1. Early life and education

2. Career
    Community organizing and political consultancy   Bank fraud and failure to pay withholding tax convictions   Feud with Glenn Beck  Project Veritas Action videos 

3. Publications

4. Personal life

5. References

6. External links

He has been a progressive strategist and political organizer for over 50 years, beginning in the Civil Rights and anti Vietnam War movements of the 1960s. He was a consultant to the Democratic National Committee during the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Presidential election campaigns.^[2]

Creamer published "Listen to Your Mother: Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win" in 2007, in which he detailed a road map to electoral and issue campaign victories for progressives in the W. Bush era.^[3]

In 2005, Creamer was one of the architects and organizers of the successful campaign to defeat the privatization of Social Security. He has also been a consultant to the campaigns to end the war in Iraq, increase the minimum wage, and pass progressive budget priorities, pass and defend the Affordable Care Act, oppose right wing judicial nominees, and pass comprehensive immigration reform.^[2]

In 2005, Creamer pleaded guilty to tax violations and $2.3 million in bank fraud in relation to paying checks with insufficient funds, to fund his public interest group in the 1990s.^[1] He repaid the funds, and was convicted and sentenced to five months in prison at Terre Haute and eleven months house arrest.^[4][5]

Creamer stepped down from his consulting position with the Democratic National Committee in October 2016 after a video released by James O'Keefe's Project Veritas included undercover footage of a subcontractor to his firm discussing a scheme to pay people to incite violence at rallies for the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.^[6][7][8] The footage showed a Project Veritas operative posing as a potential donor, discussing fraudulent voting arrangements. Creamer did not endorse the methods discussed and voiced concern to the potential donor that these efforts would be tantamount to voter fraud.^[9] The subcontractor was immediately fired.^[10] Creamer and Democratic Party spokespeople subsequently described the conversations as "hypothetical" and denied that the tactics described had been used.^[7] In June 2017, Creamer, and Democracy Partners filed a lawsuit against O'Keefe and his organization, Project Veritas, seeking a million dollars in damages for various violations of DC and Federal law. The case is currently pending in Federal Court in Washington, DC.^[11]

Since the November 2016 election he has helped coordinate activities that are part of the Resistance to the policies of Donald Trump and has focused particularly on defeating attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, opposing the GOP Tax bill, protecting "Dreamers", and defeating GOP court nominees.^[12]

He is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, and appears periodically on cable news programs and the BBC.^[13]

Early life and education

Creamer was born in 1947. He graduated from Duke University in 1969, writing his thesis, "Duke Employees Local 77: Confrontation over Impartial Arbitration of Grievances", about the AFSCME Local 77 union.^[14] He later did graduate work in Ethics and Society at the University of Chicago.

During his high school years, Creamer lived in Shreveport, Louisiana where be became involved in the civil rights movement.  At Duke, he expanded his activity as a student activist organizing for civil rights, ending the War in Vietnam, and economic justice.^[15]

A key turning point came when he helped organize "the Duke Vigil" after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.^[16][17]

The silent "Vigil", which ultimately included thousands of students, demanded that Duke increase the pay of its mainly African American non-academic employees, take steps leading to the recognition of their union (Local 77 of AFSCME), and that the President of the University withdraw from the all-white Hope Valley Country Club. Soon after it began these demands were bolstered by a strike of the non-academic employee union and many in the Duke faculty.^[18]

Career

Community organizing and political consultancy

Creamer began his organizing career in 1970 working with Chicago's Citizen Action Program (CAP). During his tenure, CAP successfully campaigned to reduce the sulfur dioxide in Chicago's air by almost two thirds. Creamer founded the Illinois Public Action Council (later known as Illinois Citizen Action) in 1974. It became Illinois's largest consumer advocacy organization, advocating for lower utility rates, environmental concerns, and legislation benefitting senior citizens.^[23] Creamer directed the organization for 23 years.^[19]

In 1997, Creamer co-founded the Strategic Consulting Group, a political consulting firm that works with issue campaigns. His clients have included MoveOn.org, Americans United for Change, and USAction. He organized a successful campaign to stymie the privatization of Social Security. He has acted as a consultant for campaigns geared towards ending the Iraq War, enacting comprehensive immigration reform, and passing universal health care legislation. Creamer has worked on numerous Democratic Party campaigns.

During the Obama Administration Creamer worked closely with the White House to coordinate the effort to mobilize support for the Iran nuclear agreement, 3 pass the Affordable Care Act, mobilize support for Obama nominees to the Supreme Court, and pass the Dodd-Frank Act to hold Wall Street accountable.^[2]

Strategic Consulting Group, led by Creamer, and other progressive consultants across the country organized into a larger group practice of political consulting firms, forming Democracy Partners in 2011^[1]

Creamer spoke at the 2010 America's Future Now Conference.^[20] Creamer signed The Progressive Agenda to Combat Income Inequality, an initiative launched by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on May 12, 2015.^[21]

Bank fraud and failure to pay withholding tax convictions

On March 11, 2004, Creamer, then the former executive director of the Illinois Public Action Fund, was indicted in federal court on 16 counts of bank fraud involving three alleged check-kiting schemes in the mid-1990s, leading several banks to experience temporary shortfalls of at least $2.3 million.^[22] Though the check kiting was widely reported in 1997, the Justice Department did not seek an indictment until 7 years later.^[23] In August 2005, Creamer pleaded guilty to one count of failure to collect $1,892 in withholding tax and one count of bank fraud, for writing checks with insufficient funds. All of the money was immediately repaid from the organization's receivables. His wife, Jan Schakowsky was not accused of any wrongdoing,^[24] although she served on the organization's board during the time the crimes occurred,^[25] and signed the IRS filings along with her husband.^[26] The U.S. district judge noted that Creamer was not a typical bank fraud defendant and that he had no intention of causing a loss.^[27] He went on to note that no one suffered "out of pocket losses," and Creamer acted not out of personal greed but in an effort to keep his community action group going without cutting programs^[28], though prosecutors argued that Creamer paid his own $100,000 salary with fraudulently obtained funds.^[29] More than 200 people wrote letters of support on Creamer’s behalf, including U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Cook County Clerk David Orr, consultant David Axelrod, and Rev. Jesse Jackson.^[27]

On April 5, 2006, Creamer was sentenced to five months in prison and 11 months of house arrest.^[30] Creamer served his five-month incarceration at the Federal Correction Institute in Terre Haute, Indiana and was released on November 3, 2006.^[31]

Feud with Glenn Beck

In December 2009, conservative Fox News host Glenn Beck criticized Creamer for accompanying his wife, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, to a November 2009 state dinner at the White House (the same dinner was noted in the media for its security breaches).^[32] On his show, Beck highlighted Creamer's convictions and called Creamer's book a "prison manifesto", claiming that it had been the basis for the Affordable Care Act. Creamer later retorted that "[t]his is a man who lies about everything"^[32] and called Beck a part of a "new McCarthyist movement of the far right."^[33]

Project Veritas Action videos

In October 2016, activist James O'Keefe's Project Veritas Action released hidden-camera videos showing Creamer and others who worked for firms hired by the Hillary Clinton campaign engaging in conversations about voter registration. The videos have together garnered over 12 million views as of October 2016. One clip in the video shows Creamer meeting with an undercover activist posing as potential donor. After the actor suggests finding a way around voter registration laws, Creamer responds "my fear is that someone would decide that this is a big voter fraud scheme."^[43]

They also discussed using operatives in Donald Duck costumes to remind voters that Donald Trump had not released his tax returns, and referred to the scheme as something Clinton wanted.^[34][45] A subordinate seemingly discussed tactics for baiting supporters into violence at Trump rallies.^[7][35][36]

As a result of the video, Creamer announced he was stepping back from his firm's contract with the Democratic National Committee.^[37] Creamer's Democracy Partners released a statement on October 18, 2016:

Creamer described the contractor's statements in the video as "unprofessional and careless hypothetical conversations" and said that the schemes discussed had not taken place. Former interim democratic chairperson Donna Brazile similarly said, "We do not believe, or have any evidence to suggest, that the activities articulated in the video actually occurred."^[7]

Trump senior communications adviser Jason Miller said in a statement, "In a totally disqualifying act that is a violent threat to our democracy, Hillary Clinton directly involved herself in inciting violence directed at Trump supporters." The statement demanded an investigation into the matter.^[35]

The Clinton campaign said that Project Veritas has "been known to offering misleading video out of context."^[7] They denied that the Donald Duck costumes were Clinton's idea, stating that:

In June 2017, Creamer, and Democracy Partners filed a lawsuit against O'Keefe and his organization, Project Veritas, seeking a million dollars in damages for various violations of DC and Federal law. The case is currently pending in Federal Court in Washington, DC.^[11]

Publications

Creamer is an author and regular contributor to the Huffington Post. He wrote the book Listen to Your Mother: Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win.^[39]

Personal life

Creamer was previously married to Day Piercy.^[40] He married Jan Schakowsky in 1980.^[41] She has served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois's 9th congressional district since 1999.^[42] Schakowsky and Creamer have three children and six grandchildren. They live in Evanston, Illinois.^[43]

References

External links

• Creamer at The Huffington Post
• Strategic Consulting Group
• Democracy Partners
• {{C-SPAN|Robert Creamer}}

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