There is a great deal of subtlety in campaign finance, and often, when politicians hold events where they meet with lobbyists carrying money, the politicians can claim that the event was for constituents, and lobbyists just happened to slip in. That claim cannot be made by the following five members of the U.S. Congress, however, who didn’t just allow lobbyists from the C2 Group to attend a fundraising event in 2009, but actually arranged for their events to be held at the C2 Group’s Washington D.C. headquarters.
Roy Blunt – (more)
Dan Boren
Ben Chandler
Geoff Davis
Brett Guthrie
Extra chutzpah points go to Representative Geoff Davis, for having not just one, but two, events at which he gathered donations right at C2 lobbying HQ at Suite 900, 101 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington D.C. Starting on December 8, the Gula Graham Group arranged for a two-day series of meetings between lobbyists and members of Congress, starting with a breakfast meeting to bring money to Mike Rogers, and ending with a dinner for Marsha Blackburn. Geoff Davis’s dinner at C2 lobbying headquarters was right in the middle of it all.
An earlier dinner last September, with the theme Fall on the Mall, brought Geoff Davis together with C2 Group lobbyists and several “host” political action committees that represented two military contractors, Wall Street finance giant J.P. Morgan, two medical industry associations, and the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association.
Let’s not overlook Kelly Ayotte, though, who also managed to make her way down to Washington D.C. in early December to have a special “lunch” at C2 headquarters, where representatives of political action committees paid as much as $2,000 to be admitted to Ayotte’s presence. If you didn’t have money to give to Ayotte, you weren’t allowed access to the candidate.
Kelly Ayotte isn’t actually a member of Congress. She is merely a candidate for the U.S. Senate. Even before she has been elected, however, she’s already learned how to work the dirty money system of D.C. If I were a voter up in her state of New Hampshire, I’d take that to account on Election Day this year.
Kelly Ayotte isn’t actually a member of Congress. She is merely a candidate for the U.S. Senate. Even before she has been elected, however, she’s already learned how to work the dirty money system of D.C. If I were a voter up in her state of New Hampshire, I’d take that to account on Election Day this year.
Why? What difference will it make WHO gets elected from ANYWHERE if they all are corrupted by this completely accepted yet totally ruinous ‘way of doing business’? This is the fucking problem! It doesn’t matter which party or gender or state the MARK is from so long as he/she has to ‘play ball’ with these scum-sucking lobbyists! This is why i’ve been saying repeatedly that the government is broken and no longer responds to voters. Until this system of graft and open corruption is illegal, no progressive measures will benefit we citizens, and we’ll continue to be fleeced by big business and “policy” directives.
At this point, with corporate control complete and total, i’d say our quality of life will continue to erode until some violent dissention occurs by masses of people disgusted, fed up, and angry as hell, willing to take on the police state being wound around us like a boa constricter. If the millions of out of work, foreclosed on, ripped off by the stock market (which includes most people’s 401K’s and pensions), were to start massing in their respective state capitals and Washington, surrounding the Capital, the White House and making traffic impossible for as long as it took, things would HAVE to change. Now the likelihood of this happening is slim right now, but just wait til a critical mass of people become put out of work
AND lose their homes AND have little to lose, then like lightening it’ll just start and build until they HAVE to acknowledge us and make REAL PROGRESSIVE CHANGES, not rhettoric.
Tom, I don’t think that violence in the streets will make progressive change more likely. I think it’ll make progressive change LESS likely.
On the other hand, the more that candidates see that people are paying attention when they take money from corporate lobbyists, the more they’ll feel reluctant to do so quite as much as they do now. It’s not a perfect response, but it’s better than progress from the barrel of a gun.