Steyer group raises $68M

Billionaire climate change activist Tom Steyer fell short of raising the $100 million goal he set for raising money to help environmentalist candidates get elected this year.

Records that NextGen Climate filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission show that the group took in only $67.7 million in 2014, nearly all of it before the Nov. 4 midterm elections.

{mosads}Of that total, $57.6 million came from Steyer himself, founder of Farallon Capital Management.

Steyer set out early in the midterm cycle to raise $100 million and use it to help candidates who would further environmental causes such as fighting climate change, a strategy that led to comparisons to the billionaire conservative brothers Charles and David Koch.

He was successful in only some races, and failed to keep a Democratic majority in the Senate.

The goal was to bring in $50 million from outside donors and contribute at least $50 million himself. But NextGen fell short of the outside fundraising goal.

Throughout the election cycle, Steyer made some of the biggest donations, including a $16 million check and two contributions of $15 million each.

One notable donor revealed in the Thursday report, which covered Oct. 16 through Nov. 24, was retired media mogul Ted Turner, founder of cable networks CNN and TBS.

Turner, under the moniker “R.E. Turner” for his legal name Robert Edward, sent $20,000 to NextGen. He listed as his address the Atlanta home of Turner Enterprises Inc., his entity for managing his business and philanthropic ventures.