Dark money: 907 Initiative’s campaign arm is going into debt for Democrats on Anchorage ballot

The 907 Initiative has been operating as a campaign attack group since it formed up 2022 as “watchdog” group. It went after Republican candidates from Day 1. It started with $341,000 in funds, the source of which the group keeps a secret on its IRS filing. It’s a secret organization, with secret donors.

But when election time comes around, the 907 Initiative, which is a “nonpolitical” 501(c)(3), turns off the light switch in order to meet Alaska campaign laws, and it emerges as “907 Action,” an 501(c)(4) actual campaign group that is regulated by the Alaska Public Offices Commission. It’s a switch the nonprofit can do 60 days before the actual election.

In a required filing with APOC, 907 Action, which is carrying on the work of the 907 Initiative, says it has only gotten a $1,000 donation from one person — Democrat activist Eleanor Andrews, the group’s vice president.

But 907 Action reports $10,000 in debt. That debt it is equally divided on behalf of four Democrat candidates in the Anchorage municipal race; Suzanne LaFrance for Mayor, and Carl Jacobs, Pat Higgins, and Dora Wilson for school board.

Where’s the money coming from that will pay for the debt?

The 907 Action group has indebted itself by $10,000 to a campaign group in Washington state, Fuse Washington, which aligns with the radical left.

Fuse Washington’s executive director, Aaron Ostrom, is on the board of directors for ProgressNow, the same group that claims 907 Initiative as an affiliate.

In fact, Fuse Washington is also an affiliate of Progress Now.

That 907 Action is in debt to a fellow affiliate of ProgressNow means the debt will likely never be paid, because Fuse Washington will just go to the mothership, ProgressNow, to keep afloat. The money will be fungible.

This is a model that has worked successfully in other Democrat races in Alaska in recent years, with independent expenditure groups incurring debts that are never called in.

907 Initiative/Action consortium is run by experienced Alaska Democrat operatives, including Debra Call, president; Eleanor Andrews, vice president; Sydney Scout (Renewable Energy Project Alaska — REAP), and the group’s executive director Aubrey Wieber, formerly a political reporter at the Anchorage Daily News.

The 907 Initiative/Action tax filing with the IRS for 2022 can be seen here:

The only expenditure description for 907 Initiative in 2022 was “Legal & Professional services, $62595,” and “Advertising & marketing $74494.” These were expenditures for attack ads against Republicans in the 2022 election cycle up until the 60-day zone, when a 501(c)(3) isn’t allowed to engage in election politics.

Who is ProgressNow, the parent company of 907 Initiative?

“Since 2003, ProgressNow has been developing our network of state partner organizations to fill a unique and critical role in the progressive infrastructure of key states,” Progress Now states on its website.

“ProgressNow is a year-round, never-ending progressive campaign. Political campaigns are relatively short-lived; they come and they go, leaving little behind of lasting value. ProgressNow’s presence in our states never ends. There are hundreds of local and state issues that we can organize and communicate effectively literally year-round. Day in and day out, we’re working in our states to counter the right-wing and create a perpetual issue advocacy culture,” the group says.

ProgressNow was founded by Michael Huttner, who is described as a New York attorney and political entrepreneur. Huttner campaigned for Barack Obama for president and later co-wrote the book “60 Ways You Can Help Obama Change America.”

Funders of ProgressNow include the SixteenThirty Fund, a dark-money group active in Alaska and other states. That fund gets is money from another dark-money group, Arabella Advisers.

“The Atlantic, a left-leaning magazine, has called the Sixteen Thirty Fund ‘the indisputable heavyweight of Democratic dark money’ which funneled ‘roughly $61 million of effectively untraceable money to progressive causes,’ making it the ‘second-largest super-PAC donor in 2020.’ Of Arabella Advisors, the Atlantic noted that the ‘mothership’ company runs a ‘massive progressive dark-money group you’ve never heard of.’ It added: ‘Democrats have quietly pulled ahead of Republicans in untraceable political spending. One group helped make it happen,’ reported InfluenceWatch.org.

Dark Money: Sixteen Thirty Fund masquerades as ‘Bristol Bay Action’ and advises Alaska voters to pick Murkowski and Peltola

The Sixteen Thirty Fund is just one arm of the Arabella political octopus. Others include the Hopewell Fund, and New Venture Fund, and dozens of other groups just like Bristol Bay Action, with local-sounding names.

“A single, cryptically named entity that has served as a clearinghouse of undisclosed cash for the left, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, received mystery donations as large as $50 million and disseminated grants to more than 200 groups, while spending a total of $410 million in 2020 — more than the Democratic National Committee itself,” The New York Times reported in January.

Other donors to ProgressNow include, according to InfluenceWatch.org:

1. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) (Labor Union) 
2. Democracy Alliance (DA) (Other Group) 
3. National Education Association (NEA) (Labor Union) 
4. NEO Philanthropy (Non-profit) 
5. Service Employees International Union (SEIU) (Labor Union) 
6. Sixteen Thirty Fund (1630 Fund) (Non-profit) 
7. Stephen M. Silberstein Foundation (Non-profit) 
8. Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation (STBF) (Non-profit)

As of 2021, the last tax return available for ProgressNow at the IRS, the group gives out grants to its affiliates in amounts that are typically between $25,000 and $50,000.

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Top down control: Arabella Advisors runs New Venture Fund, which controls liberal groups in Alaska