Forbes very helpfully published a list of the candidates who have received contributions from billionaires.

Are you surprised?

Categories Billionaires, Education Reform

57 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

anthonycody2013 says:

August 8, 2019 at 12:07 pm

No, I am not surprised. And it is worth noting that the only candidate with a clear K-12 education plan that takes on charter schools and endorses a moratorium on their growth is also the only one lacking any billionaires donating to him.

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- Linda says:
  
  August 8, 2019 at 12:30 pm
  
  Bernie Sanders for 2020.
  
  Reply
  - retired teacher says:
    
    August 8, 2019 at 1:53 pm
    
    Bernie truly wants to serve working families.
LeftCoastTeacher says:

August 8, 2019 at 12:25 pm

Ever heard of Vacaville, California? Reed Hastings gave to Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of a city about the size of Vacaville. Bill Gates gave to Cory Booker. Gates partner in crime Warren Buffet gave to Joe Biden. Eli Broad gave to Kamala Harris. No billionaires gave to Bernie. Not surprised. Maybe surprised Oprah didn’t give to her spiritual guru.

But don’t forget about the super PAC donations not listed. And don’t forget the Republican billionaires giving a lot more to fund their ‘accidental president’.

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- Linda says:
  
  August 8, 2019 at 12:38 pm
  
  Gates gave to Booker? In Indiana, Booker said he wasn’t a school privatizer when asked by a student journalist. He is and lied.
  
  Billionaires prefer Republicans so their donations to Dems either are in support of a Dem who can’t win or one who is a DINO.
  
  Reply
  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    August 8, 2019 at 3:49 pm
    
    You really think that describes Warren Buffett?
  - Linda says:
    
    August 8, 2019 at 4:16 pm
    
    Warren Buffet gave his kids’ foundations $600,000,000 after years of saying he wouldn’t leave his kids any money. Check out Buffett’s son’s activities related to enforcement at the border- he’s associated with people who are cruel.
    Warren talks a good game hedging his bets so that he’s spared when the ruling class is overthrown.
  - Harlan Underhill says:
    
    August 9, 2019 at 2:52 am
    
    Komorad Linda. Comes the revolution all will be fixed.
- LeftCoastTeacher says:
  
  August 8, 2019 at 1:11 pm
  
  Interesting that that the Pritzkers gave to Elizabeth Warren. That makes sense, actually. Warren takes progressive votes away from Bernie. In 2016, we Berniecrats were very upset about the superdelegates. I’d go to bed one night thinking Bernie had won a state primary, only to wake up the next morning and find out the undeclared superdelegates had turned it into a tie or a loss, killing Berniementum. The Democrats lost a lot of support.
  
  Team Bernie worked hard to change the system and got a small gain, but not enough. So here’s how it works now. A candidate has to get to 50% to avoid a runoff. With twenty-something candidates, that’s near impossible. The billionaires are spreading out their largesse. In the runoff, the superdelegates are back to decide the winner. It’s going to be a mess again. Wealthy Democrats prefer Trump to Bernie. Their spread of donations shows it.
  
  Reply
  - Linda says:
    
    August 8, 2019 at 2:00 pm
    
    The rich always game a system. And, without a doubt, they are anti- democracy.
  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    August 8, 2019 at 3:47 pm
    
    I think it is too early to conclude that having a run-off is going to benefit someone other than Bernie. Biden is leading, but isn’t clearing 50% so it isn’t clear that would help him if he would win the delegates if he has more but under 50%.
Joe Jersey says:

August 8, 2019 at 1:00 pm

Feel the Bern, if only enough Americans would see the light and choose Bernie.

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Ed Johnson says:

August 8, 2019 at 1:12 pm

And so this is why when yesterday I received a text message asking if I “can be counted on to meet up with Cory Booker” at a local watering hole or something, I replied, No!

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Arthur Goldstein says:

August 8, 2019 at 2:04 pm

I really liked Kamala Harris, especially in the first debate. I’m sorely disappointed to learn she’s taking money from Eli Broad.

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- Linda says:
  
  August 8, 2019 at 2:31 pm
  
  Her sister was one of the 3 senior policy advisors who developed the platform for Hillary’s campaign.
  
  Reply
  - LeftCoastTeacher says:
    
    August 8, 2019 at 2:36 pm
    
    In 2017, Hillary and Kamala went on tour together here in California.
Linda says:

August 8, 2019 at 2:12 pm

“There are more men in the House named Jim than there are Republican women running for re-election to the House.” Politico

Billionaires limit their expectation of candidate willingnesss to rip off the 99% to other white men. The question is why more than 5o% of white women and 60% of white Catholics voted for Trump.

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- Linda says:
  
  August 8, 2019 at 2:29 pm
  
  Out of about 280 male GOP Governors, Senators and House Representatives there’s one lone black man and he’s not seeking re-election.
  
  Reply
  - Linda says:
    
    August 8, 2019 at 7:55 pm
    
    Correction- Sen. Tim Scott remains
- Harlan Underhill says:
  
  August 9, 2019 at 2:56 am
  
  Trump wants to end abortion same as Catholic Church. More kids for the priests to pedophilize. Easy Peezy.
  
  Reply
  - Bob Shepherd says:
    
    August 9, 2019 at 10:25 am
    
    Always, with Trump, one must bear in mind the caveat that with the sole exception of his instinctive racism–his “race horse breeding theory of human differences”–he has NO VALUES WHATSOEVER but, rather, operates at Kohlberg State of Moral Development Level 1.2–Preconventional, Self-Interest Orientation. He doesn’t oppose abortion or support abortion. He is AMORAL, like parasitoid wasp larvae. He assumes whatever stance he perceives will serve his interest at the moment. When he was in his partying with Jeffrey phase, it suited him to favor the right to choose. Now that he is playing president, part-time, in a national reality show due to support from a base base, it suits him to pander to the Bible-thumpers.
renegadeteacher24 says:

August 8, 2019 at 2:43 pm

I’m a public middle school teacher. When my brother Jacob Sandy went missing in South Bend in May, Pete and his office did nothing to help expedite search processes. My brother was found dead 2 weeks later, and the city of south bend did not a single thing to help us. When I talked to Pete in person last week, he was defensive and in denial. His gut reaction was to argue with me rather than own up to any missteps. He is trash.

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- Teachingeconomist says:
  
  August 8, 2019 at 4:09 pm
  
  Paul,
  
  My condolences for your loss.
  
  For those that don’t know, Jacob Sandy went kayaking at Porter Beach, a city about 46 miles west of South Bend on lake Michigan. Shortly after a witness saw him paddle off a strong storm came up in the area. His kayak was discovered 3 days later, on the shore of lake Michigan 18 miles from his launch point in New Buffalo, Michigan. His car was also discovered parked in Porter Beach on the same day, and Porter Beach police took over the investigation at that point.
  
  His body was found on the shore of lake Michigan at the Indiana Dunes State Park.
  
  Reply
  - middleschoolteach says:
    
    August 9, 2019 at 1:31 am
    
    Teachingeconomist- if you are calling into question why South Bend had anything to do with it, from May 18th until May 21st, he was missing and we had no information on where he was. His last known location was in South Bend (his home city). The case was handled by them until the 21st. There was an active search for him for 11 days after his car was found that included many local and national leaders, law enforcement, and media. Please have some sensitivity and at least know your facts if you are choosing to argue with the brother of the deceased man (me).
- dianeravitch says:
  
  August 8, 2019 at 4:59 pm
  
  Dear Paul,
  
  I am so sorry for your tragic loss. Words cannot console, but it helps to know that others care.
  
  Diane
  
  Reply
  - middleschoolteach says:
    
    August 9, 2019 at 1:32 am
    
    Thank you, Diane. It helps to have support from friends and allies.
- carolmalaysia says:
  
  August 8, 2019 at 7:45 pm
  
  I live in NW Indiana. I’m so sorry about your loss.
  
  I’d vote for Pete if he was the only Democratic candidate but he is not at the top of my list.
  Feel the Bern.
  
  Reply
- Yvonne says:
  
  August 8, 2019 at 9:43 pm
  
  renegadeteacher24, so very sorry this happened to you and your family. Thank you for sharing.
  
  Reply
- retiredbutmissthekids says:
  
  August 11, 2019 at 2:04 am
  
  My sincere condolences to you on the loss of your brother.
  
  Reply
NYC public school parent says:

August 8, 2019 at 4:01 pm

I would hate for voters to be convinced that Tim Ryan is the most progressive candidate out there – tied with Bernie — because he doesn’t have any billionaire donors, and believe that Tim Ryan is a much better candidate than Elizabeth Warren, who has two billionaire donors. Is Beto O’Rourke so much better than Kamala Harris because Harris has a lot more billionaire donors than O’Rourke?

Why can’t we just judge candidates on the positions they have? I like Elizabeth Warren’s positions on many issues more than Tim Ryan’s and the fact that she has more billionaire donors would be a bad reason to decide she is a much worse candidate.

It’s not like candidates are lying and pretending that they support Medicare for all when they actually plan to repeal Obamacare and repeal Medicare, too. They have positions. We know where they stand. There is no reason to distrust them because they have said what they stand for and for every candidate there are issues that I am not in total agreement about.

Lots of right wingers want to convince voters that anyone who gets money from a union will always do what the laziest union members demand and they don’t care who else is hurt because the demands of the amino will always take precedence over children.

I don’t believe that. But if we are now embracing that donors tell us more than what the candidates own positions reveal, then I have to judge every candidate who gets union money as doing whatever the union orders them to do even if it is at the expense of children. And that would be ridiculous.

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- Linda says:
  
  August 8, 2019 at 4:19 pm
  
  The corporations of Third Way like Ryan.
  
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- Linda says:
  
  August 8, 2019 at 4:24 pm
  
  Union members live in local, working class communities where their interests don’t diverge from the best interests of their neighbors who are similar.
  
  NYC parent- you begin to sound like a defender of the rich elites.
  
  Reply
  - dienne77 says:
    
    August 8, 2019 at 4:39 pm
    
    Begin to?
  - LeftCoastTeacher says:
    
    August 8, 2019 at 6:44 pm
    
    Let’s see if I can do this without making any direct accusations: Ever notice how astroturf charter groups often call themselves “public school parents”? Ever notice how rightwing web trolls often go to progressive sites claiming to be progressive, and then proceed to send a bunch of conflicting, confusing messages intended to pull the progressive audience to the right? Not calling anyone a rightwing astroturf-style troll; just making some suggestive generalizations, food for thought. Everybody opines for themselves here.
  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    August 8, 2019 at 7:26 pm
    
    LeftCoastTeacher,
    
    That’s so funny because I am encouraging everyone to vote for Bernie in the primary as the best candidate. Do you really think it would be a good idea for anyone to think Tim Ryan is Bernie’s equal and Tim Ryan is better than Elizabeth Warren because of his donors? I am pointing out that the donors are far less important to me than what the candidates stand for. And I am not a hypocrite so I also do that with Democrats that get donations from unions or other organizations that I am not 100% in agreement with on every single issue. I don’t care if the candidate gets billions from unions as long as they have positions I support. And I don’t care if the candidate gets billions from some billionaire as long as they have positions they support. I also don’t care if they DON’T get billionaire donations if they don’t stand for the things I support like Tim Ryan and Tulsi Gabbard.
    
    I have noticed a lot of people who claim to be Bernie supporters who keep insisting that if anyone but Bernie wins the nomination — including Elizabeth Warren — they are all corrupt and no better than Trump.
    
    Anyone who said Trump was no worse than any Democrat was simply wrong and I can’t believe even 2 far right Supreme Court Justices and after Trump’s racism they are still insisting that we must punish African-American voters and refuse to vote for the candidate they wanted and let a racist win because those African-Americans didn’t vote for the candidate that privileged white people demand they vote for.
    
    What if African-American voters decided to punish Bernie voters because they just wouldn’t listen to African-American voters in the primary and they want to make sure Bernie loses? Why in the world is anyone promoting that kind of outrageous action where supposedly only white Bernie supporters know what is best for the country, and if they don’t get their man, they want the country to suffer with Trump?
    
    As I said, this goes for people who want Biden and people who want Warren and people who want Corey Booker. You fight for your candidate as hard as you can in the PRIMARY. But if a majority of other democratic voters end up choosing a different one — perhaps Bernie — you support him with everything you have because even if he isn’t perfect on all issues, he is 100000x better than Trump and the right wing Republican Party
    
    That fact that you believe that kind of thinking is a “plant” demonstrates your own misunderstanding of what democracy is all about.
    
    I never bash Bernie and I have said often that he has great positions on many issues and would make a fine President. I also point out that he has made compromises like other candidates but the ONLY reason I say that is when other people post that we must condemn any candidate who makes compromises, which is ridiculous since every single politician has made compromises and changed his or her mind at some point. And that goes for Bernie, too. And that doesn’t make him corrupt or untrustworthy — it makes him a smart politician who follows the evidence as he learns it and does the best he can to help as many Americans as he can.
  - LeftCoastTeacher says:
    
    August 8, 2019 at 7:43 pm
    
    Uh huh. TLDR.
  - Linda says:
    
    August 8, 2019 at 8:01 pm
    
    She (he) doth protest too much- LCT has a point.
  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    August 8, 2019 at 8:46 pm
    
    The fact that you all seem to demand some kind of adherence to a rule that I am unaware of says it all.
    
    You and dienne77 are exactly the same and you should certainly make sure to also bash everyone who doesn’t agree with every single point you make bashing all the Dems as evil and as bad as Trump. Go ahead and help the Republicans smear the candidate with lies if it isn’t Bernie because you think that you are right and everyone else is pure evil and no different than Trump.
    
    You all think AOC and Bernie would be proud of you but neither of them thinks that Nancy Pelosi or even the unappealing Chuck Schumer is anything as bad as Trump and Mitch McConnell and the most moderate Republicans.
    
    It’s a shame we can’t have a discussion without Bernie being put in a dishonest pedestal as being the only upright candidate with the rest all the same as Trump.
- dienne77 says:
  
  August 8, 2019 at 4:45 pm
  
  “It’s not like candidates are lying and pretending that they support Medicare for all when they actually plan to repeal Obamacare and repeal Medicare, too. They have positions. We know where they stand. There is no reason to distrust them because they have said what they stand for and for every candidate there are issues that I am not in total agreement about.”
  
  First of all, politicians tend to be very mealy mouthed, like how we hear on education that the candidates support “public charter” schools. In healthcare, you have to be very careful about the “Medicare for All” plan the candidate is touting. Harris’s plan, for instance, is not MfA at all. It’s just a re-working of Obamacare that relies on mandatory private health insurance.
  
  Second, well, yes, politicians lie. Obama, for instance, campaigned on the Employee Free Choice Act, which he must have forgotten about once he was in office. He also said (as a senator) that he would filibuster any bill that granted immunity for telecoms involved in the massive spying scandal. Not only did he not filibuster, he voted for the bill.
  
  The fact that you continue to believe what politicians – especially proven neoliberals – tell you is very frightening when we’ve had so much evidence of how we’re being propagandized.
  
  But, I guess to you, pointing out things like the above is propaganda, isn’t it? Continue to get your news from mainstream sources and otherwise keep your hands firmly over your ears and I’m sure you’ll be fine.
  
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- Duane E Swacker says:
  
  August 8, 2019 at 6:15 pm
  
  “Why can’t we just judge candidates on the positions they have?”
  
  Because big donors expect something in return for their payoffs and bribes, oops I mean political donations. Dick DeVos said something to the effect of “We have started to expect that we will get something in return for our contributions”. And yes, I know he’s a Rethug, but I don’t doubt that the billionaire financiers of these Dimocrap candidates expect the same thing.
  
  Reply
  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    August 8, 2019 at 7:33 pm
    
    “big donors expect something in return for their payoffs and bribes, oops I mean political donations”
    
    That’s what the far right tells me about unions, too. They are big donors an they expect something for their payoffs and bribes.
    
    Sorry, I am not buying it when anyone tells me that I should reject any candidate who takes a union donation because I know they will always put the union’s interest over children or the environment or the country.
    
    And I’m not buying it when someone tells me that because Warren Buffett donates to a candidate, he calls the shots on all the issues.
    
    If a candidate’s positions are good, then they clearly have those positions. I can judge whether I agree or not based on the positions themselves, not who they got money from.
    
    PS — if Trump had been defeated and a Democrat-appointed Supreme Court had ended Citizens United we wouldn’t have to have this conversation. Sad, isn’t it, that we all have to suffer from big donors’ influence thanks to having Trump instead of his opponent who other voters said could appoint as many Justices as he wanted because if Bernie didn’t win, they didn’t care how right wing the court was.
Peggy Powell Dobbins says:

August 8, 2019 at 4:14 pm

thanks, Diane, for the Forbes list of billionaire donars. I’m going to have to ask Warren Team how much and who was the second one.

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Linda says:

August 8, 2019 at 4:33 pm

Bad news for Bill and Melinda. The Gates.Foundation Trust is invested in private prisons (increased its holdings recently). Denver’s decided against for-profit prisons which, with justice, will signal a sell off, a price decline and send the industry into a death spiral here and abroad.

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- dianeravitch says:
  
  August 8, 2019 at 4:55 pm
  
  I hope you are right, Linda.
  Private prisons are hell holes
  
  Reply
  - Linda says:
    
    August 8, 2019 at 8:06 pm
    
    Making money off of misery- the epithet for the Gates Foundation
  - carolmalaysia says:
    
    August 8, 2019 at 8:24 pm
    
    Linda: I’ve commented that I’d like to see Trump in a for-profit prison. They don’t have “enough money” to provide healthcare nor decent food. I’d settle for any prison that takes away the Orange Swamp Monster’s iPhone. Ahhhh. Peace at last.
Duane E Swacker says:

August 8, 2019 at 6:17 pm

To answer your question: NO!

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Roy Turrentine says:

August 8, 2019 at 8:45 pm

Montesquieu, who had a great deal of influence on the design of the constitution, believed that the best government featured power that existed to counteract other extant power. This way, the wolf of tyranny might be naturally kept from the door of freedom.

As money crept into politics in the Guilded Age, political movements like the populist movement pushed back to rescue the country from the dominance of big money, culminating in the New Deal. When good times returned, New Deal legislation protecting the labor movement mandated a check to the new money that rose in the fifties.

Today, big money has purchased the reins of government and Montesquieu’s dream is on the rocks. Will there arise a political force that will act as a check to the modern money?

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FLERP! says:

August 8, 2019 at 8:55 pm

Lot of good vibes in these threads about the Dem primaries.

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- LeftCoastTeacher says:
  
  August 8, 2019 at 11:11 pm
  
  Sarcasm correction: lots of good vibes about the oligarchy that seeks to control both parties. Down to the last tentacle.
  
  Reply
  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    August 9, 2019 at 12:28 am
    
    You are correct that the oligarchy seeks to control both parties. But they only 100% control one of them. Lucky for the oligarchs, the party they control got the power in the last election to control the Supreme Court and federal judgeships, too. The oligarchy would have been pretty sad if Trump hadn’t won since that would have made their job trying to control both parties much harder.
Yvonne says:

August 8, 2019 at 9:41 pm

Go BERNIE 2020.

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NYC public school parent says:

August 9, 2019 at 12:48 am

I like the idea that Kamala Harris is going to receive her marching orders from George Lucas, one of her billionaire donors!

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Harlan Underhill says:

August 9, 2019 at 3:12 am

Why would so many working class people vote for Trump when it’s clear Bernie is the only candidate who is truly on their side? Except maybe Warren. Maybe its inherent white racism, except for us, of course.

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Linda says:

August 9, 2019 at 11:15 am

From the right wing perpetrators, (We understand that to minority parents), “the New Orleans’ charter schools represent a new iteration in structural racism perpetuated by a new generation of oppressors.” Manhattan Institute- associate member of the Koch’s State Policy Network (SPN), July 5, 2019.

All Democrats should oppose charter schools. If they don’t, they are DINO’s.

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- NYC public school parent says:
  
  August 9, 2019 at 1:34 pm
  
  What does “oppose” charter schools mean?
  
  The only Democrat I have heard say straight up he wants to shut down charters was Bill de Blasio during the debate.
  
  Embracing the NAACP’s position is not even “opposing” charters. The NAACP’s position is to simply asks for a moratorium on opening new charters until there is better accountability and oversight.
  
  Unfortunately, the definition of accountability and oversight is not clear. There are progressives who probably think the SUNY Charter Institute is a wonderful model for accountability and oversight when instead it is enabling the very worst practices and covering up and enabling charters’ dishonest propaganda.
  
  Reply
- Linda says:
  
  August 9, 2019 at 1:45 pm
  
  Date correction- 2018.
  
  Reply