Earlier this month, media reports announced that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan donated $300 million to non-partisan, good government groups devoted to ensuring that the November elections are conducted safely and fairly.
In fact, executives running the two groups receiving the funds, $250 million to the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) and $50 million to the Center for Election Innovation & Research (CEIR), have long histories supporting progressive causes, and disparaging Republicans and conservatives.
The political histories of those behind CTCL have been documented here.
For its part, CEIR was founded by David Becker, an attorney and expert in elections law with a resume of working for left-of-center groups, supporting Democratic causes, and discrediting Republicans.
In 2005, while working as a trial attorney in the Voting Section of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division, Becker contacted the city of Boston offering his services to defeat a lawsuit brought by the DOJ for voting rights infractions, according to two former DOJ officials during the Bush Administration. His actions were reported to the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).
“It was the most unethical thing I’ve ever seen,” Brad Schlozman, acting head of the Civil Rights Division at the time, told Legal Newsline. “Classic case of someone who should have been disbarred.”
“He’s a hard-core leftist,” Schlozman added. “Couldn’t stand conservatives.”
Schlozman’s account of events was confirmed by Hans von Spakovsky, who worked at the Justice Department as counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. He is now a Senior Legal Fellow with the Heritage Foundation in Washington.
“In his role with the DOJ, he was supposed to be non-partisan,” van Spakovsky said of Becker, “but his emails uncovered in the Boston investigation revealed nasty, disparaging remarks about Republicans. Very unethical and unprofessional. I would never hire or trust him.”
Becker responded to an email request for comment on the OPR complaint:
“This complaint was made over 15 years ago, if memory serves, and was dismissed. There was no action taken against me by the Department of Justice as a result of this complaint. As you know, anyone can make a complaint for any reason, with or without basis.”
He continued: “I served faithfully at the DOJ for seven years, from 1998-2005, during which time I received a Special Commendation of Merit from the Attorney General in 2002, during the Bush Administration.”
Becker did not respond to a follow-up request to comment on the allegations that he reached out to the city of Boston in 2005 while still working at the DOJ. He left his job a little later that year.
It’s unclear how the complaint against Becker was handled by the OPR. A receipt of a Freedom of Information Act request about the complaint against Becker was acknowledged by OPR, but the office did not respond to repeated requests for documents pertaining to the case.
After his stint at DOJ, Becker worked for a time as campaign director, Democracy Campaign, People for the American Way (PFAW).
The Capital Research Center’s InfluenceWatch describes PFAW as “a left-of-center advocacy group formed in 1981 by liberal Hollywood television producer Norman Lear, ostensibly to oppose the conservative principles espoused by Christian conservative televangelists.”
“People For the American Way monitors what it characterizes as ‘right-wing’ activities, advocates for a left-of-center policy agenda, and helps to elect liberal political candidates,” Influence Watch went on. “PFAW’s policy includes left-of-center positions on a wide-range of issues including public funding of abortion providers, a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, tax and spend big government budgeting, and a general opposition to President Donald Trump’s policies and appointments.”
Becker’s involvement with PFAW is not listed on his LinkedIn profile, where there is a three-year gap in work activity between 2005 and 2008.
“To be honest, I don’t use LinkedIn very much, and haven’t updated my profile in years, and there’s probably a lot missing from it,” Becker told Legal Newline. “For instance, I also didn’t list the fact that since February my organization and I have a contract and work closely with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, nor do I list the fact that 3 members of my organization’s board (half) are Republicans (two of whom are former elected officials).”
On the CEIR website, the first line under “Our Vision” is:
“Voters deserve elections that they can—and do—trust.”