How Billionaire Oligarchs Are Becoming Their Own Political Parties

How Billionaire Oligarchs Are Becoming Their Own Political Parties
Thomas 'Tom' Steyer, founder of Farallon Capital Management LLC, speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview in Pescadero, California, U.S., on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013. Keystone XL will be a 'major driver' of oil sands expansion that significantly raises the risks of climate change, said Steyer, a former hedge fund manager who has spent some of his fortune fighting the pipeline. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Thomas 'Tom' Steyer, founder of Farallon Capital Management LLC, speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview in Pescadero, California, U.S., on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013. Keystone XL will be a 'major driver' of oil sands expansion that significantly raises the risks of climate change, said Steyer, a former hedge fund manager who has spent some of his fortune fighting the pipeline. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

In August, Tom Steyer and seven campaign advisers sat in a small conference room in Coral Gables, Fla., trying to figure out how to save the world. Steyer, who is 57, has a fortune of roughly $1.5 billion, and his advisers were among the most talented political operatives in the United States. Steyer is especially concerned about climate change, and his immediate goal, the object of discussion that day, was to replace the sitting governor of Florida, Rick Scott, a Republican who has questioned the very existence of anthropogenic climate change, with Charlie Crist, the previous governor, whose environmental views hew more closely to Steyer’s.

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