Posted on 12/10/2009 7:52:17 PM PST by Libloather
The Man Who Quietly Bankrolled the ACLU
One man's annual donation apparently made up 25% of the operating budget of the American Civil Liberties Union. And that guy, David Gelbaum, had a bad year. So... hope you didn't need to sue the government in 2010.
Gelbaum gave the ACLU $20 million, anonymously, every year. But he will be unable to make that donation this year, forcing the organization to scramble to solicit donations that they'll have to share with state chapters.
Gelbaum is an ex-hedge funder who retired a couple years ago to become a reclusive investor in green technology and a full-time anonymous philanthropist. He is the co-trustee of the secretive Quercus Trust, which has invested in a whole ton of green tech concerns. He loves immigrants, the environment, civil liberties, and shiny, shiny fabrics.
What little anyone knows of him comes from a 2004 L.A. Times piece that revealed his charitable donations to environmental and conservation groups.
Gelbaum was born in Minnesota and moved with his math professor father to California at a young age. He now lives in Newport Beach, Orange County, and his money has "preserved hundreds of miles of wildlife corridors across mountains and deserts" in California.
According to OpenSecrets.org, Gelbaum has been donating to Democratic candidates and the Sierra Club since the '90s, with donations to Loretta Sanchez, Barack Obama, Mark Udall (in 1998), the DSCC, DNC, DCCC, Hispanic PAC USA, and a dozen other congress members and candidates. None of which is unusual for a wealthy California liberal.
But the fact that he actively shunned any publicity whatsoever for his frankly staggering donations to the ACLU and the Sierra Club and others? That is a bit unusual! For a liberal philanthropist, anyway!
And with his giant checkbook comes influence: many Sierra Club members wanted the organization to come out against illegal immigration. Gelbaum, whose wife is a Mexican-American, and who bankrolled the court fight against California's Proposition 187, made sure it didn't even get discussed.
So if David Gelbaum has a bad year, the civil rights and environmental movements have a bad year. And it looks like Gelbaum had a bad year.
How did he make his money in the first place? According to the Times, he "was a math prodigy who parlayed his talents into a highly lucrative three-decade career using mathematical formulas to pick stocks and bonds for wealthy investors in hedge funds." They report that he was hired by Edward Thorp to do analysis for Princeton-Newport Partners, until that firm went belly-up in a scandal. According to Fortune:
From 1989 until 2002, Mr. Gelbaum performed quantitative modeling for stock price returns and derivative securities for TGS Management, and from 1972 until 1989 he worked at Oakley & Sutton in a similar capacity.
Oh god, he was a quant! Doesn't that make this whole thing his fault?
This is wonderful news...
This is some absolutely outstanding news for those of us who love America. Especially the American freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment.
We should force all limosine liberals to become green investors.
David Gelbaum, eh?
That’s gonna leave a mark.
That should put a CRIMP in their war on Christmas.
Hope the SOB loses everything and takes a swan dive off one of his foreclosed skyscrapers.
If these rich guys keep losing boatloads of money on “green” technology, Algore will have to declare and end to global warming.
Great news.
THe Obama Administration might yet find a way to bankroll the ACLU indirectly, using or money, of course.
Half-hearted...HOORAY David Gelbaum! (IDIOT)
(1) Hope he goes flat broke on his “green energy” junk science.
(2) Will the ACLU sue him for the money? After all, as die-hard leftists, they probably believe it’s actually THEIR money that he just happens to be holding for them.
I saw an article on Fox that said he blames the bad economy for the fact that his “green” investments are going south.
God bless this wonderfully crappy economy! Obama may have sucked the wind out of his own sails.
YOu don’t need the ACLU if Obama is in office.
I work with ‘quants’ a lot. They are brilliant, I mean seriously smart and I give them all the respect, but they cannot do basic things. It is shocking how math-centric they are with no street smarts. I literally have to explain how a computer mouse works. God bless them but they are on a ski ‘edge’ and cannot turn (the skiers know what I am referring to).
Gelbaum is a world class ass. He made his fortune the liberal way, he cooked up a system to spend others’ money. His green investments tanked. Yay!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.