The Democrats’ Robert Mercer

广告与唐纳德总统特朗普队的颗粒状镜片开放，在一个领奖台上，朝着人群挥舞着拳头。

“He’s brought us to the brink of nuclear war; obstructed justice at the FBI; and, in direct violation of the Constitution, he’s taken money from foreign governments and threatened to shut down news organizations that report the truth,” a voiceover warns.

Cut to hedge fund founder Tom Steyer, with the somewhat vague title of “American citizen” floating beneath his name. He’s calling for the impeachment of Trump: pleading with viewers to go online, sign his petition, and pressure Congress to take action.

Often rumored to be running for office himself, Steyer, who has a respected money management background, has consistently been one of the largest donors for the Democratic party since the early 2000s, data shows. But whether his clout can amount to that of his opposite, the legendary Republican donor and hedge fund manager Robert Mercer, remains to be seen.

“我认为他们是同一硬币的两侧，”开放秘密的研究总监Sarah Bryner说，一个竞选财务信息的数据库。“我认为的差异是梅克似乎锻炼了更加柔软的力量。”

Steyer began his career at Morgan Stanley, and then rose through the ranks of Goldman Sachs and private-equity firm Hellman & Friedman, before founding his own hedge fund. That fund, now known as Farallon Capital, was started in San Francisco with just $15 million back in 1986. This firm was where Steyer made much of the wealth he is now plowing into advertisements for impeachment and into Democratic candidates’ campaign coffers. By the time Steyer retired from Farallon in 2012, he was managing an estimated $20 billion, according to a contemporaneous report from亚博赞助欧冠’sΑ.

During the 2016 election cycle, Steyer was listed as the top individual contributor nationwide by Open Secrets. According to the database, Steyer spent $10.3 million on Democratic candidates in that election. That generosity continued: Steyer’s advertisements, estimated to have cost $20 million thus far, started popping up on news networks in October 2017.

This isn’t Steyer’s first foray into activism.

“Steyer将自己与特定问题联系起来，”布莱纳说。“他已成为一个重要的民主党人，但他开始作为纯粹的环境捐助者。”2010年，他争夺 - 并赢得了加利福尼亚州的命题23，这将推回国家的地标全球变暖法案。就在几年后，2012年，Steyer推动了Pris Prition 39，该命令在该州立了一个企业税漏洞。在2013年10月，他与前纽约市市长Michael Bloomberg和前美国秘书曾在一项名为“冒险业务”的倡议上，评估了气候变化姿势的经济风险。不久之后，Steyer成立了Nextgen气候，一个非营利组织和政治行动委员会，旨在防止气候灾害。

When the advertisements prominently featuring Steyer first came out, rumors that he planned to run for office in 2018, or even 2020, abounded. But on January 8, Steyer quieted those rumors at a news conference, saying his focus is encouraging young people to vote.

Compare that to Robert Mercer, who, until late 2017, headed up legendary hedge fund firm Renaissance Technologies. Mercer stepped down in November after his ties to Breitbart, the alt-right news site that he has poured capital into, became widely publicized. In addition to stepping down from RenTech, Mercer sold his stake in Breitbart to his daughters.

Mercer比较私密，很少谈论记录 - 特别是通过电视广告。然而，他出现了2016年联邦选举的整体个体贡献者名单的第八，主要是2560万美元的主要保守候选人。在同一选举周期期间，Mercer的Super-Pac，使美国1美元，花费了1960万美元，公开秘密。

“I think the interesting thing for both of these men is that they’re both new to the scene,” Bryner said. “It’s less about establishing control over the party and more about instituting their own agenda on their own terms. I think it is emblematic of the type of industry that they come from.”

如果在政治上的金钱问题，Mercer的Super-Pac在选举特朗普到总统方面发挥了重要作用。然而，这并不是所有的Mercer能够鼓励特朗普：布雷特巴特，部分由Mercer资助，在Pundits表示，在2016年选举中发挥了重要作用。

This is one major difference between Steyer and Mercer: Though Steyer has the ability to contribute millions to campaigns of his choosing, he has thus far not directly backed a media company, much less one that he can use to telegraph his political message to the public.

Still, Bryner said, both will likely continue to wield power in upcoming elections. “Neither of them are particularly closely linked to the party or the party structure in the same way that people in the past were,” she said. “They’re independent, or so it seems, at least.”