Fact Check: "Obama's Oil Spill" Oil Industry Contributions to Obama:

[amborin]

Obama's Oil Spill


Obama says he doesn't take money from oil companies. We say that's a little too slick.

In a new ad, Obama says, "I don’t take money from oil companies."
Technically, that's true, since a law that has been on the books for more than a century prohibits corporations from giving money directly to any federal candidate. But that doesn’t distinguish Obama from his rivals in the race.

We find the statement misleading:

Obama has accepted more than $213,000 from individuals who work for companies in the oil and gas industry and their spouses.
Two of Obama's bundlers are top executives at oil companies and are listed on his Web site as raising between $50,000 and $100,000 for the presidential hopeful.
Analysis.......

snip

Our problem comes with this statement:

Obama: I don’t take money from oil companies or Washington lobbyists, and I won’t let them block change anymore.
It's true that Obama doesn't take money directly from oil companies, but then, no presidential, House or Senate candidate does. They can't: Corporations have been prohibited from contributing directly to federal candidates since the Tillman Act became law in 1907.

snip

We'd say the Obama campaign is trying to create a distinction without very much of a practical difference. Political action committee funds are pooled contributions from a company's or an organization's individual employees or members; corporate lobbyists often have a big say as to where a PAC's donations go. But a PAC can give no more than $5,000 per candidate, per election. We're not sure how a $5,000 contribution from, say, Chevron's PAC would have more influence on a candidate than, for example, the $9,500 Obama has received from Chevron employees giving money individually.

In addition, two oil industry executives are bundling money for Obama – drumming up contributions from individuals and turning them over to the campaign. George Kaiser, the chairman of Oklahoma-based Kaiser-Francis Oil Co., ranks 68th on the Forbes list of world billionaires. He's listed on Obama's Web site as raising between $50,000 and $100,000 for the candidate. Robert Cavnar is president and CEO of Milagro Exploration LLC, an oil exploration and production company. He's named as a bundler in the same category as Kaiser.

snip

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/obamas_oil_spill.html

[skeptical cynic]

1. Gave you a rec, but still 0

You are violating Orthodoxy.

Unpopular truth is...well...unpopular.

[ProSense]

2. Factcheck hacks also claimed that Bush had no plans to privatize Social Security

This is BP's oil spill.

[amborin]

6. the same "hacks" that erroneously claim no new drilling exemptions since the spill?

[ProSense]

8. Even their chart is lame

[JDPriestly]

14. Here are the real charts with information.

Most of BP's corporate donations go to Republicans

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, BP is the United States' hundredth largest donor to political campaigns, having contributed more than US$5 million since 1990, 72% and 28% of which went to Republican and Democratic recipients, respectively. BP has lobbied to gain exemptions from U.S. corporate law reforms.<76> Additionally, BP paid the Podesta Group, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm, $160,000 in the first half of 2007 to manage its congressional and government relations.<77>
In February 2002 BP's chief executive, Lord Browne of Madingley, renounced the practice of corporate campaign contributions, noting: "That's why we've decided, as a global policy, that from now on we will make no political contributions from corporate funds anywhere in the world."<78>
Despite this, in 2009 BP used nearly US$16 million to lobby US Congress, breaking the company's previous record (from 2008) of US$10,4 million.<79>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP

Here is the data for the entire oil and gas industry. Republicans get most of the money from the oil & gas industry in general.


Election Cycle Rank† Total Contributions Contributions from Individuals Contributions from PACs Soft Money Contributions Donations to Democrats Donations to Republicans % to Dems % to Repubs
2010* 14 $11,572,527 $6,758,478 $4,814,049 N/A $3,434,474 $8,132,174 30% 70%
2008* 16 $35,595,537 $25,499,833 $10,095,704 N/A $8,122,865 $27,454,542 23% 77%
2006* 14 $20,364,856 $12,081,747 $8,283,109 N/A $3,624,686 $16,650,566 18% 82%
2004* 16 $26,077,264 $18,963,016 $7,114,248 N/A $5,063,900 $20,989,499 19% 80%
2002 13 $25,037,766 $8,514,319 $6,450,281 $10,073,166 $5,028,030 $19,999,841 20% 80%
2000 10 $34,323,192 $11,353,899 $6,928,043 $16,041,250 $7,054,356 $26,759,817 21% 78%
1998 8 $21,622,444 $6,342,453 $6,767,892 $8,512,099 $5,040,155 $16,501,692 23% 76%
1996 7 $26,015,197 $9,621,114 $6,539,583 $9,854,500 $5,960,180 $19,628,720 23% 75%
1994 7 $17,729,113 $6,712,122 $6,492,029 $4,524,962 $6,652,777 $11,054,891 38% 62%
1992 7 $20,581,722 $8,834,872 $6,462,523 $5,284,327 $6,907,222 $13,491,397 34% 66%
1990 8 $10,911,614 $4,829,390 $6,082,224 N/A $4,161,315 $6,749,999 38% 62%
Total 10 $249,831,232 $119,511,243 $76,029,685 $54,290,304 $61,049,960 $187,413,138 24% 75%
†These numbers show how the industry ranks in total campaign giving as compared to more than 80 other industries. Rankings are shown only for industries (such as the Automotive industry) -- not for widely encompassing "sectors" (such as Transportation) or more detailed "categories" (like car dealers).

*These figures do not include donations of "Levin" funds to state and local party committees. Levin funds were created by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.

Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics.

http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=E01

Let's keep this in perspective. Here is the list of Obama's largest donors.

This table lists the top donors to this candidate in the 2008 election cycle. The organizations themselves did not donate , rather the money came from the organization's PAC, its individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals' immediate families. Organization totals include subsidiaries and affiliates.

Because of contribution limits, organizations that bundle together many individual contributions are often among the top donors to presidential candidates. These contributions can come from the organization's members or employees (and their families). The organization may support one candidate, or hedge its bets by supporting multiple candidates. Groups with national networks of donors - like EMILY's List and Club for Growth - make for particularly big bundlers.

University of California $1,591,395
Goldman Sachs $994,795
Harvard University $854,747
Microsoft Corp $833,617
Google Inc $803,436
Citigroup Inc $701,290
JPMorgan Chase & Co $695,132
Time Warner $590,084
Sidley Austin LLP $588,598
Stanford University $586,557
National Amusements Inc $551,683
UBS AG $543,219
Wilmerhale Llp $542,618
Skadden, Arps et al $530,839
IBM Corp $528,822
Columbia University $528,302
Morgan Stanley $514,881
General Electric $499,130
US Government $494,820
Latham & Watkins $493,835

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=200...

If I happen to work for the University of California and am a far-left liberal, then my donation is attributed to the University of California. Notice how many donations came from conservative (compared to other universities and home to the Hoover Center) Stanford University. There are no oil companies on this list. A donation from say a law firm like Sidley Austin LLP can include donations from lobbyists (if Sidley Austin has lobbyists?) as well as from the firm's lowliest file clerk.

Compare the size of the donations from the oil companies to those of other large companies to Obama's campaign. The donations in your list are almost certainly personal donations from employees. Those are not the corporate donations. And University of California is not a corporation.

[JuniperLea]

20. Thanks for the full picture...

Cherry picking sucks; to make any sense of this, we needed to see the full picture.

[ZombieHorde]

11. Do you have a link for...

"Factcheck hacks also claimed that Bush had no plans to privatize Social Security"

[ProSense]

12. Here

link (scroll down)

[ZombieHorde]

17. The link in that op is dead. nt

[ProSense]

19. Kerry Falsely Claims Bush Plans To Cut Social Security Benefits

Kerry Falsely Claims Bush Plans To Cut Social Security Benefits

[ZombieHorde]

41. The link you provided says the privatized accounts is one of three possible plans.

The link mentions Bush's private account plan a couple of times.

[Lagomorph]

34. With as many government people who signed off on the drilling...

...it's not JUST BP's oil spill.

[xchrom]

3. Gee I wonder who is busy at the unrecs for

The rather unvarnished facts here?

[Beetwasher]

5. Calling This "Obama's Oil Spill" Is Idiotic And Hardly Factual

I proudly unrecced this piece of garbage.

[gateley]

4. Employees of a company -- that always seems misleading to me. I've contributed

to candidates and they ask for whom you work, what industry, and my donation looked like it came from "the biotech industry". It gets dumped into the big pot of other employees, and I really think it paints an inaccurate picture.

I think all candidates probably take money from anyone -- they have to these days -- but it doesn't mean they're beholden to them.

There are exceptions and we all know of congresspeople who are basically doing an industry's bidding, but again, I honestly feel it's not representative of "industry connections" or whatever.

[amborin]

9. often, the PAC directs where the $ go, especially for

contributions over $200

but in this case, separately, bundlers clearly directed $$$$$ from oil to O's campaign

and in any case: we excoriated Bush for this, why do our standards change now?

[KonaKane]

15. Because W's family was long tied into oil,

and his number two doodle was invested up to his boola boolas in oil. That's why oil money going to Bush was so suspect.

To my knowledge, the Obama family has no such history, link, or allegiance.

[gateley]

21. I just think it's unrealistic to think that most powerful industries and corporations

aren't going to give $$$ to candidates. In some cases it's essentially buying the candidate, but not all.

Regardless of whether it's a Republican or Democrat, someone I admire or someone I loathe, I don't automatically assume that contributions from a particular source indicate the candidate is in bed with the donor. Subsequent actions are the determining factor.

In Obama's case I hate that these exemptions have been made, and I think he trusted Salazar when he shouldn't have. What he does from this point forward will be more telling, IMO.

[Robb]

7. I'll be honest, on its face

...the $213,000 from "individuals who work for companies in the oil and gas industry and their spouses" doesn't mean anything to me.

Millions of people work for the oil and gas industry. Few of them are executives, I believe.

He raised $42 million from retired people. Is he in the pocket of AARP?

[JuniperLea]

16. Seriously...

The two biggest bosses above me are Republicans, and my donation record is polar opposite of theirs, yet all of our donations get lumped into the company.

Didn't this get debunked in a thread a week or more ago anyway?

[TwilightGardener]

10. Oh my! I am clutching my pearls and fainting RIGHT NOW!

And as soon as I wake up, I'm voting Republican! TAKE THAT, OBAMA, YOU OIL RIG WRECKER!!!!1!11

[phleshdef]

13. Thoroughly debunked for the bullshit it is weeks ago.

[JuniperLea]

18. And how much was given to Republicans?

You can't show half a picture.

[Peacetrain]

25. Here you go... Looks like they double to triple their contributions to Repubs over Democrats

http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=e01

[JuniperLea]

29. The full picture looks quite different, doesn't it?

Framing is everything;)

[Peacetrain]

30. Yep it is.. I got a real education in that today...

I will never take anything at face value again :hi:

[JuniperLea]

38. It's a hard lesson to learn...

And being cynical is a necessary evil... in politics anyway.

:hi:

[Scurrilous]

22. Article dated: March 31, 2008 (3 weeks prior to Gulf Oil Spill).

Googling 'Obama's Spill' and posting whatever garbage pops up is hard work.

:rofl:

[ProSense]

32. You're off by two years.

:rofl:

[Scurrilous]

36. LOL

Even better.

[Rex]

23. So what percentage of his total war chest came from these contributions?

Do they all add up to even 1%? I don't unrec posts, but I see this one has already been hit by the obvious.

[tammywammy]

24. So because I work for a defense company

Am I forbidden from ever donating? I mean then people will day "such and such defense company donated to Obama (or whomever)."

BTW, I have a lot of family that works at the refineries in southeast Texas, they're democrats and donate accordingly, are they not allowed to donate because it would say they work for such and such oil company?

:shrug:

[ShortnFiery]

26. Do you make Bombs, Weapons or Transports?

There's probably different corporate entities related to each. :shrug:

[tammywammy]

28. The company makes all of those

I work for one division within the company, but ultimately my donations say I work for "defense company XYZ."

[slay]

27. It's a BRIBE, not a "contribution"

republicans have controlled the language, which controls how we think about a subject, for wayyyy to long. It's time to take back the narrative for the people and away from asshole RNC strategists like Frank Luntz.

[AndyA]

33. Agreed. Accepting donations--err, bribes--compromises candidates before they take office.

Publicly funded elections are the way to go, we'll get better candidates, too, instead of the wealthy Harvard grads with trust funds and lots of (wink, wink) family "obligations."

[DefenseLawyer]

31. Does that include contributions from gas station attendants?

Look there is too much money in politics, but everybody with a job works in some field. My contributions probably get lumped in with "trial lawyers" even though I've never been a civil litigator. I just doubt that the employment field of each individual donor gets all that much attention. The soft money, the lobbying, yes, that seems like it would represent influence, but this seems less than a major deal to me. But I am prepared to admit I may be wrong.

[Bluebear]

39. Gas station attendants? What are those?

:)

[DefenseLawyer]

40. You know the guy behind the 12 inch glass.

"With power play?"

[newtothegame]

35. The election is in 2012. Why is the sitting President running ads?

:shrug:

[NutmegYankee]

37. Money from individuals means nothing. Every industry has Democrats.

Even the Oil and Defense industries have large numbers of Democrats. This means nothing.