Media still trying to cover for the Chamber of Commerce

[ProSense]

Democrats have raised $1 million from foreign-affiliated PACs

By Michael O'Brien and Hayleigh Colombo

Democratic leaders in the House and Senate criticizing GOP groups for allegedly funneling foreign money into campaign ads have seen their party raise more than $1 million from political action committees affiliated with foreign companies.

House and Senate Democrats have received approximately $1.02 million this cycle from such PACs, according to an analysis compiled for The Hill by the Center for Responsive Politics. House and Senate GOP leaders have taken almost $510,000 from PACs on the same list.

The PACS are funded entirely by contributions from U.S. employees of subsidiaries of foreign companies. All of the contributions are made public under Federal Elections Commission rules, and the PACs affiliated with the subsidiaries of foreign corporations are governed by the same rules that American firms' PACs or other PACs would face.

"This is not foreign money per-se, but these PACs are certainly populated by people who work for foreign companies," said Dave Levinthal, a spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics.

<...>

“Barack Obama criticized the Supreme Court and his adversaries over the bogus charge of foreign money tainting elections – while leaders in his own party had taken more than a million dollars from the foreign cookie jar,” said Jonathan Collegio, a spokesman for American Crossroads, the political group at the center of the controversy.

“The hypocrisy here is just stunning,” he said.

more

An American working for Sony is not a foreign contributor. This is another attempt by the media to confuse the issue with a bogus headline. Note, The Hill (which did the analysis) isn't calling for disclosure, its attempting to create the perception that Dems do it too.

Three additional points:

1) The DNC does not accept PAC money

2) Individual Democrats make the decision to accept PAC donations.

3) PACs are required by law to fully disclose their donors.

Still, they're complaining about $1.2 million from U.S. employees?

The Chamber of Commerce spent at least $9.8 million to run fully 4,706 ads in just one week, meaning it eclipsed Americans for Prosperity (another apparent dropout from the big-money class). The Chamber reported even more spending ($10.7 million) to the FEC, but $949,886 of that spending appeared to be double-reported. Either way, the business lobby dropped a CEO's salary to influence our elections in just a few days. Makes you wonder what they're expecting in return.

link

Edited for clarity.

[BootinUp]

1. I watched the round table on "This Week"

and it is just insane how much bad information you get from these "news" and politics shows. No discussion of the real backing behind the tea party (Koch Brothers and other billionaries) instead pushing a lie that Big Business does not support the tea party. How can that fucking be when the US Chamber of Commerce is directly supporting those candidates?

The only and I mean only thing that made sense from the pundits was Terry Moran briefly making the case for transparency during the discussion after they showed a clip of Biden.

One of the ways the Dems have completely failed this year, is in explaing why the deficit ballooned after the collapse. It WAS NOT from spending increases it was from a huge drop in Government revenue. edit: I bring this up because Megan Mcain completely gave the opposite explanation and was not challenged by anyone on it.

[emulatorloo]

2. "Big Business Does Not Support The Tea Party" - it is insane. Only Rachel Maddow and Olbermann

dig beyond the surface of any story. The rest are content to take every Republican pronouncement at face value.

[ProSense]

3. WaPo joins in

PACs linked to foreign companies legally donate millions to U.S. campaigns

By Dan Eggen

As Democrats and Republicans spar over whether foreign money is polluting the midterm elections, a simple point is often overlooked: Hundreds of foreign corporations already play an integral and perfectly legal role in American politics through their U.S. subsidiaries.

Political-action committees connected to foreign-based corporations have donated nearly $60 million to candidates and parties over the past decade, including $12 million since 2009, federal contribution records show. Top donors this cycle include PACs tied to British drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, which together account for $1.1 million; Belgium's Anheuser-Busch InBev, with $650,000; and Credit Suisse Securities, at $350,000.

The donations must come from U.S. citizens or residents, and they make up a small fraction of overall political giving. Nonetheless, the role of foreign firms and their U.S. subsidiaries has become particularly sensitive in this year's emotionally charged midterm campaigns, which have featured widespread voter dismay over the economy and eruptions of strident anti-foreign rhetoric from both parties.

But neither Democrats or Republicans have drawn attention to PACs linked to global firms, a source of campaign funds that benefits both parties.

more

So when are WaPo and the rest of the media going to do some investigative journalism around secret donors influencing U.S. elections? When are they going to call on the Chamber to disclose its donors?

[w4rma]

4. When it no longer matters. (nt)

[ProSense]

5. "media figures are still letting conservatives skate with their B.S. comparisons"

Greg Sargent

* Beware those shadowy left-wing enviro groups rigging our midterms: The conservative groups founded by Karl Rove, along with the right wing 60 Plus Association and Americans for Job Security, have now spent a total of $33 million on ads helping Republicans. Add in the U.S. Chamber's promised $75 million, and you're now looking at spending possibly topping $100 million, much of it coming from undisclosed donors.

And yet media figures are still letting conservatives skate with their B.S. comparisons to the spending of groups like ... the League of Conservation Voters, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Sierra Club. Really laughable.

* Yet another phony "grassroots" group on the right: A great story by Dan Eggen: Concerned Taxpayers of America, another right wing group funding ads attacking Dems, counts exactly two "concerned taxpayers" as donors, each of which chipped in hundreds of thousands.

[ProSense]

6. The Atlantic joins in

The Democrats' 'Foreign' Money

Democrats have thoroughly pounced on the Chamber of Commerce in the past few weeks after ThinkProgress reported that the traditionally-GOP-supportive Chamber takes in membership dues from multinational corporations, but it appears Democrats have taken "foreign" money associated with foreign companies too.

<...>

While these donations were rounded up from American citizens, PACs affiliated with the U.S. subsidiaries of multinational corporations headquartered abroad, presumably, would conduct their political activities for the welfare of both the subsidiary and the foreign-headquartered parent. So no, the money itself is not "foreign," but the way it's being spent could be.

As for the Chamber's money: the group has been adamant that these are membership dues from multinational corporations that are not spent on U.S. political activities. There is a firewall, according to the Chamber. The Chamber's chief lobbyist has said that 115 foreign-member affiliates pay less than $100,000 in total membership dues. ThinkProgress rests its claim on the fact that this money goes into the Chamber's 501(c)6 arm, the same account, ThinkProgress reports, that the Chamber uses to fund its political activities. If we are to take the Chamber at its word here--and the AP has pointed out that there's no evidence the Chamber uses this money on politics--then the "foreign" political money charge remains hazy.

The morals of this whole exchange seem to be: 1) beware of claims of "foreign" money, and 2) if you're going to jump all over claims of "foreign" political donations, it's best to think about what could be considered "foreign" money flowing into your own party's coffers.

What an idiot!

[county worker]

7. My wife works for a German owned company. According to this if she gives money to Jerry Brown's

campaign she is giving foreign money!

[flamingdem]

8. kick nt

[Supersedeas]

9. Not foreign money....."per se"