A couple of weeks ago we wrote about San Francisco hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer finally finding another donor to join his Super PAC committed to steeply higher energy taxes. It was none other than Herb Sandler, a San Francisco subrime mortgage lender with an even seedier past than Steyer’s own.
What we couldn’t have predicted is that the first thing the pair would team up to do was fund an over-the-top, blatantly false attack ad featuring twofictional out-of-state billionaires portraying Republican Joni Ernst, falsely, of supporting companies that move jobs overseas.
That’s right. Steyer’s hedge fund billions — earned overseas specifically to avoid U.S. taxes — and Sandler’s ill-gotten fortune from the toxic subprime mortgages that helped destroy the U.S. economy are flooding Iowa to prop up Bruce Braley byportraying fictional billionaires buying an election.
We couldn’t resist responding.
In the new ad titled, “America’s Biggest Hypocrites,” the narrator begins by highlighting a false political ad running across Iowa in support of Rep. Bruce Braley: “You’ve probably seen this ad showing fictional out-of-state billionaires spending millions in Iowa politics.”
The ad continues: “Not only is the ad false. It’s actually funded by two real out-of-state billionaires spending millions—to support Bruce Braley.”
“Billionaire Tom Steyer made his fortune running hedge funds overseas to avoid U.S. taxes—but backs Braley raising taxes on hardworking Iowans.”
“Steyer got rich off cheap foreign coal, but supports Braley shutting down access to affordable American energy.”
“The other funder is billionaire Herb Sandler, whose toxic subprime mortgages were called the ‘Typhoid Mary’ of the housing crisis.”
“Now Sandler and Steyer are pouring millions from their overseas hedge funds and toxic mortgages into Iowa.”
The ad concludes: “Tell Bruce Braley to stand up to the REAL out-of-state billionaire hypocrites and reject their job-crushing, tax-hiking agenda.”