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

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

Reposted for CindyW's thread:

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

[oasis]

1. Kerry teamed up with Wellstone for campaign finance reform. Good post.

:thumbsup:

[blm]

6. Kerry worked alot with Wellstone in the Senate.

The level people will stoop to downplay Kerry's liberal credentials and paint him as a corporatist never ceases to amaze me.

[WiseMen]

13. Baseless "special interest" story still being spread by Big Media

[Duder]

24. Re: Wellstone...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/vv/20040207/lo_laweekly/50825">The Two John Kerrys - Will we get the populist or the lord of special interests?

'John Kerry (news - web sites) is a man with two faces. Theres the fire-breathing populist whose thundering stump speeches against special interests made him Comeback Kerry, who won in Iowa and New Hampshire and became the Democrats indisputable front-runner. And then theres Corporate Kerry, who has taken more money from lobbyists in the last 15 years than any other senator, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission (news - web sites) data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) — and who has repeatedly carried water for the special interests that smothered him in campaign cash.

Comeback Kerry would also like to be known as Campaign Reform Kerry, the principal co-sponsor, with the late Paul Wellstone, of the Clean Money, Clean Elections bill that would take special-interest cash out of politics in federal elections and replace it with full public financing of campaigns. Kerry has repeatedly boasted of this on the stump — as in the January 6 debate, when he said proudly, Paul Wellstone and I together wrote the Clean Elections law. In the 106th, 107th and 108th Congresses, Kerrys name was on the bill, which has yet to become law. Then Wellstone, the Senates liberal conscience, died — and Kerry started running for president. Guess what? In the current, 108th Congress, Cautious Kerry, the decorated war hero, went AWOL, refusing to reintroduce the bill he now boasts about — leaving it with no sponsor in the Senate.'

More...

[blm]

26. That story makes baseless charges and skews the numbers to make a case

that doesn't hold up on examination.

It ignores the fact that the largest donors were his brother's coworkers who gave over a NINETEEN YEAR PERIOD. $231,000 over 19 years when Bush gets that in ONE election from ONE Pioneer.

Try some perspective for a change.

Has Dean released all his data using the exact same formula? Wouldn't an HONEST candidate and his HONEST supporters present a side by side comparison using the same figures compiled over their career?

[JasonDeter]

2. Once again Kerry tells the republicans: "Bring It On"

The republicans are in so much trouble this year. Democratic candidates get out and meet and greet the American people, bush hides behind barracades and fences and buses and gives speeches to hand picked crowds. When will the media bring that crap up?

edit: Kerry is a man of the people, bush* is a corporate pac-man.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

3. I suppose we will be told now that Public Citizen is a 'special interest'.

:eyes:

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

5. Nope

Founded by Nader in 71...no corporate funds

[blm]

8. You mean Kerry ISN'T a corporatist? But...I read on the Dean blog that....

heheheheheh.

Thanks for posting this again. A little education never hurts.

[POed_Ex_Repub]

4. This is good to see...

It makes me feel at least a little better about the guy. (I'd still rather see Dean though, fading hope as that may be)

[curse10]

7. Thanks for reposting this nsma

:-)

[XanaDUer]

9. Kick.

:kick:

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

10. kick

[adadem]

11. The truth is

nice to hear for a change.

[molly]

12. WOW - this is really TERRIFIC news!

[oasis]

14. Facts are the building blocks of our DU community.

[ShaneGR]

15. I did it find it odd the "Spec Interests" meme, he takes no PAC money

Look at GWB's PAC contributions or Howard Dean's.

[oxymoron]

16. I'd also like to thank you for this post.

It's important information that needs to get out there.

[AP]

17. Kerry is a three term senator on the two most powerful committees in the

senate. Every business in America is regulated by one of those two committees.

He doesn't need to take PAC money because he can collect checks from the individuals who run those corps. That's why he's able to raise so much money.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

18. Kerry is in the pocket of special interests -League of Conservation Voters

United Farm Workers, veterans...

[oasis]

19. The era of the Enron and Hallibuton hustlers is over.

[Dr Fate]

20. A plus for a great DEM...n/t

n/t

[BruinAlum]

21. Nice to see some factual information as opposed to a hit piece

in a Democratic forum for a change.

[markus]

22. Yes, but is he being duplicitous?

If corporations with PACs and lobbyists have a candidate they want to influence, or even just re-elect, and he won't take PAC money, its a simple matter to round up the $2,000 checks from corporate officers and have the lobbyist deliver them to the representative.

This is a *very* common practice.

They should be required to report who delivered the donation, and if received by mail, the return address on the envelope. Just cause you've figured out how to game the system doesn't make one special.

In fact, accepting bundled money is so common it's not even particularly clever.

I'm glad to have this article to provide Kerry some cover, since he is the presumptive nominee. But I'm not all starry-eyed about his record on corporate influence.

[blm]

25. Kerry can't be bought for 1000 or 2000 bucks.

And further, his LARGEST donors were his BROTHER'S coworkers at 231,000 over a NINETEEN YEAR PERIOD.

How is THAT evidence of being bought? That PROVES how ethical Kerry is if they are his largest donors. Shit, Bush gets that in ONE election cycle from ONE Pionerr.

[markus]

27. I've fought this battle before

The "can't be bought for <insert amount here>" is a weak argument to have to rely on, especially if there is a steady trickle of Did X, Got Y from Z stories.

At least in Dean's case, he can argue simply and clearly "I did X, Y, and Z to bring jobs to my state, as any other governor--Democratic or Republican-- has to do." (X=Utilities, Y=IBM and Z=Cayman Islands thing. If you look at any of them closely, they are precisely the sort of things governors are forced to do by a corrupt system of state bidding for jobs).

For members of Congress, it looks a whole lot shadier, unless the people are are giving money are big employers or movers-and-shakers in one's home state. Otheriwse, it smells. And its a hard smell to get rid of.

I'm not singly Kerry out. I'm just laying out the terrain we have to fight on. I really don't believe we can lose the "need a change/reform" issue by giving Bush the opportunity to muddy up the waters so much in no longer matters.

I just hope the Kerry people are spending a fair amount of time brainstorming on this one.

[flpoljunkie]

23. Kick to counteract media fecklessness and disinformation regarding JK

:kick:

[oasis]

28. kick