Mike Gravel Wraps Up Presidential Bid and Forms New Think Tank

Here is more from ABC News:

Long-shot Democratic presidential hopeful Mike Gravel -- an 89-year-old former Senator from Alaska whose quirky campaign is spearheaded by a group of teenagers running his feisty Twitter account -- is about to call it quits.

And while the campaign may be coming to an end, the teens running the campaign already have their eyes set on another related venture: The Gravel Institute.

The Gravel Institute, campaign staffers said, will be a “leftist think tank” which will focus on “ending the American empire,” “reforming our Democracy,” and “direct action by elected officials to end injustice and suffering.”

On Gravel's Twitter feed, the staffers offered a glimpse into the types of action they foresee the institute calling for.

“As an example, the Chair of House Oversight could subpoena every migrant in detention -- throwing a massive wrench in an inhuman and decrepit immigration machine and single handedly forcing change,” the campaign tweeted.

Think Tank Watch will closely track the new think tank once it officially launches.

Bernie Sanders Gets Angry at Liberal Think Tank CAP

Here is more from the New York Times:

Senator Bernie Sanders, in a rare and forceful rebuke by a presidential candidate of an influential party ally, has accused a liberal think tank of undermining Democrats’ chances of taking back the White House in 2020 by “using its resources to smear” him and other contenders pushing progressive policies.

Mr. Sanders’s criticism of the Center for American Progress, delivered on Saturday in a letter obtained by The New York Times, reflects a simmering ideological battle within the Democratic Party and threatens to reopen wounds from the 2016 primary between him and Hillary Clinton’s allies. The letter airs criticisms shared among his supporters: That the think tank, which has close ties to Mrs. Clinton and the Democratic Party establishment, is beholden to corporate donors and has worked to quash a leftward shift in the party led partly by Mr. Sanders.

Mr. Sanders sent the letter days after a website run by the action fund, ThinkProgress, suggested that his attacks on income inequality were hypocritical in light of his growing personal wealth.

The Sanders-CAP feud seems to be escalating.  And here is more from The Hill.

Here is a link to Sanders speaking at CAP's Ideas Conference in 2018 where he thanked CAP for the "important work" it has done over the years.

In 2017, Sanders was not invited to CAP's Ideas Conference.

Update: The New York Times has a major piece on Neera Tanden and CAP, which among other things, quotes her mother, Maya Tanden.  [The Washington Post has a new piece on how her mom became "collateral damage."]  NYT notes that CAP and its sister political arm have a $60 million combined annual budget and 320 staff members.

It says that money to the think tank from the personal foundation of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg surged to $665,000 in 2018 from $15,000 in 2017.  And from 2016 through 2018, CAP accepted nearly $2.5 million from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to fund its National Security and International Policy Initiative.

Among other things, Tanden, whose salary was $397,000 in 2018, reportedly punched Faiz Shakir, the former editor of the think tank's ThinkProgress website.  He is now managing Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign.

Can a think tank president be "too online."

Here is a piece about Benjamin Edwards, professional artist and husband of Neera Tanden.

Speakers Announced for CAP's Ideas Conference

The much-anticipated Ideas Conference - what Politico is calling the Center for American Progress's (CAP) response to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) - will take place next week.  Here are some details:

The Ideas Conference, the Center for American Progress’s response to CPAC, will be held at the Four Seasons in Georgetown on May 16.  Among the speakers: Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and Keith Ellison (D-Minn.)

More details can be found here.  Think Tank Watch's previous post on the Ideas Conference, which is also being called "CPAC for Liberals," can be found here.

PBS notes that the Democrats' next nominee for president could very well be speaking at the upcoming think tank conference.

Update: A video of the conference as well as a list of all the speakers can be found here.

Dems Go Ballistic Over Third Way Involvement at Retreat

Here is more from The Washington Post:

The House Democrats gathered here for their annual policy retreat are scheduled to attend a session Wednesday on “Rumors, Truths and Reality.” Later, they’ll discuss “Fighting for Our Principles” with leaders of major activist groups. And then they’ll hear “Perspectives” from the vice president of Third Way, a prominent centrist think tank.

That last session, showcasing a wing of the party that dominated Democratic politics for much of the past two decades, would not typically gain much notice. But those days are over: Progressive groups are incensed that lawmakers will be hearing “perspectives” that they argue have been thoroughly discredited in the wake of last year’s election.

“For House Democrats to seek advice from a Wall Street-funded think tank that preaches timidity, that shows them learning the exactly wrong lesson in the Trump era,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “I think Democrats need to fight more strongly, with backbone, and not let Trump steal the mantle of economic populism.”

Jim Kessler, Third Way’s senior vice president for policy, is set to address the retreat Wednesday evening during a half-hour session where, according a senior Democrat familiar with his planned remarks, he will make the case that the Democratic Party needs to grow geographically, demographically and ideologically — not move decisively to the left — to regain power. That is a strain of thought that represented Democratic orthodoxy in the 1990s, when the business-friendly Democratic Leadership Council held sway.

But it has since fallen out of favor, especially among progressives who believe Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) would have better captured voter anger toward the political establishment as the 2016 Democratic president nominee. And now, they say, Third Way’s politics are not what Democrats need to hear.

As noted in the article, other Democrats who spoke at the retreat include think tank scholars from the Center for American Progress (CAP) and Demos.

Here is more about Third Way's presentation at the retreat from CNN.  Here is what Politico had to say about Third Way's presence at the retreat.

Politico recently wrote a piece about Third Way's launch of a campaign to reconnect Democrats with voters who abandoned them.

Think Tank Quickies (#190)

• JHU Professor Daniel Schlozman: Leading Democratic think tanks have moved left on economics.
• Foreign policy debates "usually confined to the ivory tower corners of Washington think tanks and government agencies."
• At the largest 250 US companies, Catholic groups have submitted 12 environment-related shareholder proposals this year, according to Proxymonitor.org, a website sponsored by Manhattan Institute's Center for Legal Policy.
• Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-ND): Think tank studies conclude that lifting the oil export ban will add jobs, boost GDP, and lower gas prices.
• Andrea Torniella: Pope Francis's message misunderstood and badly presented by US think tanks.
• What makes a great city for think tanks? 
• 10 ways for a think tank to raise its profile and become and international player.
• Tea Party voters at odds with Beltway think tanks. 
• Sabrina De Santiago of Sen. Tom Udall's (D-NM) office leaving to become director of government affairs for Center for American Progress (CAP). 
• A few think tanks/think tankers to follow on Twitter, via Bloomberg Business.