Gail Furman is a child psychologist and a wealthy Democratic party activist and donor. She is the mother of Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

 campaign advisor Jason Furman

Jason Furman

Jason Furman is an economist and influential policy intellectual. On January 28, 2009, Furman was named Deputy Director of the National Economic Council in the administration of President Barack Obama, whom he'd been advising since the latter stages of the 2008 presidential campaign...

.

Furman is President of the Furman Foundation, Inc. The foundation is a major donor to the George Soros

George Soros

George Soros is a Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, philosopher, and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Soros Fund Management. Soros supports progressive-liberal causes...

-backed Tides Center

Tides Center

Tides Center is a non-profit organization in the United States which provides fiscal sponsorship for progressive groups. Tides Center is classified a 501 tax-exempt organization by the IRS...

 and the Media Matters for America

Media Matters for America

Media Matters for America is a politically progressive media watchdog group which says it is "dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media." Set up as a 501 non-profit organization, MMfA was founded in 2004 by journalist and...

, a left-leaning center for journalism founded by author David Brock

David Brock

David Brock is an American journalist and author, the founder of the media watchdog group, Media Matters for America, and a Democratic political operative...

.

Role in Democracy Alliance

In December 2003, Furman attended a gathering in New York City put together by Erica Payne

Erica Payne

Erica C. Payne is an American public policy expert, commentator, author and strategist.She is the founder of the Agenda Project, a New York‐based hub of public policy discussion and strategy debate for progressive activists from business, media, philanthropy, government, and non‐profit...

 in order to watch a screening of Rob Stein's PowerPoint presentation, The Conservative Message Machine Money Matrix, together with George Soros

George Soros

George Soros is a Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, philosopher, and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Soros Fund Management. Soros supports progressive-liberal causes...

, Peter Lewis, David Brock

David Brock

David Brock is an American journalist and author, the founder of the media watchdog group, Media Matters for America, and a Democratic political operative...

, John Podesta

John Podesta

John David Podesta was the fourth and final White House Chief of Staff under President Bill Clinton, from 1998 until 2001. He is the president of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C., and is also a Visiting Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law...

 and New Jersey governor Jon Corzine

Jon Corzine

Jon Stevens Corzine is the former CEO of Goldman Sachs and of MF Global, and a one time American politician, who served as the 54th Governor of New Jersey from 2006 to 2010. A Democrat, Corzine served five years of a six-year U.S. Senate term representing New Jersey before being elected Governor...

. After the presentation, Furman agreed in front of the group to donate more than $25,000 to fund Stein to conduct a research project to determine "what kind of groups the Left needed to fund".

At the second meeting of the Democracy Alliance

Democracy Alliance

The Democracy Alliance is a partnership of business and philanthropic leaders who commit to making make human and financial donations to organizations the Alliance has endorsed...

in October 2005, Furman "demanded to know why the alliance wasn't creating a 'nerve center' that could book progressives on TV news shows".

External links

• Federal campaign contributions