Why Are Democrats Afraid of Tom Steyer?

From:  The Atlantic

by Clare Foran

The billionaire climate-change evangelist's donations are a godsend for the party, but his very presence could undercut their messaging. 

Democrats love Tom Steyer's money. They're split over Steyer's mouth.

Steyer, a hedge-fund-manager-turned-green-evangelist, says he plans to raise up to $100 million during the midterm elections for candidates who stand strong on climate change. But as he doles out big checks to Democrats, Steyer has also stepped into the spotlight—and that is making some in the party nervous.

Democrats have made casting conservatives as beholden to the ultra-rich central to their 2014 strategy, and that makes it awkward when a billionaire of their own puts himself front and center. Steyer is far from media-shy: He frequently gives interviews, and last month went a step further in publicly challenging Republican-backing billionaires—and favorite Democratic targets—Charles and David Koch to a debate over climate change.

Steyer's persona, the skeptics feel, opens Democrats up to charges of hypocrisy, and leaves too much of the party's profile in the hands of a man who has been popularly elected to exactly nothing.  MORE