21st Century Democrats

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21st Century Democrats is a political organization founded by Senator Tom Harkin, commentator Jim Hightower and Congressman Lane Evans to help elect "progressive" or "populist" candidates in winning elections. The original founders are no longer particularly active in the organization. 21st Century Democrats started out relatively small but has quietly grown in size and significance in the last few election cycles. In 2004 election cycle, according to the Political Money Line, it was the 13th largest Political Action Committee (PAC) in the United States raising nearly $7 Million. Among progressive ideological PACs, it ranked fourth behind America Coming Together, EMILY's List, and MoveOn. The group's long time Executive Director is Kelly Young.

Unlike traditional PACs, 21st Century Democrats focuses on recruiting, training, and hiring field organizers to organize grassroots campaigns on behalf of candidates for local offices, statewide office, and even targeted presidential swing states. The strategy enables the group to get a value added return on its investments, and has proven to be successful. 21st Century Democrats wins the majority of its races, even though they focus on tougher, competitive races up and down the ballot. The group has strong ties to veterans of Paul Wellstone's campaigns, as well as Democracy for America, which grew out of Howard Dean's failed presidential campaign.

In 2004, the group focused on:

a young voter project called Vote Mob in the swing states of Ohio, Minnesota and Oregon,
ten U. S. House of Representatives races (including a Democratic primary campaign in Oklahoma and Stephanie Herseth's Special Election victory in South Dakota), and
the state legislatures of Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, and Vermont. In Minnesota, Democrats won 16 of the 20 races in which 21st Century Democrats had organizers working.
a "Neighbor to Neighbor" project in Oregon which sought to build permanent vounteer infrastructure by training members of a community to persuade and turn out their own neighbors.
grass roots organizing trainings with Democracy for America and the America Votes Alliance to get would-be political activists the tools necessary to be successful.

In December of 2004, 21st Century Democrats was fined a record amount for violating Minnesota campaign finance laws. The Center for Public Integrity described the incident as follows:

"Another group that has had problems with often complicated campaign laws is 21st Century Democrats, a 527 operating in several battleground states. The group registered with the Federal Election Commission and the IRS, but did not file the correct forms in the state of Minnesota. The lapse earned the committee the state's largest-ever campaign finance fine—more than $400,000.

Any 527s contributing to a state party "either have to register or in lieu of registering, they can provide the recipient committee with a statement that meets Minnesota's reporting requirements," Jeanne Olson, executive director of Minnesota's Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, told the Center. "A statement must accompany the contribution."

The state's House Minority Leader, Democrat Matt Entenza, also came under attack for his $300,000 contribution to the group. Republican critics charged that the minority leader was hiding funds for his and others' campaigns; 21st Century Democrats supported voter registration drives and supplied staff to help Minnesota Democrats—many of whom served with Entenza in the state legislature.

The group has since contested the fine, and on June 30, 2005, an administrative law judge ruled that the campaign board wrongly denied 21st Century Democrats the right of appeal in late 2004.

No officials from 21st Century Democrats responded to requests for comment on this story." "527s Run Aground in the States", Center for Public Integrity