CAF In The News

politico.com — MoveOn and the other groups participating in this week’s “Take Back America” conference are trying like never before to avoid stepping on each others’ toes — and messages — as they gear up for an intense general election battle.

On Tuesday, they presented Election Day 2008 as a historic opportunity thanks to the lessons they’ve learned from past efforts, loosened election rules, an electoral landscape tilted in Democrats’ favor and grass-roots networks that they say rival those mobilized by Republicans in past elections.

Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future, which is hosting the conference, floated the possibility of $400 million in combined spending during a telephone interview with Politico after the news conference.

The exact size and shape of the spending remain unclear, though, partly because the Democratic presidential race between Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York is far from settled, and also because the groups behind the plan — and their legal structures — vary widely.

Borosage included in his calculation Rock the Vote and Women Voices-Women Vote, which promote voting by young people and unmarried women, respectively; ACORN, which advocates for expanded housing opportunities; and the National Council of La Raza, which backs Hispanic causes.

thehill.com — Leaders from six progressive groups participating in the “Take Back America” conference this week announced Tuesday that they would undertake the largest and most expensive effort in history to push progressively minded Americans to the polls.

“2008 has the potential to be a ‘sea-change' election,” said Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future, the organization that hosts the annual conference. Borosage predicted a political transformation on the order of the conservative realignments that swept through the nation following Ronald Reagan's election in 1980.

ap.google.com — Activists who gathered at a Washington hotel this week said Obama and Clinton have energized the electorate with their prolonged contest, but several warned that a convention fight could be fractious and leave little time to mount a general election campaign against Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain.

washingtonpost.com — A broad range of liberal interest groups yesterday announced plans for a costly independent drive to mobilize left-leaning voters for the 2008 election, much of it targeting younger and minority voters.

Leaders from the loose coalition of groups predicted a combined spending effort that will total more than $350 million.

During a news conference describing the endeavor, leaders from several of the groups made it clear that the effort is aimed at taking on presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain. McCain is already the target of an independent ad paid for by the Fund for America, a group financed by wealthy financier George Soros, and by the Service Employees International Union.

time-blog.com — Not unsurprisingly, Obama won the Take Back America straw poll. The progressives today finish their annual three-day conference here in DC. A whopping 72% were for Obama, compared to 16% for Clinton, with just 12% saying they’d be happy with either. And 69% said Obama was better equipped to beat McCain versus 15% for Clinton. (See Politico story here.)

thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com — A coalition of liberal groups will coordinate $350 million worth of efforts to mobilize voters and advocate for candidates for the general election, its leaders are expected to announce Tuesday at the 2008 Take Back America conference.

ap.google.com — A loose coalition of liberal and labor organizations expects to spend about $150 million this fall to push its causes and help Democrats win the White House and strengthen their grip on Congress. Participants include the two main labor coalitions — the AFL-CIO and Change to Win — as well as MoveOn.org and voter mobilization groups for minorities and young people. Organizers were announcing the effort Tuesday during conference sponsored by the liberal Campaign for America's Future.

politico.com — For much of the 2008 primary season, the Democratic left has been uneasy. At the liberal Take Back America conference two years ago, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was booed for her opposition to a “date certain” troop withdrawal from Iraq. A year ago, her reception was similarly negative.

But on Monday, hundreds of progressive activists gathered in a ballroom at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington did not blanch when Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, declared: “It doesn’t matter who wins the Democratic nomination.”

washingtonpost.com — Tomorrow kicks off the fifth annual Take Back America conference in Washington -- a gathering of groups across the progressive spectrum aimed at planning and coordinating their efforts heading into the November election and beyond.

"We are headed to what has the potential to be a sea-change election, not just a change election," said Bob Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future and one of the founders of the conference.

rollcall.com — When the liberal group Campaign for America’s Future kicks off its annual “Take Back America” conference in Washington, D.C., today, Donna Edwards, the nonprofit executive who ousted Rep. Albert Wynn (Md.) in the Democratic primary last month, will play a prominent role.