Lobbyist Money

[Stop Cornyn]

Here's a link for how much each candidate has received from lobbyists:

Hillary Clinton - $567,950
Christopher J. Dodd - $233,875
Bill Richardson - $134,950
Joseph R. Biden Jr. - $114,460
Barack Obama - $76,859
John Edwards - $18,900

You can compare that against how much the candidates have raised:

Biden - $8,215,739 ($1,886,340 cash on hand)
Clinton - $90,935,788 ($50,463,013 cash on hand)
Dodd - $13,598,152 ($3,874,874 cash on hand)
Edwards - $30,329,152 ($12,397,048 cash on hand)
Gravel - $379,795 ($17,527 cash on hand)
Kucinich - $2,130,200 ($327,094 cash on hand)
Obama - $80,256,427 ($36,087,191 cash on hand)
Richardson - $18,699,937 ($5,821,588 cash on hand)

While Clinton has the most lobbyist money, Dodd and then Biden have the highest percentage of money from lobbyists.

[Tejanocrat]

1. Based on this, may I assume that Kucinich has accepted no money from lobbyists?

[1corona4u]

2. Who in their

right fucking mind would give him money, LOL...hey, he might take it with him, when he leaves on his spaceship, LOL...

[ihavenobias]

5. Come on now

I'd totally vote for him *if* I thought he could win in our corrupt system. He's brilliantly progressive!

Unfortunately as I've said before, until we have publicly funded elections we'll continue to have to choose between (relatively) corporate candidates (apparently great chance of winning), semi-progressive/newly progressive candidates (decent chance of winning) or fully progressive candidates (awful chance of winning sadly).

At any rate, cheap shots about flying saucers isn't the way to criticize him and doesn't provide for any constructive discussion or debate.

[1corona4u]

8. I'm not looking for

constructive discussion or debate. I just wanted to post my opinion of him. No discourse necessary.

[Tejanocrat]

21. Kucinich's lack of funding says more about our system than it says about Dennis.

[1corona4u]

24. Yeah, it says he's a freak...

I'm not sure how he ever got elected, after the clusterfuck in Cleveland...who drugged the people who voted him in? Did he send out a bag of pot, and have everyone smoke it, then go vote?? He is a hippy, isn't he?

[Tejanocrat]

26. Until now, I thought you were serious. "He is a hippy, isn't he?" LOL! "Did he send out a bag of pot

and have everyone smoke it, then go vote?"

You are HILARIOUS

[1corona4u]

4. Ohhhh...Kooch is getting pretty low on funds...

327K left....that ought to last another couple of weeks, LOL..hey, you guys better belly up to the cash can, LOL...

[Tejanocrat]

20. If you judge a candidate by how much her or she has raised, Kucinich is not your man.

[1corona4u]

23. If he claims to see spaceships....

he's not my man...interesting though that he has pointy ears...hmm...

[PatSeg]

33. Kucinich is a decent man

He is not my choice for the nomination, but I do have respect for him as a public servant.

[robinlynne]

32. Kucinich and Edwards!!!!

[ihavenobias]

3. That pretty much sums it up

thank you!

Some day soon we'll hopefully have publicly funded elections making this sort of information useless. Until then, the choice (balancing special interest influence with the ability to win) is clear, to me at least.

[1corona4u]

6. Which is exactly what Joe Biden promised to do,

if he were elected. He knows he can get it done too. Bipartisan support and all that....probably the only one that has that kind of support.

[onenote]

7. I'm a lobbyist. Does that make my money dirty?

I've given quite a bit of money to Democratic candidates over the years. I guess I'm supposed to stop now?

[1corona4u]

9. No, silly....

you're just suppose to give it to DK...he's the best, ya know?

[ihavenobias]

10. Difference

There's a big difference between private individuals giving money vs huge amounts of money (directly or indirectly through ads) from powerful industries (Big Oil, Big Pharma, Defense, Insurance, etc.) that put profit over the best interest of most Americans (that's not always the case but I believe it's true generally speaking).

It's all about publicly funded elections, or at least it should be.

[1corona4u]

11. Agreed...

we do need public financing. Too bad it doesn't exist now. It'd be a whole nother game right now...

[onenote]

13. I know, but it seems a number of people don't get that difference

I see lists of "lobbyist endorsements" and negative comments. But these are individuals who happen to be lobbyists. And I guarantee you -- absolute guarantee -- that I can find the names of registered lobbyists on the lists of contributors to Edwards and Obama despite their "no lobbyist" contribution pledge.

Its all rather silly. So Edwards eschews lobbying money. PResumably he won't take a contribution from the American Trial Lawyers Association. But he gets gobs of money from individual trial lawyers -- folks who are associated with big trial lawyer firms like the Cochran Firm or Jack Olender. It doesn't bother me, but I find the claims that some candidates are pure and others arent' based on who contributes to their campaigns to be quite silly.

[ihavenobias]

19. Still

It goes back to my point (and other post, the one with "nuance" in the title" of who's money scares you more?

What scares you about money coming form lawyers? More questionable lawsuits, higher medical expenses (which actually has very little to do with malpractice lawsuits overall), what? I'm not saying there is NOTHING to question, but where are your priorities?

Compare that to a candidate (who shall remain nameless) taking gobs and gobs of money from the defense industry, the healthcare industry, the telecom industry, etc.

[Tejanocrat]

22. Are we talking about your individual contributions or the contributions from special interest PACs?

[1corona4u]

25. DK got a lot of his lobby money

from the TV/Movie industry. Perhaps he will star in the remake of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". Shirley can be his leading lady...

[Stop Cornyn]

27. I'm not sure I understand what you're saying.

[onenote]

29. I don't give to PACs. I give personally.

As do many lobbyists that I know.

[OhioChick]

12. Looks Like if HRC Wins.....

She'll owe a lot of favors.

[onenote]

14. and if someone else wins, they won't owe anyone any favors?

Just different people. That's all.

[OhioChick]

16. " and if someone else wins, they won't owe anyone any favors?"

It appears......not as many.

[onenote]

30. Whichever candidate gets the nomination will get support from a lot of those same contributors

And I think that's a good thing since I want the Democrat to be getting the money needed to win.

[ihavenobias]

17. A little more nuance

It's a matter of *how much* special interest money and also, *who* you owe. That will go a long way toward determining the frequency and or importance/influence of those favors.

For example, considering our current situation WRT Iraq/Iran (etc.), loads of money from the defense industry really scares me. Same deal with the dire need to overhaul health care and loads of money from the health care industry.

So again, it's a matter of degree. Some people are much further to one side of the spectrum.

[OhioChick]

18. Well Said.

:thumbsup:

[ihavenobias]

15. Of course she won't silly

according to a few of her supporters here, she is somehow immune to enormous amounts of special interest money (unlike every other politician in history).

Also, it doesn't count because according to her supporters, ALL of the other candidates would take exactly the same amount of money from exactly the same questionable sources *if* they were the front runner.

In other words, it's ok for Hillary to have taken that insane amount of money because when you're the front runner everyone wants to throw money at you (so you should take it).

And here I thought taking large amounts of money from Big Business was something historically done by republicans?

[cuke]

28. How much money did they get from lobbyists wives?

I don't see those figures listed

[robinlynne]

31. whoops, I posted a similar link, but with a different analysis....

[asdjrocky]

35. See what I mean?

You have a list. They have a list. It's enough to drive you nuts. Next thing you know you're asking crazy questions like, how much did the dogs of the lobbyist give?

Was the bear pushed?

[Czolgosz]

36. This is good information to bookmark

[ihavenobias]

37. Very much so

Amazing that this only got 6 recs!

[asdjrocky]

34. And what about the dogs?

How much did the dogs give? Don't even get me started on the cats.