TLDR; The Effective Altruism-linked political fund, Protect Our Future, has come under scrutiny for perceived cryptocurrency lobbying. Skip to section Irregularities to see the findings of my investigation into the group. 

Background

The effective altruism movement has become increasingly interested and involved in politics. A major vehicle for this involvement has been Protect Our Future PAC (POF), a political fund active in the recent 2022 US midterm elections. The fund ostensibly sought to lobby for effective altruist cause areas, with a particular emphasis on longtermism and pandemic prevention.

POF entered the electoral scene with a bang funding the campaign of Effective Altruist Carrick Flynn to the tune of $10 million. The fund proceeded to donate to 27  candidates in total, exclusively in the Democratic Primaries.

In total POF raised and spent $28 million, nearly all of this coming from Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) the cryptocurrency tycoon. Despite SBF's financial support, POF has repeatedly denied the fund served SBF's financial interests in cryptocurrency.

Irregularities

As a result of my interest in POF, I proceeded to research and investigate the group and have discovered what to me are irregularities.

I reached out to the President (Michael Sadowsky) and Press Spokesman (Mike Levine) of Protect Our Future, urging them to provide an explanation, but received no response. My inquiry can be viewed here.

Cryptocurrency Interests Amongst Candidates

Of the 27 endorsed candidates I have been able to link 16 as having meaningful pro-cryptocurrency sentiment and/or committee positions that would make them target-worthy by cryptocurrency lobbyists.

A selection of candidates and their ties are presented here. A full table of all candidates endorsed by POF is available in the appendix. 

The presence of cryptocurrency advocates amongst POF's endorsed candidates was also picked up by the press:

The Bankman-Frieds have insisted the organizations are focused on pandemic preparedness and aren’t about influencing cryptocurrency policy. But endorsed candidates are sometimes major supporters of the crypto sector. Lafazan, for example, said back in June he would take campaign donations in cryptocurrency and said he would file a bill in the Nassau County Legislature to create a cryptocurrency task force. Torres, too, who won support from Guarding Against Pandemics, has also publicly boosted the industry.

- https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2022/08/cryptocurrency-billionaire-spending-big-new-york-congressional-primaries/375529/

Ray La Raja, a political scientist who studies campaign finance at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, says it’s likely no coincidence that Protect Our Future’s funds have gone to establishment candidates at a time when Congress is considering cryptocurrency regulations.

- https://www.theassemblync.com/politics/elections/buying-a-blue-seat-4th-district/

One, Maxwell Frost, a Florida Democrat who has become well known as the first Gen-Z member of Congress, got $8,700 in contributions from the Bankman-Fried brothers and nearly $1 million in help from Protect Our Future, almost all of it after announcing a “crypto-advisory council” for his campaign.

- https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/12/sam-bankman-fried-and-sean-mcelwees-fateful-alliance.html

Opportunity For Tommorrow PAC

There is also another fund that appears to have close ties to Protect Our Future called Opportunity For Tomorrow. The fund was exclusively donated to by SBF, and share's the same registered address as POF and the same treasurer.

It gave to 4 candidates, 3 of them having made pro-cryptocurrency statements, and the other, Hickenlooper, has urged regulation by the SEC (and critical of Gensler) which is desired by many cryptocurrency advocates (including SBF) and opposed by cryptocurrency skeptics (typically supportive of Gensler).

I reached POF for comment on these matters but received no reply.

Personnel Issues and Preceived Conflicts of Interest

A central figure in POF's election strategy was pollster Sean McElwee, who himself was an effective altruist, and whose company DataForProgress was paid by POF to conduct polling. McElwee has recently been ousted from Data For Progress for "allegedly pressuring an employee into being a straw donor for Democratic causes" (NYMag) and the perception he was gambling on election outcomes using the firm's polling. He was also made a member of Maxwell Frost's crypto-advisory council, a candidate who POF endorsed at the very behest of McElwee himself.

I asked POF's leaders if McElwee's involvement may explain some of POF's perceived cryptocurrency lobbying since although SBF was not supposed to be influencing, it sounds like McElwee was very aligned with SBF anyway.

I also asked POF if there were any perceived conflicts of interest arising from Sadowsky and Levine's workplaces at Blue Rose Research or TSD Communications (for example were any POF-endorsed candidates also clients of Blue Rose Research). 

Pandemic Lobbying Strategy

I personally found POF's lobbying strategy perplexing as the most effective lobbying effort to push Biden's pandemic plan would have been to help Democrats defeat Republicans in the general, yet POF PAC was exclusively active in Democratic primary races, pitting Democrats against Democrats.

Additionally, POF appears to have had a strategy to support incumbents in safe Democratic seats, and not necessarily candidates with the strongest pandemic prevention platform.

"If there’s a theme, it’s SBF spent on races that would be Dem blowouts, picking likely winners rather than edge cases"

- https://www.themainewire.com/2022/11/sam-bankman-frieds-ftx-collapse-touches-ukraine-the-world-economic-forum-silicon-valley-and-both-sides-of-d-c/

Other effective altruists have also expressed concern about POF's unclear strategy and endorsement choices: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/NRa7ndwZ6kmtJXKqx/ea-aligned-political-activity-in-a-us-congressional-primary

Progressive groups also have the impression they were targeted against by SBF's political activities, a claim that to me appears correct (full disclosure: I was a phone-banking volunteer for the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2020). https://maxberger.substack.com/p/sbf-and-the-injustice-democrats. Note that Max Berger's analysis captures other parts of SBF's political activity, not just Protect Our Future. 

In my inquiry to POF, I asked if POF did favour conservative Democratic candidates. I find this odd if this is the case, as typically left-wing candidates were most supportive of pandemic prevention and least resistant to government spending.

Appendix

Full list of candidates and cryptocurrency ties

POF candidates with meaningful pro-cryptocurrency sentiment and/or committee positions that make targetworthy of influence by the cryptocurrency lobby.

POF candidates without meaningful pro-cryptocurrency sentiments.