Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Lauren Egan and Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here| Email Alex | Email Eli Two years into the Biden administration, infrastructure for another potential PETE BUTTIGIEG bid for office lies in waiting. Allies of the transportation secretary have built out a dark money group, Win the Era Action Fund, and a political action committee, Win the Era, which has endorsed a small cohort of candidates in the 2022 midterms and allowed Buttigieg to maintain a political footprint as he remains in the Biden Cabinet. The new filings, first obtained by West Wing Playbook, paint a picture of a politician publicly downplaying future ambitions — while quietly having options open. Win the Era Action Fund spent relatively little in 2021 and has mostly operated quietly as Buttigieg’s allies do not want to undermine the president. But the group’s financial documents give insight into thinking by those allies. The filings show that the group has recruited Buttigieg confidants and a major Democratic donor for leadership roles, including SWATI MYLAVARAPU, his 2020 campaign national investment chair, and NICOLE FOX, a New York investor who was matron of honor at CHELSEA CLINTON’s wedding and a Buttigieg bundler. Fox was also co-executive producer of the documentary, “Mayor Pete.” She has given tens of thousands to Democratic candidates or groups, according to data with the Federal Election Commission. Two others who served on the group's leadership in 2021 — MICHAEL HALLE and MARCUS SWITZER — are now senior advisors to Buttigieg at the Department of Transportation. Both left Win the Era Action Fund in 2022 and 2021 respectively. MAX NUNES, a former campaign official now running Win the Era, did not offer details when asked numerous questions, including those about the group’s endorsement plans, the future of Win the Era leading up to 2024, and Fox and Mylavarupu’s roles. Political action committees and dark money groups can serve as outlets for aspiring politicians to raise funds, bring on staff, and do the grunt work that usually precedes a future campaign. They can also keep a former candidate in the game as he or she temporarily leaves the world of electoral politics although a person close to the PAC noted Buttigieg would have to buy Win the Era’s list back if he wanted to use it for a future campaign. The Win the Era PAC is effectively what remained of Buttigieg’s 2020 campaign, when his principal campaign committee was converted to the political action committee. It allowed to group to keep leftover funds along with campaign infrastructure. In 2021, Win the Era Action Fund, the dark money group, transferred nearly $185,000 to its PAC, which had made up the bulk of the funds raised since Buttigieg became secretary of the Transportation Department. As of late November 2022, the PAC has about $1.6 million on hand. The dark money group, registered as a 501(c)(4), was relatively dormant during 2021, after Buttigieg joined the Biden Cabinet. It reported raising $61,654 (which includes a $50,000 contribution received in 2020 but not cashed until 2021) and spending just over $177,000. Despite this behind-the-scenes work — and Buttigieg’s new home in Michigan being more hospitable politically than his native Indiana — people close to Buttigieg say he’s in no hurry to run for office again, especially with two small children at home. The PAC’s public political activities this past year have been sporadic. It announced in June it would be a player in the 2022 cycle and started off with six endorsements of congressional, gubernatorial, and statehouse Democrats. But then the PAC largely laid low throughout the year before publicly announcing support for 29 candidates in the final two weeks before the November election. Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender state senator in U.S. history, was one of the 29 but ran unopposed, as did two others. The final flurry of endorsements did not include any federal or gubernatorial candidates, and instead focused on lower-profile races like the Texas Railroad Commission (critical to the state’s gas and oil industry and therefore the country’s) and the board of commissioners in Johnson County, Kan. But the politicking is a way to maintain Buttigieg’s campaign email list — one of the most valuable digital assets for a candidate. An average Win the Era fundraising email sent before the midterms could net mid-five figures, a person familiar with the group’s operation said, which the candidates split. “We try not to treat the email list as an ATM machine,” a person familiar with the group’s operations said. But for some candidates that ended up being a paltry sum. One statewide candidate among the last batch of endorsements said Win The Era’s fundraising email only brought in about $500. MESSAGE US — Are you MICHAEL HALLE? We want to hear from you! And we’ll keep you anonymous. Email us at westwingtips@politico.com.
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