In a live streamed address on Wednesday night Bernie Sanders launched “Our Revolution,” an organization intended to advance the “political revolution” he began during his primary campaign.
The group’s purpose is to focus on ending economic inequality and taking on the “rigged” campaign finance system. But ironically, just days before the launch, eight out of its 15 staff members quit over concerns that the group would accept money from billionaires and “betray its core purpose.”
According to the New York Times, the staffers cited deep distrust of Sanders’ former campaign manager Jeff Weaver, who had just been tapped to lead the group last Monday.
They accused Weaver of “wasting money on television advertising during Mr. Sanders’s campaign; mismanaging campaign funds by failing to hire staff members or effectively target voters; and creating a hostile work environment by threatening to criticize staff members if they quit.”
They also disagreed with Weaver’s push for costly TV advertising, instead of online advertising, which would be more effective at reaching Sanders’ base of millennial supporters.
“I left and others left because we were alarmed that Jeff would mismanage this organization as he mismanaged the campaign,” former organizing director Claire Sandberg told the New York Times. She expressed concern that Mr. Weaver would “betray its core purpose by accepting money from billionaires and not remaining grass-roots-funded and plowing that billionaire cash into TV instead of investing it in building a genuine movement.”
They were also concerned about the group’s tax status – a 501(c)(4) organization which can collect large donations from anonymous sources.
As a U.S. senator, Sanders will be unable to run the fundraising organization himself; therefore Weaver will be the point man for Our Revolution.
The group will work to recruit progressive candidates for office and will back seven specific ballot initiatives across the country, including lowering the cost of prescription drugs in California, establishing a universal, single-payer health care system in Colorado, and creating a “Citizens’ Election Fund” in Maryland.
