Public Citizen slams WP on Kerry story (calls it "inaccurate, arbitrary")

[DJcairo]

Feb. 3, 2004

Kerry Ranks Near Bottom in Senate on Money From PACs and Lobbyists

Statement from Nick Nyhart, Executive Director of Public Campaign Action Fund; Chellie Pingree, President of Common Cause; and Joan Claybrook, President of Public Citizen

According to a Jan. 31 Washington Post story, presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is beholden to the very special interests he says he will dismiss from the White House if elected. The Post based its erroneous conclusion on an analysis of the money Kerry has raised from lobbyists while he was a senator.

But the Post paints an inaccurate picture using an arbitrary statistic. A more accurate indicator of whether a candidate has ties to special interests is whether that candidate receives political action committee (PAC) as well as lobbyist money, and if so, how much. An analysis of PAC and lobbying contributions combined shows Kerry is near the bottom in receiving such funds when PAC money is averaged from 1993 through the present and lobbyist money is averaged from 1990 through present. Further, the lobbyist money that Kerry has taken in the presidential campaign is less than 1 percent of his total money raised.

Not only has Kerry historically refused to take PAC money, but his record shows that he been a leader for more than a decade in full reform of campaign financing, advocating for clean public money not only for presidential but also congressional campaigns.

Kerry was the lead sponsor with the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) on a measure that would have authorized clean money in all federal congressional elections and was a leader in pressing for congressional public financing in the 1992 and 1993 campaign finance reform bills. Although those bills passed, they were not enacted.

Other Democratic presidential candidates such as former Gov. Howard Dean and Sen. John Edwards also have endorsed campaign finance reform. Dean has endorsed public financing and reform of the presidential public funding system. Edwards played a leadership role in the effort to pass the McCain-Feingold bill and has endorsed reform of the presidential public funding system. President Bush has not endorsed either.

http://www.publiccitizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1639

[DJcairo]

1. kick

people should read this....it knocks down all those old stories

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. I get it.

Lobbyist's money is OK as long as it's not combined with PAC money. Thanks for clearing that up.

[blm]

5. Has Dean supplied the breakdown of all his career donations using the same

formula?

Wouldn't an HONEST politician who was using it as an issue provide his own data in the same manner to show how he compares with his opponent?

Seems to me an HONEST politician would and a demagogue would not.

[molly]

6. Dean's are secret - sealed away - SHHHH

but that's OK because the rules are different for Dean. :shrug:

[WiseMen]

21. Any news on sealed documents?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

26. "We didn't want anything embarrassing appearing in the papers"

In the course of negotiating an unprecedented 10-year period for keeping his official papers confidential, former Vermont governor Howard Dean through his legal counsel explored the possibility of making the privacy period contingent on whether he was running for president, according to newly released documents.

Discussions between the counsel and the state archivist about a potentially longer sealing period centered around the possibility that a future political opponent of Dean's might seize on a document and use it as ammunition, according to the correspondence.

State archivist Gregory Sanford noted that in the talks a primary concern was "the `Willie Horton' example," referring to the furloughed Massachusetts prisoner whose crimes surfaced as an issue in the 1988 contest between Vice President George H.W. Bush and Michael S. Dukakis.

A seal longer than 10 years would have significantly eclipsed periods sought by previous Vermont governors, who traditionally received six-year seals for their official papers.

Dean, who left the governor's office in January 2003 and is now seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, agreed in the end to a decade-long seal -- with no extension -- for nearly half of his official correspondence, meaning the documents will be available for public viewing in 2013. Shortly before he left office, Dean told Vermont Public Radio, "Well, there are future political considerations. We didn't want anything embarrassing appearing in the papers at a critical time in any future endeavor."

In an interview with the Globe in July, he said in response to a request that he waive the seal, "No, it's sealed for a reason."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/10/09/dean_feared_a_horton_scenario

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

8. Dunno.

:shrug:


Was the article about Dean?

[Cocoa]

3. thanks for this

I knew when this story broke that there was more to it.

[blm]

7. Once the spinning stops, the stories usually

turn out to be no there there.

Just like the original spinner.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. Except for when it's not Kerry.

Right?

[blm]

12. Well, sorry your guy spun himself into oblivion....

but you can't have a presidential campaign built on hot air. Not Dems. Dems have to be solid with solid records that match their rhetoric.

[spooky3]

4. Thank you. This is great.

[Octafish]

10. Question is: "Is there a quid pro quo?"

For Kerry, the answer is "No."

How do I know? I've looked at his record.

His record in the Senate shows Kerry sides, at least 95 percent of the time, with the "We" as in "We the People." He votes against the corporations and the BFEE, time and time again.

[MaineDem]

11. This deserves a kick

:kick:

[flpoljunkie]

13. Will the Washington Post and NYTimes correct their erroneous conclusions?

They completely ignored presidential campaign fundraising, focusing on John Kerry's entire Senate career, in order to write this misleading story to damage John Kerry.

Shame on their lack of journalistic integrity.

[blm]

15. Will Dean and his supporters acknowledge the truth?

Or will they put up Dean's data using the exact same formula used against Kerry?

Wouldn't an HONEST opponent put his record up side by side and compare or would he just demagogue the issue?

[WiseMen]

29. I suspect this story was feed to the media. Phony analysis tells

[xray s]

14. WOW! Public Citizen coming to Kerry's rescue!

next thing you know, Raplh Nader will be endorsing him! ;)

[Raya]

16. Original Post article likely was PLANTED. The whole approach

to analysing fundraising was obviously bogus. Someone must have
pushed the story without any vetting of the methods that were
used to come up with the conclusions.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

27. Just an attempt to stir stuff up

[QuidditchFan]

17. Do NOT ask the Washington Post to retract...

Fold this up, put it in your back right pocket, and lay a trap for the repuke attack machine. The more time they can spend on an issue that we have trumped, the better...

[CalProf]

18. Very Helpful Post

Thanks.

[WiseMen]

19. Hope This puts and end to bogus "special interest" posts here

[The Magistrate]

20. It Will Not, Sir

But it will help in discerning between honest opponents and smear artists....

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[blm]

22. We won't let the "smear artists" win. Not this time. Never again.

.

[MoonRiver]

23. These smear campaigns against our candidates must stop!

Keep it kicked. :kick:

[Duder]

24. Kerry...Robert Crowe...Enron...

...connect the dots.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

25. Dean...Steve Grossman...Ariel Sharon

...connect the dots

[blm]

28. Dean....Entergy...BFEE Koch brothers....

be glad he's not the nominee, because the Koch brothers would have given Rove copies of EVERY document on that Entergy deal.