Behind the Curtain: Who's Really Behind CPAC?

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CPAC is currently having its annual shindig in Maryland. CPAC is run by the American Conservative Union, and the event needs lots of money to happen. But it's not grassroots organizations that are funding this event. It's heavy hitters and deep pockets.

Who's really sponsoring CPAC?

It's big energy companies, tobacco, and the NRA.

Rarely seen and previously unreported tax filings for the ACU and ACU Foundation, the group responsible for staging CPAC, reveal that in the 2010 tax year, the National Rifle Association provided $225,000 of the ACU Foundation's overall revenue. In 2010 the ACU Foundation reported $288,670 in grant revenue and $1,063,103 in "program service revenue." The NRA's executive vice president and CEO, Wayne LaPierre, has been a regular featured speaker at past CPAC events and he again spoke at the gathering on Thursday. The 2013 CPAC included an event titled "NRA University" at which CPAC attendees could "learn more about NRA, Second Amendment, gun control debate." It even offered participants "a FREE one-year NRA membership," according to the conference schedule. The NRA is a "presenting sponsor" at the 2014 conference--a sponsorship level requiring a $110,000 contribution.

In 2010 the billionaire Koch brothers' companies contributed a total of $50,000 to the ACU and the ACU Foundation. In the same year, cigarette giant Altria contributed $25,000 to the ACU, and the conservative Anschutz Foundation contributed $25,000 to the ACU Foundation.

So, if you've wondered why Wayne LaPierre gets to scowl and complain and cajole the audience to buy guns before the President takes them away, it's because the NRA paid for the spot.

Here's the list of other sponsors, and lots of familiar names.

Presenting sponsors require a contribution of $110,000 or more. They include: the NRA, One America News Network, Tea Party Patriots, Townhall Media/Regnery Publishing, and the Washington Times.

Associate Sponsors, which require $60,000 contributions are Koch Industries and a movie scheduled to come out May 9, 2014 "Persecuted".

Supporting Sponsors require $25,000 contributions, and include: Citizen Link (Focus on the Family), Heritage Foundation, How Money Walks, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Liberty Alliance, MPAA, National Review, Red Alert Politics, and Tea Party News Network.

Contributing Sponsors, who pony up $18,000 include: The Blaze, Citizens United 25th Anniversary, Leadership Institute, Run Ben Run, and Red Card Guest Worker Permit.

Participating Sponsors, which is the lowest tier at $9,000, include: Americans for Prosperity, ChooseEnergy.org, Ashbrook Ashland University, Sarah Palin's new tv show, AECR, 60 Plus, BDMR, College Republicans National Committee, Christians United for Israel, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Americans for Tax Reform, Eagle Forum, Eberle Associates, Empower Action Group, Fabrizio Lee, Facebook, Gravis Marketing, Convert! Integrated Marketing, GWU Graduate School of Political Management, Freedom Alliance, Let Freedom Ring, Policy Issues Institute, Justice Fellowship, TMA Direct, Turning Point USA, Unfairmovie.com (aka the anti-IRS movie), 780 WAVA 105.1, 1260 WRC talk radio, and Young America's Foundation.

Sponsorship levels are here.. Sponsors by level are here.

WTC Rebuilding Update - An Expensive Update

The Port Authority continues building the WTC PATH transit hub, and have opened up the first platform of the permanent station. If you were wondering what a $4 billion transit hub can look like, this is what we're getting:





There's wall to wall marble. Everywhere. On the floors of the mezzanine. On the walls. It's omnipresent. The striking Calatrava designed arches and steel components swoop along underground, just as surely as the above ground components are taking shape.

I actually think the below-ground design is likely to age better than the above-ground terminal, which looks like a skeleton or a stegosaurus. The New York Times' David Dunlap panned the efforts thus far.

The Port Authority chose Santiago Calatrava to build the transit hub.

They had $2.2 billion to make this happen. The cost is now $4 billion, and likely to be more than that. We're talking twice as expensive, and that's money that could have gone to extend the 2d Avenue Subway for the Phase 2, extend PATH to Newark Airport, or the LIRR to lower Manhattan. Instead, we've got a glorious transit station that will serve about 50,000 people daily (I'm not counting the connections that have been built to the Fulton Center, which includes the Dey Street Connector).

They blew past the $2.2 billion and never sought to implement the cost controls they claimed they would. That isn’t on Calatrava. That part is on the Port Authority. They chose a design that was far too complex for what is a moderate use station (the original design called for a movable oculus, and that was dropped pretty quickly – about the only good move the Port Authority made here).

But Calatrava isn’t blameless either. His design puts form over function by a wide margin, and his vision constrained the Port Authority once things got underway.

As it is, I think that the actual access to the platforms is inadequate considering the size of the platforms. There is a constant bottleneck at the stairs/escalators. The stairs feel narrower than those at the temporary platforms, and that means people trying to get down to the platform choke the flow even further.

You would have thought passenger flow would have been a paramount concern, but it appears to have been an afterthought. But at least the escalators talk incessantly about not letting children ride alone, not walking or running up the escalators, and holding the handrails.

The materials chosen are just the outward symbol of excess spending, but it’s the execution of the station that is the most troubling aspect. Calatrava thinks that if only more money were spent, he’d get what he envisioned.

What riders and the PANY should be asking is how did we spend this much to get a station that falls short in so many ways. There are so many missed opportunities here, and we're stuck with a design that is too costly and doesn't live up to the expectations.

Still, I imagine that once the main hall is built, I might warm up to the design, but for now, it looks like the Port Authority and Calatrava did a poor job of keeping costs down – and that controlling costs was never part of the bargain.