> [posted by Lou Proyect to Marxmail]
>
> Oakland Tribune - November 24, 2008
> <http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_11051487>
>
> Obama brand has local roots
> Bay Area couple helped grow think tank
> By Josh Richman
>
> A liberal think tank helping to shape the incoming Obama administration's
> personnel and policy owes its existence in part to a pair of East Bay
> billionaire banking moguls.
>
> Herb and Marion Sandler made their fortune by building Oakland-based Golden
> West Financial Corp. — parent company of World Savings Bank — into one of
> the nation's largest savings and loans, before selling it to Wachovia Bank
> two years ago for $24.2 billion.
>
> But of all their investments, helping to launch the Center for American
> Progress in 2003 and helping to bankroll it since — in total, an estimated
> $20 million — could prove most far-reaching. Professor Larry Sabato,
> director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, said the
> Sandlers must be pleased with the crop that has grown from their seed money.
>
> "Why do you form a think tank like that? In order to influence the policy
> and personnel of your party's next administration, and obviously they've
> done that," he said. "It's obvious they've had an impact, and a major one.
> "... To have this many people associated with the organization being tapped
> in senior positions is impressive."
>
> For example:
>
> # Center for American Progress president and CEO, former Clinton White
> House Chief of Staff John Podesta, is now on leave, serving as one of three
> co-leaders of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team.
>
> # Former CAP Executive Vice President of Policy Melody Barnes, a longtime
> aide to U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., is one of three co-leaders of
> Obama's agency-review team, overseeing the incoming administration's
> department-by-department changes.
>
> # CAP distinguished senior fellow Tom Daschle, the former Senate majority
> leader from South Dakota, has been selected as Obama's secretary of health
> and human services.
>
> The list goes on. And lest one think all Obama administration roads will
> run through CAP's H Street office only up until Inauguration Day, Podesta
> has ruled out taking any administration post himself — a sign that he hopes
> CAP will be the predominant policy clearinghouse that shapes this
> presidency's policies, much as the Heritage Foundation did for President
> Ronald Reagan, the Progressive Policy Institute did for President Bill
> Clinton and the American Enterprise Institute did for President George W.
> Bush.
>
> The always-prolific center seems to have kicked into overdrive in recent
> weeks, producing an avalanche of white papers, conference calls and events
> on such topics as relations with Pakistan, protecting U.S. chemical
> facilities from terrorist attacks, and using energy efficiency investments
> to kick-start the sagging economy.
>
> "Clearly the people who were interested in creating this kind of foundation
> were interested in having this kind of influence," said Jack Knott, dean of
> the University of Southern California's School of Planning, Policy and
> Development and an adviser to its Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy.
>
> Knott said CAP denotes something new, in that most private foundations that
> have found significant funding and achieved success in helping frame an
> administration's personnel and policy have been politically conservative.
>
> Democrats "have had party-based think tanks, but not as much this kind of
> independent think tank, and I think for them (CAP's benefactors), this is
> exactly what they were hoping for," he said.
>
> Herb and Marion Sandler, 77 and 78, respectively, are among CAP's biggest
> benefactors; others reportedly include financier George Soros, insurance
> mogul Peter Lewis and real estate heir-movie mogul Steve Bing.
>
> And CAP is but one of the Sandlers' progressive policy investments; they've
> also given significantly to the American Civil Liberties Union, MoveOn.org,
> America Votes, ACORN, the Rocky Mountain Institute, Human Rights Watch and
> many other organizations. They've supported such causes for a long time, but
> stepped up their philanthropy since selling Golden West in 2006 and dumping
> almost $1.3 billion into their San Francisco-based Sandler Family Supporting
> Foundation to dole out to their favorite causes.
>
> But the Sandlers' specific interest in CAP has been clear; Marion Sandler
> remains one of its eight directors.
>
> The Sandlers didn't answer a request for an interview for this article.
>
> They've taken some heat in recent months, accused by some of irresponsibly
> offering the kind of adjustable-rate mortgages that have put so many
> homeowners in danger of foreclosure in the past two years; critics accused
> them of dumping this bad debt on Wachovia, which went belly-up and agreed to
> be sold to Wells Fargo in early October. The Sandlers have defended their
> business practices, contending their loans weren't made to borrowers with
> bad, "subprime" credit records and didn't drag down Wachovia.
>
>
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