One of the attorneys general involved in a year-long crusade against Exxon Mobil has hired a marketing firm Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders used during his run for the White House.
New York AG Eric Schneiderman hired Revolution Messaging to help raise funds and increase his social media presence, The New York Daily News reported Friday, citing a “source close” to Schneiderman. His decision to hire the D.C.-based firm suggests the AG might be considering running for higher office.
Revolution Messaging helped Sanders, a self-dubbed socialist, increase his status among voters. He staked much of his campaign on an anti-fracking and environmental platform.
“It certainly drew our attention,” the source said of the firm’s work with Sanders’ presidential run. Revolution Messaging’s website calls itself an agency fighting for progressive political ideals.
The firm has sent a flurry of fund-raising requests for Schneiderman, and crafted emails touting actions the New York Democrat has taken on hot-button liberal issues, including his fight against Exxon and the Trump administration, according to the report.
Neither Schneiderman’s office nor Revolution Messaging have responded to requests for comments from The Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Empire State’s top law enforcer has benefited from his recent investigations into Exxon’s climate change research. He managed to pull in $264,000 in campaign donations from well-heeled people with ties to lawyers and environmentalists backing the Democratic prosecutor’s global warming investigation.
Billionaire financier George Soros and his family, for instance, have even chimed in to help fund the New York crusader’s political ventures. Soros’ family has shoveled $251,000 into Schneiderman’s political war chest since 2006. Soros himself has given him $64,500, while the billionaire’s sons and daughter-in-law donated the rest.
Schneiderman has etched out a niche as leading critic of President Donald Trump. The AG hired former Obama administration attorney Howard Master to burnish his liberal bone fides and to flood the president with legal filings, subpoenas, and lawsuits.
Things are not entirely free sailing for Schneiderman. Conservatives have hounded the AG for stonewalling attempts to obtain emails between his New York office and wealthy donors such as Rockefeller Brothers Fund, RFF, and billionaire financier, Tom Steyer.
Schneiderman uses a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) “law enforcement” exemption to justify blocking the requests, and claims his communication with the donors is part of the Exxon investigation, which aims to bring the oil company up on racketeering charges for allegedly hiding data about climate change from the public – much of the information is widely available online.
His unwillingness to fork over emails has roiled one of his predecessors and raised suspicions that his Exxon campaign is politically motivated.
Dennis Vacco, who served as the state’s attorney general in the mid-1990s, dismissed his successor’s use of the exemption, writing in an editorial earlier this month that “[R]eleasing them (the emails) would reveal the real role of the special interests in the investigation and would shed light on whether the investigation is proper or an abuse of power.”
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