There were already rumblings about Alfred E. Buttigieg’s ties to the funding of the disastrous Iowa Democrat caucus app. Now there are questions being raised if Mini-Mike Bloomberg also had financial ties to the app. Bloomberg for his part of course denies it. Acronym receives copious amounts of funding, in the ballpark of $250,000, from New Venture Fund, a group founded and run by a former member of Bill Clinton’s administration, Eric Kessler. Acronym was launched by app producer “Shadow.” Why does this matter? Because Mini-Mike Bloomberg and his family foundation contributed nearly $9 million since 2015 to the liberal dark-money group New Ventures Fund. What another amazing coincidence!
| Did Bloomberg help partially fund the Iowa Democrat caucus app? |
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Now the Bloomberg campaign is denying any role in funding Shadow, even though the Bloomberg Family Foundation contributed nearly $9 million since 2015 to the liberal dark-money group New Ventures Fund, according to the Bloomberg philanthropy’s 990 forms, which the IRS requires all tax-exempt organizations to file.
In 2018, the New Ventures Fund doled out at least $250,000 to Acronym, Acronym’s 2018 990 IRS forms show.
Bloomberg campaign spokesman Stu Loeser told RealClearPolitics that none of the $9 million the family foundation provided to New Venture went to Acronym.
“Not a cent,” he said in emailed statement. “All of the Bloomberg Philanthropies money that was sent to New Venture Fund was directed to other specific projects.” In a follow-up email, Loeser said the money was “earmarked specifically for entirely unrelated K-12 education and environmental projects.”
Matt Canter, a spokesman for the New Venture Fund, also said none of the Bloomberg funding was transferred to Acronym: “Bloomberg Philanthropy partnered with the New Venture Fund to support important charitable work that had nothing to do with Acronym, and New Venture Fund never provided a dollar to Shadow or to Acronym in support of Shadow.”
RCP examined the Bloomberg Family Foundation’s tax forms and found grants directed to New Venture “to improve outcomes for K-12 students in the U.S.” and smaller amounts broadly described as for the “mayors challenge.”