Back when I was a young forward of great passion (but, sadly, not much skill), winters meant indoor soccer, and that meant playing on Astroturf. Unlike with natural grass, the ball bounded off the layer of sickly green artificial turf almost as energetically as it pinged off the Plexiglas bordering the indoor fields.
In politics, too, there’s a big difference between true grassroots movements and Astroturf groups — those that act like they emerged spontaneously from the ground up, a reflection of the popular will, even though they’re actually fronts for special interests.
During the recent Springfield debate over the fate of two downstate power plants, a new group emerged as the loudest voice against legislation granting billions of dollars in subsidies to the plants’ owner, Exelon Corp.
The BEST Coalition — whose name stands for Better Energy Solutions for Tomorrow — has touted itself as a “grassroots coalition created to advocate for smart energy policy in Illinois.”
But a closer look at the roots of BEST suggests that interests beyond just the public good might have been foremost in mind when the seeds for the organization were planted and sprouted.
According to state records, Mike Grady created BEST as a nonprofit organization in October 2014. At the time, Grady — a former aide to Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, D-Chicago — was a Springfield lobbyist for a Chicago energy company and a nonprofit called the Illinois Energy Business Coalition, according to state records.
Shortly after BEST came into being, the baton was passed to Dave Lundy, a public-relations man and longtime renewable energy advocate. Lundy now is the president of BEST, while the group’s secretary is an employee of Lundy’s P.R. firm, Aileron Communications Inc. of Chicago.
The third and final board member of the organization lives far out of state — in Ringgold, Georgia. BEST’s treasurer, Lora Haggard, was the chief financial officer of John Edwards’ 2008 run for president and the treasurer for Friends of Bernie Sanders. Haggard also has served as the treasurer for a variety of nonprofit groups around the country, including Seattle’s Civic Alliance for a Sound Economy.
Lundy declined Tuesday to disclose BEST’s budget or its financial supporters but did say, “Most of the funders are energy companies” — in other words, Exelon’s competitors.
“I’ll tell you this — we probably got outspent 10-to-1 by Exelon,” Lundy said, trying to pivot attention to his foes. “We were the David to their Goliath.”
Lundy backed down, though, from BEST’s claim on its Facebook page that it’s a grassroots group. He said it would be more accurate to call it a “grasstops” organization, bringing together influential local figures.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and many consumer and business groups took BEST’s side in its recent fight with Exelon. Lawmakers approved the bill for Exelon, and Gov. Bruce Rauner signed it on Dec. 7.
Lundy said Exelon is hypocritical because it once opposed subsidies for energy companies but later sought and received what BEST describes as a “bailout.” He said the bill will cause big rate hikes for Illinois consumers.
Lundy also reasons that the state produces much more energy than it consumes, so it would have been no loss to Illinois if the two nuclear plants had closed, as Exelon warned would happen without help from Springfield.
“This bill is a boondoggle,” he said. “We’re the good guys here.”
That might well be so. But to avoid losing more battles with Exelon, BEST’s funders — whoever they are — could be better served if the group’s message penetrated deeper, to the real grassroots level of public opinion across the state.
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