On Monday, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), launched a new website, SFOFExposed.org, to expose republican treasurers, auditors, and financial officers in 28 states have been weaponized by dark money groups and right-wing operatives under the umbrella of the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF) to help manufacture a crisis around the consideration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in business and investing practices. SFOF has emerged on the political scene in recent years as a key player in expanding efforts to use the power of state governments to blacklist companies that include ESG factors in their private business decision making. Since 2020, more than 200 bills have been introduced in 32 states to attack ESG, such as blocking public pension funds from investing in and withholding public contracts from firms that take into consideration climate risks, diversity, gun safety, and other social justice issues when making business decisions. Features of the new SFOF Exposed site include: - profile pages on state treasurers, auditors, and financial officers who are members of the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF)
- profile pages on right-wing operatives, groups, and funders coordinating with SFOF members.
- state pages detailing local SFOF members, groups, operatives, lobbyists, and anti-ESG bills and laws
- a document library with hundreds of emails, campaign filings, presentations, speeches, and other files that shed light on the SFOF network obtained by CMD through dozens of records requests and other means
- a news page tracking the latest news stories on SFOF activities
CMD’s research team will continually update the site as additional information is uncovered and will add a relationship map soon. Here’s the latest on other recent CMD investigations you may have missed: |
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