Chamber ad buys in Senate race raise questions on foreign money (Florida)

[seafan]

Source: Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Two $1 million ad buys by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce attacking Gov. Charlie Crist could draw the Florida Senate race into a national controversy brewing over allegations that the Chamber is skirting laws against using money from foreign sources in U.S. political campaigns. ..... The Chamber has made news with heavy political spending this year, aiming at a goal of spending some $75 million nationwide, according to the Associated Press. The Chamber's assistance goes almost exclusively to Republicans.

.....

ThinkProgress blog reported that the Chamber "has become very aggressive with its fundraising" recently through foreign affiliates that recruit foreign corporations as members, along with America companies doing business overseas.
Dues paid by those companies, often thousands of dollars per year per member company, flow back to the Chamber and into the same accounts used to fund "electioneering communications," of the kind the Chamber is using in the Florida race, the blog reported.

It said the Chamber uses political influence in the U.S. as a recruiting tool to lure foreign members, saying it can influence policy that affects trade and overseas investment.
It quoted the web site of the Chamber's affiliate in India, the U.S.-India Business Council, saying the Council "can play a helpful role in guiding U.S. companies to India, while supporting various policy initiatives that will enhance India's reputation as a major manufacturing and investment hub."

.....

Until recently, Crist led Republican Marco Rubio in available campaign cash, but Rubio just announced he raised $5 million in the third quarter of 2010, and had $5.5 million in cash on hand as of Sept. 30.

Read more: http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/oct/08/chamber-ad-buys-in-florida-senate-race-raise-quest/news-breaking/

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And here is Marco Rubio, grabbing at that US Chamber of Commerce cash with both hands.



Rubio campaign raises $5 million in 3rd quarter


October 6, 2010

TALLAHASSEE - Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio will report raising more than $5 million in the quarter ending Sept. 30.

The amount exceeds a record $4.5 million Rubio raised in the previous quarter for the most money raised in any three-month period of a U.S. Senate race in Florida. He now has raised $16 million and has $5.5 available in his campaign account.

.....

This is a vicious attack on our democracy by the US Chamber of Commerce, aided and abetted by right-wing accomplices sitting on the Supreme Court via the Citizens United ruling.

Talk about *activist judges*. Bush v Gore. Citizens United.

Impeachment of certain members of the Supreme Court should be on the table.

[SpiralHawk]

1. Republicons sold out long ago to the highest foreign bidder

Why do Republicons hate America and Americans?

Why are republicons so eager to grab foreign cashmoneybucks to undermine the American electoral process?

[catgirl]

2. Glad the media is picking this up! n/t

[tomm2thumbs]

3. US Chamber of Commerce = FoxNews With A Checkbook /nt

[Historic NY]

4. Buying the VOTE!!! The GOP has through their surrogates sold this country to the highest bidder.

[catgirl]

5. Yup

[seafan]

6. US Chamber of Commerce screaming like stuck pigs.

How dare we point out their corruption!

TAMPA - Two $1 million ad buys by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce attacking Gov. Charlie Crist could draw the Florida Senate race into a national controversy brewing over allegations that the Chamber is skirting laws against using money from foreign sources in U.S. political campaigns.

The accusations originated last week on a blog called ThinkProgress, associated with liberal political causes and figures.

The Chamber has vehemently denied using foreign money for political expenditures.

.....

The Chamber reacted sharply to the blog report, posted Tuesday.

"These accusations by a George Soros-funded, anti-business blog (not a 'report,' as some in the media are saying) are unfounded, deceitful and completely erroneous," said a statement issued by Tita Freeman, the Chamber's vice president of communications.

"They are a desperate attempt to silence those who support free enterprise and a diversion from the lack of progress on job creation."

Freeman said the Chamber's overseas affiliates are "independent organizations, created to represent American companies in overseas markets, and they do not fund U.S. Chamber political programs. ... Under our budgeting system, the nominal funds we receive from are used to support our international programs."

"ThinkProgress is part of the political arm of the Center for American Progress, a think tank headed by former Clinton White House Chief of Staff John Podesta and including such prominent Democrats as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Carol Browner, a Miamian who served as Florida Department of Environmental Protection secretary and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator.



Federal Elections Commission spokeswoman Mary Brandenberg said it is illegal "for a foreign national, directly or indirectly, to make an expenditure, independent expenditure or disbursement for an electioneering communication."

.....

For household expenses, home remodeling, car repairs, groceries, family reunions and haircuts, Marco Rubio gets by with the GOP American Express Card. And Karl Rove.



For everything else, there's the US Chamber of Commerce.

[annabanana]

8. 'Not stuck enough yet!"!

says I

[seafan]

7. FOR (Friends of Rubio) face legal questions

FOR (Friends of Rubio) face legal questions


Beth Reinhard reports:

October 8, 2010

Republican Senate candidate Marco Rubio is getting a major financial boost from outside groups facing questions about how they raise and report their donations.

One so-called "super-PAC" co-founded by GOP gurus Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, American Crossroads, can raise and spend unlimited amounts of cash, thanks to a controversial Supreme Court ruling that opened the door to corporations funneling donations directly to campaigns. Two campaign finance watchdog groups have asked the IRS to investigate the non-profit arm of American Crossroads, Crossroads GPS, which does not have to disclose its donors at all.

American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS have spent about $650,000 on pro-Rubio mailings and TV ads in recent days and millions more around the country.

"In our view, Crossroads GPS is a classic example of a 501(c)(4) organization that is impermissibly using its tax status to spend tens of millions of dollars in the 2010 congressional races while hiding the donors funding these expenditures from the American people," Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer said in a letter to the IRS reported by The Hill. "The IRS cannot sit idly by and ignore what is going on without enormous damaging consequences to the interests of the American people and to the integrity and credibility of the tax laws."

.....

Meanwhile, look at what's going down today:


US Chamber of Commerce Avoids Questions About Foreign Funding, Hosts Event With Its Foreign Bank Members on October 8

(Today) the U.S. Chamber of Commerce plans to hold a reception for the Bahrain Banks Association, a trade group for banks operating in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The Bahrain Minister of Finance, Central Bank, and Bahrain Ambassador will be attending, and the event listing invites “banks and investment firms” to attend.

The Bahrain Banks Association includes many foreign investment firms that, as ThinkProgress reported this week, have been sending funds to the Chamber. The funds are deposited in the same 501(c)(6) account that the Chamber is using to run an unprecedented $75 million dollar attack campaign, mostly against Democrats like Jack Conway in Kentucky and Robin Carnahan in Missouri. ThinkProgress has documented at least $300,000 in foreign money to the Chamber from two countries alone. Below are a list of Bahrain Bank Association members which the Chamber has indicated are dues-paying members:

– Bahrain Financial Harbour Holding Company (based in Bahrain)
– ICICI Bank (based in India)
– TAIB Bank (based in Bahrain)
– State Bank of India (state-owned and based in India)

The event occurs as the Chamber continues to refuse to answer simple questions about the legality of its fundraising operation for its political attack campaign.

.....

Who is going to step in to stop this flow of foreign money into our elections?