CAF In The News

voices.washingtonpost.com — Last week, the Health Care for America Now coalition celebrated its first birthday. Formed, well, a year ago, with an initial infusion of $40 million and a coalition list that includes MoveOn.org, SEIU, the Campaign for America's Future, and pretty much every other institution even vaguely on the left, HCAN has quickly become the dominant grassroots player on health-care reform. Which is really saying something.

Talk to veterans of the 1994 effort and they will invariably lament the total absence of a liberal ground game. The grassroots energy came primarily from conservative groups and trade organizations. The National Federation of Independent Business was, for instance, very effective at influencing legislators. So too was the Chamber of Commerce. There was no analogue on the left. Unions were exhausted and angry after the NAFTA battle. All-purpose progressive organizations like MoveOn.org and Campaign for America's Future were largely non-existent. The conservatives dominated talk radio, but liberals did not have the online organizing infrastructure that they've utilized so successfully in recent years.

Mother Jones — You've probably seen the ads. Ominous voice-overs warn you about how health care reform "could put a bureaucrat in charge of your medical decisions, not you." A massive bulldozer with "government-run insurance plan" written on the side crushes your health care "choices." Canadians and Britons relay horror stories of their experiences dealing with health care in those nightmarish socialist dystopias.

The ads are the product of a multimillion-dollar ad campaign designed to derail health care reform—especially what's been dubbed the "public option," which would set up a government-run plan to compete with private insurers. The man behind this ad blitz is the person who might be Public Option Enemy No. 1: one-time hospital executive and longtime Republican donor Richard Scott.

blog.aflcio.org — The Campaign for America’s Future awarded AFL-CIO President John Sweeney its Lifetime Leadership Award last night in a gala dinner that capped the first two days of the three-day America’s Future Now! conference in Washington, D.C. In presenting the award, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin noted how Sweeney’s commitment to working families began when, working as a caddy at a golf course, the teenage Sweeney organized a work-stoppage for a wage increase.

Politico — Billing it as their largest health reform campaign ever, progressive leaders are planning to spend at least $82 million to push reforms that include a public health insurance plan option.

The campaign, expected to be announced Monday, is designed to put public plan opponents on notice that supporters are ready for a fight.

nationaljournal.com — Progressive groups banded together today to launch an $82 million campaign to support President Obama's effort to pass a healthcare overhaul this year. The bulk of the spending will go toward advertising and grassroots organization.

firstread.msnbc.msn.com — This is a new position for liberals -- being in charge.

For the eight years of the George W. Bush administration, lefties lamented the state of America -- some even vowed to leave the country. (Most stayed.)

The yearly Take Back America conference, organized by the liberal Campaign for America's Future, served as a sounding board for that angst.

nydailynews.com — WASHINGTON - As the White House launches its bid to reform health care, the big questions bedeviling the activist base of the Democratic Party are how and when to nudge President Obama to the left on key issues.

The recent three-day conference of the Campaign for America's Future - an amalgamation of hundreds of unions, advocacy groups, student organizations, liberal think tanks and anti-war organizations whose turnout helped elect Democrats from coast to coast - featured a vow to get behind Obama's push to reform health care this year.

The Washington Post — A media environment that tilts to the right is obscuring what President Obama stands for and closing off political options that should be part of the public discussion.

Yes, you read that correctly: If you doubt that there is a conservative inclination in the media, consider which arguments you hear regularly and which you don't. When Rush Limbaugh sneezes or Newt Gingrich tweets, their views ricochet from the Internet to cable television and into the traditional media. It is remarkable how successful they are in setting what passes for the news agenda.

wamu.org — June 03, 2009 - Some leaders of the nation's progressive movement are meeting in Washington this week. Among the speakers at the Campaign For America's Future convention is freshman Congresswoman Donna Edwards of Maryland, who is emphasizing the importance of electing more progressives to Congress.

Politico — With a Democrat in the White House, the liberals gathering this week in Washington for the Campaign for America's Future conference had no presidential contest on weigh in on a la their CPAC counterparts.

But the confab's straw poll -- conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research -- did reflect the left's support for two issues currently being debated in the Democratic family.