When conservatives criticize Obama for his long association with William Ayers, mentioning their work together at the Annenberg Foundation, a typical liberal response is that the Annenberg Foundation is a “conservative” or “right-wing” organization. Pointing that out is supposed to – for some reason – be an argument stopper, although I don’t see how it trumps the domestic terrorist argument. Ayers is what he is, no matter how much wealth the Annenberg Foundation gave him to spread to his liberal/socialist buddies at The Peace School, the Global Village school, and the Grassroots School run by ACORN. Still, since the argument has been brought up, just how “right wing” are the Annenbergs?
Walter Annenberg was an ambassador, and his wife Leonore was the State Department chief of protocol during the Reagan administration. Leonore is now President and Chairman of the Foundation. His daughter is Wallis, Vice President of the Foundation and evidently runs it on a day to day basis – Leonore is 90 years old. So what do their political donations look like?
According to Open Secrets, Walter Annenberg gave $1000 to George W. Bush back in 2000. Leonore gave $1000 to Dubya, $1000 each to Olympia Snowe (R-Sorta), Sandy Treadwell (R), and Diane Feinstein (D). So that leaves Wallis, who gave $2,000 to Dubya in 2003, and $1500 to Michael Huffington. And $35,700 to various Democrats.
The only Foundation trustee who made a political donation is Lauren Bon, an Annenberg granddaughter. She’s given $2000 to John Kerry. So what’s the Annenberg political total? $38,700 to Democrats, and $7500 to Republicans. Wallis gets most of the credit for the ratio, thanks to her $25,000 donation to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
The Foundation itself gives a ton of money to liberal organizations.
Walter and Leonore Annenberg had a personal relationship with Reagan and places in his administration, and Leonore has endorsed McCain. There is a case to be made that Walter was and Leonore is a conservative – although frankly permitting the Foundation to spend the money on the things it has refutes that argument quite a bit; if Leonore were a conservative, you’d think she’d put a stop to it.
But as for the Foundation itself – no, there’s no case at all to be made that it’s a conservative organization. It’s run by people who overwhelmingly support Democrats, and it gives millions to liberal organizations.
