Type of organization: Super PAC

Supports candidate: Barack Obama

Founded: April 29, 2011

Website: www.prioritiesusaaction.org

Social media: YouTube channel, Facebook page, Twitter profile

Principals:

• Bill Burton (founder): campaign press secretary for Obama, later named White House deputy press secretary.
• Sean Sweeney (founder): former chief of staff to White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
• Harold Ickes (president): registered lobbyist with strong union ties who was formerly the deputy chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and who served in senior positions in the presidential campaigns of both Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Profile:

Priorities USA Action, which first filed with the FEC in April of 2011, is the main super PAC associated with President Barack Obama. The stated goal of the PAC is to ensure “the re-election of President Obama and setting the record straight when there are misleading attacks against him and other progressive leaders.”

The group's donors fit the stereotype held by right-wingers of Obama — that he's beholden to labor unions, trial lawyers and celebrities. The group has received significant contributions from many traditional Democratic allies: labor unions, lawyers and Hollywood figures.

Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg has donated $2 million to the group, comedian Bill Maher has donated $1 million, Chicago media mogul Fred Eychaner has donated $500,000 and director Steven Spielberg has donated $100,000.

Meanwhile, the PAC of the SEIU has donated $1 million, the PAC of the United Auto Workers has donated $100,000 and the PAC of the American Association for Justice, the trade group of trial lawyers, has donated $50,000.

When asked about his donation to Priorities, Katzenberg told USA Today he donated to the group because “the stakes are too high for us to simply allow the extremism of a small but well-funded right-wing minority to go unchallenged.”

Bill Burton, one of the group’s founders, served as Obama’s campaign press secretary and deputy press secretary in the White House; he was considered to succeed Robert Gibbs in that role before Jay Carney was appointed. Sean Sweeney, the other co-founder, served under Rahm Emanuel for many years, eventually becoming Emanuel's chief of staff at the White house.

Despite Katzenberg's very large initial contribution, the group has been dwarfed by GOP-leaning groups. A Politico story from January highlighted concerns over Priorities' fundraising among Democrats, driven in part by the Obama White House’s stance on the Citizens United ruling that opened the way for super PACs. iWatch News previously reported that the group hopes to raise $100 million to compliment the hundreds of millions his campaign is expecting to raise from traditional donors and big-money bundlers. 

In early February, Obama signaled support for Priorities and other outside Democratic groups, a shift in position from the White House that activists hope will help shore up the lagging fundraising the groups have seen in this cycle. It's easy to see why the President decided to support the group; it raised just over $58,000 in January, but raised $2 million in February.

In May the group announced that veteran Democratic operative Mary Beth Cahill would be joining would be joining Priorities USA. Cahill was the campaign director for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) during his 2004 presidential campaign.

See more data on Priorities USA Action at OpenSecrets.org, or more background information at FactCheck.org. 

Advertisements:

• The PAC went up with their first video attacking Mitt Romney in May.
• In November, the PAC spent $100,000 to launch another attack on Romney.
• On their YouTube page, the PAC features a number of longer, Web-based attacks on Romney. 

Last Updated: May 21, 2012