WellPoint, AT&T, Altria Try to Sway State Elections as Redistricting Looms

[Bozita]

Source: Bloomberg

WellPoint, AT&T, Altria Try to Sway State Elections as Redistricting Looms
By Jonathan D. Salant - Sep 30, 2010 12:00 AM ET


WellPoint Inc. has given $842,000 to a group backing Republicans running for statewide offices this year, almost as much as the company has donated to candidates in U.S. congressional elections.

The contributions by the nation’s largest health insurer underline the attention that companies are giving to state races, even as those campaigns are overshadowed by federal elections that will determine which party controls Congress.

WellPoint, AT&T Inc. and Altria Group Inc. are among those that have helped Republican committees raise more money for state elections than their Democratic counterparts. At stake is the makeup of legislatures that will redraw congressional districts next year and decide on issues such as whether to chip away at the nation’s new health-care law.

“The election this time has a more important impact” than in past years, said Paul Smith, a congressional redistricting expert with the law firm of Jenner & Block LLP in Washington. “And it will be multiplied over future elections” as redistricting is used by the majority party to redraw the electoral map to increase its chances of winning seats.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-30/wellpoint-at-t-altria-step-up-donations-to-sway-state-races.html

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. What is truly amazing is how cheaply our government can be bought

842,000 is chump change for WellPoint. You can be sure that the 842,000 will translate into a few hundred arbitrary decisions to deny coverage to customers.

[SkyDaddy7]

3. 842K is roughly the total in medical cost...

My Union Insurance paid when my wife was in a near fatal automobile wreck in 1997...Of course, our part was over 80K & we had to file bankruptcy.

So, yeah they will cancel a few Cancer Patients & actually make a profit!

[fascisthunter]

2. blue collar republicans love being controlled by masters/corporations

bunch of pathetic suck-ups.

[IScreamSundays]

4. there needs to be reform

but there will never be. I have decided to quit voting. The system is so rigged. Heartbreaking.

[grilled onions]

5. There Ought To Be A Law

It is beyond frustrating to see that we do not count. The $$$ do. There is a huge brick wall and until the entire population sees the folly of a corporate America it cannot change and we will have little control of how its' run. Whatever the MASTERS want will be. They may pat us on our peaked little heads or kick us in the behind but when it comes down to the wire they run the election,they bought the election, they rigged the election and all its' sponsors and propaganda mongers will be on the sidelines cheering them on. This was not what I read in MY history books of how to run a country however things took an awful turn somewhere down the line.

[ProudDad]

6. There is...

It's called "Citizens United" and it says that corporations are "people"...

If you want to compete with them, raise your own Billion$ to fight them...

You know who I blame more than anyone? Rich fucks like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet for pasting small band-aids on the symptoms while allowing the corporate beast to buy the media and elections and congresscritters and local and state governments.

A few billion from those two for a new, rational media empire would go a HELL of a lot further than their feeble attempts to "aid hunger" or to "improve education" (charter schools :puke: )

Ralph Nader had it right...

Unless corporate "personhood" is outlawed, "Only the SuperRich Can Save Us"
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Only-the-Superrich-Can-Save-Us/Ralph-Nader/e/9781583229033

[brentspeak]

7. Movetoamend.org

http://movetoamend.org/