Elizabeth Warren's PAC turns blind eye to corporate ties
A fundraising email sent out by Warren this week, touting her
1 million Facebook followers, also boasted about the $3 million she has helped to raise, through direct fundraising as well as through her PAC for a Level Playing Field, for dozens of Democratic senators up for re-election as the party desperately tries to hold on to control of the upper chamber.
But a Herald review of campaign finance records reveals that many of those senators, whose smiling headshots were featured in Warren’s announcement, netted hefty donations from lobbyists and powerful banking and corporate donors in amounts that make the checks from Warren’s PAC look like chump change. They include:
• U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who took $10,000 from Warren’s PAC. She also netted at least $8,000 from banking industry groups in the nearly $170,000 she got from lobbyists, according to Federal Election Commission data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit that tracks political
donations.
• U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), also in a contentious re-election battle. He received $10,000 from Warren’s PAC but pulled in $19,500 from banking lobbyists and PACs.
• U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.). With an especially politically bipolar set of contributions, he raked in more than $15,000 from a PAC and a lobbyist affiliated with billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch — reviled by the far left — while also scoring $10,000 from Warren’s PAC.
• U.S. Mark Udall (D-Colo.). He grabbed $1,000 from Bank of America PAC and $2,500 from JP Morgan & Chase PAC, and $5,000 from Warren’s PAC.
• Cory Booker (D-N.J.). He took $10,000 from banking PACs and $5,000 from Warren’s PAC.
The Senate candidates Warren has cozied up to not only rank among the top recipients of individual lobbyist donations — a list topped by Bay State U.S. Sen. Edward J. Markey — but many also received funds from banking interests, including the powerful American Bankers Association. The group is described by the CRP website as “one of the most powerful lobbying groups on Capitol Hill (that) regularly presses Congress for regulatory relief and industry tax breaks.”
Warren spokeswoman Lacey Rose, when asked about the apparent funding disconnect, said: “Sen. Warren believes it is critical for Democrats to maintain control of the Senate and is working hard to help make that happen.”
Political observers say the dichotomy represents the careful political game Warren and other candidates must play. For Warren, the goal is victory for her party as well as rising in leadership — not ideological consensus, despite her thundering rhetoric that has won over the ultraleft.
http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_politics/2014/08/elizabeth_warren_banks_back_same_pols
= new reply since forum marked as read
I'm honestly baffled at all the Elizabeth Warren rah-rah going on around here.
The woman who was a Republican as late as 1996 at 47 years old!
Not like she was in league with that coalition when she was naïve in her young 20s or it was the year 1963 when Republican meant a whole different coalition.
But all of a sudden she's the People's Champ on these boards.
That woman ain't no different than Hillary Clinton when you boil it all down.
And UNTIL you find someone strong enough to overshadow Hillary in 2016, Hillary's most likely going to be your nominee.
She has been running for President the entire time even when she was Secretary of State.
So if you don't want her, get a team NOW.
But please don't look to Elizabeth Warren to be your savior.
In fact, just stop looking for saviors altogether.
Obama was the last hope for that.
There ARE no People's Champs at that level of office.
Elizabeth Warren is just as corporate a candidate as Hillary Clinton is.
Corporations have ALWAYS run this country.
The original U.S. flag was the SAME exact flag as the one from the East India Company.
East India Company Flag (1707-1801)
Grand Union Flag, the original United States Flag (1775)
You don't get the keys to the driver's seat without going through the corporate checkpoint.
I realize that 100% now when before I hoped there might be a small chance to sidestep that machine.
If you want a man/woman of the people in government your best bet is in local politics.
Maybe THERE you'll have a shot. But on the national stage that simply doesn't exist.
All we're doing is picking someone who we might be able to bend our way a little better.
And even THAT'S a longshot.
Movements change the country not politicians.
Talk to Suda51. There are No More Heroes.
John Lucas
