations and individuals coordinate? It starts with a group called Arabella Advisors.
The “Tentacles” of Arabella
“We need to understand more thoroughly how these tentacles of Arabella operate across America,” Walter writes early in the book. He notes that though a majority of these donors and their organizations originate in Washington, D.C., their influence is felt throughout the country at statewide and local levels. Upon digging into organizations with harmless-sounding names like “Arizonans United for Health Care, Floridians for a Fair Shake, Keep Iowa Healthy, New Jersey for a Better Future, and North Carolinians for a Fair Economy,” one realizes just how harmful and deceptive these groups are, but furthermore, just who is pouring money—from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of millions of dollars—into them. As Walter suggests, these “pop-ups” are merely tentacles, of which there are so very many. As he further notes, “Think of almost any left-wing position, and Arabella money—usually a lot of it—can be found promoting it.”
