How Much Money Does Hillary Take?

[William769]

Okay, I've long repeated the New York Times' finding that Hillary Clinton was Congress's second-largest recipient of health industry money. According to Media Matters, that report was bullshit:

the number includes donations from individual health care professionals, such as nurses and doctors, and neither Thrush nor the Times noted that if only health care political action committee (PAC) donations were considered -- that is, donations from the actual health care "industry" -- Clinton drops off the list of top 25 congressional recipients of health care industry money entirely.<...>

According to an updated Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) analysis of Clinton's campaign contributions -- which includes the contributions Clinton received for the entire 2006 cycle -- if contributions from individuals who are employed in the health care sector are excluded, Clinton would not even make the list of the top 25 congressional recipients of contributions from the health care industry for the 2006 election cycle. It is only when contributions from individuals are included that Clinton jumps to second place. This information and these rankings are updated on a quarterly basis by the CRP.

http://ezraklein.typepad.com/blog/2007/09/how-much-money-.html

[Missy M]

1. Good find.....

I wonder how many will actually read this.

[William769]

2. It will probably be avoided like the plague.

[durrrty libby]

3. K for later

[wyldwolf]

4. So did Michael Moore exaggerate a little or was he unaware of these stats?

[mod mom]

5. Actually at Opensources you can search by year as well & here are HRC's results in '06:

If you go to the site, other industries can be researched as well:

HILLARY CLINTON IN 2006:

HEALTH SERVICES/HMO in 2006: 5th just above Joe Lieberman

http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.asp?Ind=H03&Cycle=2006&recipdetail=SENATE&Mem=N&sortorder=U

HEALTH PROFESSIONALS in 2006: #1

http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.asp?Ind=H03&Cycle=2006&recipdetail=SENATE&Mem=N&sortorder=U


FINANCE/INSURANCE/REAL ESTATE in 2006 : #1

http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary.asp?Ind=F&recipdetail=M&sortorder=U&Cycle=2006

HOSPITAL/NURSING HOMES in 2006: #2

http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.asp?cycle=2006&ind=H02

[William769]

6. It only gives total receipts, not the breakdown as in what I posted.

[wyldwolf]

7. it seems the big point Open Secrets misses is a lot of Doctors and nurses contributed to Clinton

[mod mom]

8. If you look under selected industries you will see NO breakout of Hospital/HMOs

Health professionals encompasses all except Pharm is broken out.

[hughee99]

9. Is getting a donation from a CEO or top executive

considered a donation from the health care "industry", or a donation from an individual health care professional?

[Adelante]

10. I don't buy this argument

Not for Hillary or anyone else. The bundler system compiles contributions from employees and executives and those are handed over in bulk representing an industry contribution, and we all know it. We have no way of knowing which employee and executive donations are part of the bulk presentation, and the FEC regs don't cover it, but the candidates certainly do know and have not had the dedication to election transparency to publish the data. Edwards' trial lawyers pool is a different example. Are legal secretaries making individual donations to the Edwards campaign independently of their workplace or are they being collected by a senior partner so Edwards knows the source and who to credit with influence? We do not know. But industry bundling is no different than PAC and lobbyist contributions, although legal and easier to disguise... unless an investigation arises, in which case, we have a scandal on our hands, and every single candidate is vulnerable. Ezra Klein is spinning a perilous situation that is an inevitable result of the bundler system, but it doesn't hold up, in my opinion.