Posts tagged campaign contributions
Holding Politicians Accountable
If political donations are any sign (and they probably are!), Amgen is working hard to keep its new government handout that was included in the fiscal cliff legislation firmly in place. In February, the company’s PAC donated $15,000 each to the four Congressional fundraising committees - the DSCC, NRSC, DCCC, and NRCC:
Do you have $60,000 to butter up lawmakers?
The Center for Public Integrity reports on “The Army Tank that could not be stopped” and how “Corporate cash and adroit lobbying have helped crush the Army’s effort to stop work on its premier tank.” From the story:
So far, the contractor is winning the battle, after a well-organized campaign of lobbying and political donations involving the lawmakers who sit on four key committees that will decide the tank’s fate, according to an analysis of spending and lobbying records by the Center for Public Integrity.
“Sharp spikes in the company’s donations — including a two-week period in 2011 when its employees and political action committee sent the lawmakers checks for their campaigns totaling nearly $50,000 — roughly coincided with five legislative milestones for the Abrams, including committee hearings and votes and the defense bill’s final passage last year.”
Are nuclear weapons contractors’ millions in campaign contributions buying favors?
Employees of private companies that produce the main pieces of the U.S. nuclear arsenal have invested more than $18 million in the election campaigns of lawmakers that oversee related federal spending, and the companies also employ more than 95 former members of Congress or Capitol Hill staff to lobby for government funding, according to a new report.
The Center for International Policy, a nonprofit group that supports the “demilitarization” of U.S. foreign policy, released the report on Wednesday to highlight what it described as the heavy influence of campaign donations and pork barrel politics on a part of the defense budget not usually associated with large profits or contractor power: nuclear arms.
Senators Rewarded For Oil Subsidies Vote - Public Campaign blog
“Members of Congress have taken almost $16 million from the oil, gas and coal industries so far in this 112th Congress. That puts this Congress on track to be the dirtiest ever.” (Via Oil Change International)
Sports teams get in the political game
Mitt Romney faced some, well, laughter, for saying he has friends who own NASCAR teams and football teams. Today, Jonathan Salant at Bloomberg looks at another sport—baseball—and the owners, coaches, and players ponying up:
It’s New York versus Boston, players against owners and older athletes facing younger ones, all taking sides in the presidential contest between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.
Yankees executives are backing Romney, and so are those of the New York Jets. Owners of the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots in Massachusetts are shunning their former governor and favoring the president.
“We’re just going to have to wait until October, November and February to see who the champions are,” said Tobe Berkovitz, a communications professor at Boston University, pointing to the World Series, Election Day and Super Bowl.
Meanwhile, more of the players and coaches are lining up behind Obama, while front-office executives lean toward Romney.
And why do rich corporations and individuals seek to influence elections? To buy the tax, spending and regulatory policies they want.
