You're Probably Getting Screwed...

Is a British P.E. firm hurting Democrats?

Welcome to You’re Probably Getting Screwed, a weekly newsletter and video series from J.D. Scholten and Justin Stofferahn about the Second Gilded Age and the ways economic concentration is putting politics and profits over working people.

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What does this building in London and the Democratic Party struggles in U.S. elections have in common?

First, if you have ever worked on a Democratic campaign, volunteered for one or ran for office as a Democrat, you probably have used the Voter Action Network (aka VAN).

Democrats use VAN to target voters. So if you ever received mail from a campaign, been door knocked or received a text or call from a campaign or their volunteers, VAN was most likely involved.

And if you were the one who used VAN to reach out to voters, you were probably frustrated by the wrong information and numbers.

Yet Democrats continue to use this flawed data as an integral part of their campaigns.

So what’s the connection to this place in London? Well, this is the headquarters of Apax Partners, which is a British private equity firm that bought VAN, now NGP VAN, back in August of 2021.

As of now, we only have reporting information through early June of the 2024 (so several weeks before the infamous Joe Biden debate) and at that time Democrats have already paid $26.6 million to NGP VAN in the 2024 cycle alone.

So here’s a few things to think about if you’re a Democrat:

1. The Trump campaign barely anything with a field campaign and had high turnout. Personally, I think the field aspect of campaigns is still important but Democrats need to change how they do it in a post-Citizens United political era.

2. With what Private Equity is doing in America, do Democrats really want them owning the data that campaigns are based on? And with the amount of money being spent on this, why isn’t the data better? Is it because Apax Partners gets paid either way?

3. Because there’s a monopoly on the software that manages the Democratic National Committee’s voter list, what’s stopping that information from being sold to or manipulated by someone like Elon Musk or another bad actor?

With the Democratic Party looking to reform and rebuild after the 2024 elections, they really need to look to improve their voter data or they’ll continue to get screwed…

YOU’RE PROBABLY (ALSO) GETTING SCREWED BY:

Health Insurance

We do NOT support murder. We do support a discussion (and hopefully action) on: 1) how to have a healthcare system that works for all of us; and 2) holding corporations accountable.

Amazon

The Attorney General of Washington DC has sued Amazon for violating the district’s consumer protection laws for excluding majority Black ZIP codes from Prime delivery despite residents in those areas paying for Prime.

Lax Antitrust Enforcement

A new paper is out examining the extreme consolidation among hospitals in the United States. The paper finds that from 2002 to 2020 there were over 1,000 hospital mergers and yet the Federal Trade Commission only took enforcement actions against 13 of those transactions. It is a reminder our monopoly crisis is not inevitable and while an aggressive FTC is essential it should also be noted that states can play a huge role in preventing further consolidation.

Lax Antitrust Enforcement…Again

Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self Reliance has a fantastic new piece in The Atlantic that walks through how abandonment of the Robinson-Patman Act, an antitrust law still on the books that protects small businesses from anticompetitive conduct from larger competitors, has created food deserts across the country.

Cheap Billionaires

No group of billionaires likes to whine the way owners of Major League Baseball teams do. The next time your favorite team’s owner is complaining, check out the Scrooge Index from The Score which reveals a not at all surprising truth; owning an MLB franchise is quite profitable.

Elon Musk

Right before Thanksgiving Elon Musk was complaining about the decline of innovation in the video game industry as a result of consolidation. You know who agrees with him, the same antitrust enforcers and agencies he has criticized. The Department of Justice tried to block the Microsoft-Activision mega-merger and the FTC recently opened a probe into the acquisition.

Corporate Greed at Spotify

PBMs

A new Health Affairs study finds that since 2018 the number of pharmacies in 41 states has declined and that between 2010 and 2021 nearly a third of pharmacies had closed. Independent pharmacies were twice as likely to close as chain locations and closures were more likely in low-income neighborhoods.

Debt

“If you are rich and in debt you are savvy and using leverage, but if you are poor and in debt you are irresponsible.”

SOME GOOD NEWS

Democracy in Power

A new book is out from Sandeep Vaheesan, Legal Director at the Open Markets Institute. Democracy in Power is a history of the electrification of the United States and the role public and cooperative utilities played in that effort.

Bipartisan Bankruptcy Protections

Senators Dick Durbin (D - IL) and Josh Hawley (R - MO) introduced legislation today creating new protections for workers when their businesses go bankrupt. The bill is intended to “increase recoveries for employees, preserve their benefits and place more restrictions on executive bonuses at bankrupt companies.”

New Antitrust Chief…Maybe

Yesterday President-elect Trump announced that he will appoint former JD Vance staffer Gail Slater to serve as Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, the position currently held by champion trustbuster Jonathan Kanter. While we will be watching closely to see if Slater continues the broad approach pioneered under Kanter, Salter is at least considered to be skeptical of the power of Big Tech giants and should continue lawsuits against companies like Google and Facebook.

Small Business & Antimonopoly

The Small Business Majority is holding a webinar with Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar (and Justin) about the ways monopoly power impacts small businesses. You can register here.

BEFORE YOU GO

Before you go, I need two things from you: 1) if you like something, please share it on social media or the next time you have coffee with a friend. 2) Ideas, if you have any ideas for future newsletter content please comment below. Thank you.

Standing Tall for All,

J.D. Scholten