At times, Tallahassee feels more like a small town than a city, and never more so than during an election sea- son, such as the one recently concluded. Campaign signs dotted the yards of Tallahassee with the familiar faces of city commission candidates—more than faces, these people are friends and neighbors. Folks like Curtis Richardson, who has served on the Leon County School Board, FSU graduate Jack Porter, and Dot Inman-Johnson, who has lived in Tallahassee for over 50 years. So, how did it come to be that one of the most influential forces in our local election was a group headquartered 2,000 miles from Tallahassee? Michael Kieschnick, founder of the Green Advocacy Project, knows his way around San Francisco’s political power circles. He worked for Governor Jerry Brown in the 80s, and he knows billionaire Tom Steyer and his wife well. He made his fortune with CREDO Mobile, a cell phone network provider and became a huge fundraiser of progressive causes. One of those progressive causes is the rapid transition of the power grid to renewable energy. The Green Advocacy Project has given $150,000 dollars to the One Tallahassee PAC. Kieschnick himself even donated $25,000 to the cause. This PAC was created by City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow to fund Dot Inman-Johnson’s campaign. B But why Tallahassee? Throughout the country, coastal progressive groups are seeking to export their ideologies. In 2004, the Democracy Alliance was founded by George Soros and other progressive donors in response to George W. Bush winning the Presidential election, an event one Democrat consultant called “our Pearl Harbor.” Rob Stein, one of the Democracy Alliance’s founders, explained that progressive change requires government control, and government control requires a certain infrastructure. The purpose of the Democracy Alliance is to fund the construction of that infrastructure. Kieschnick has been a member since the beginning. In 2018, the alliance hosted a talk titled “Prosecutor Races—Winning Big in 2018?” The Real Justice PAC, an initiative Kieschnick helped found with Black Lives Matter founder Shaun King, acknowledges prosecutors as some of the “most powerful” local officials and lays out strategies to win those elections. Also, Kieschnick co-founded the Secretary of State Project, an organization that funds secretaries of state’s campaigns in battleground states. “We’re tired of Republican manipulation of elections,” said Kieschnick. Back in Tallahassee, Kieschnick seems to be engaging in his own election manipulation. Through his One Tallahassee PAC, Commissioner Matlow chose to support Jack Porter and Dot Inman-Johnson, and he did so mainly through Kieschnick’s donations, not the small dollar donations he promised. The Green Advocacy Project funds campaigns across the country that are working to transition towards renewable energy. Local progressives have made the transition to green energy a campaign issue. Currently, 95% of the electricity produced in Tallahassee comes from natural gas sources, and Florida relies on natural gas for 75% of its electricity. A quick transition to renewable energy is not a simple endeavor. Commissioner Jeremy Matlow and his aide Ryan Ray are the leaders of the progressive movement in Leon County and are in control of the Democrat party apparatus. Their messaging has been consistent with national progressives like Kieschnick, who has a history of latching onto local officials who can become pawns in the effort to orchestrate political change. For residents of Tallahassee, local elections should be local affairs. Figures like Kieschnick give extensively to win elections and instill an ideology. However, issues like the transition to renewable energy impact people in Tallahassee, not dark money billionaires who live in California.