Bloomberg: Democrats Beat Republicans in 2005 Fund-Raising on Wall Street

[Pirate Smile]

Democrats Beat Republicans in 2005 Fund-Raising on Wall Street

April 24 (Bloomberg) -- Democrats outdid Republicans last year in attracting political donations from investment banks, brokerages and fund managers for the first time since 1994, helped by support from hedge funds and companies such as Merrill Lynch & Co.

Democrats got $13.6 million, or 52 percent of the financial industry's $26.3 million in political donations in 2005, said the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan Washington group that researches the influence of money on elections and public policy. In the two years leading up to the 2004 presidential election, Republicans received 52 percent of the $91.6 million given by the industry.

``Wall Street wants change'' on issues such as the Iraq war and the budget deficit, said James Torrey, chairman of the Torrey Funds, which manages about $1 billion. ``I'm finding people who are registered Republicans who are saying to me, `what can I do to help?'''

The securities and investment industry is among the biggest sources of campaign cash in U.S. politics. The industry's 2004 contribution total to candidates and parties was higher than any group except lawyers, health professionals and the real estate industry, according to the center, which studied Federal Election Commission records.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=ann7KHncBOdc&refer=us

[sasquatch]

1. That's because deficits are bad news for Wall Street

[aquart]

2. What? The tribes not forking over?

Do the Republicans not have the knack for honest fundraising?

[Robbien]

3. Republicans lost Abramoff/Delay. Of course fundraising is down.

It takes time to set up a new replacement system to funnel corruption monies to campaigns.

[gordianot]

4. Most important thread of the day.

This needs to go up front!!!!! Nominated

[zbdent]

5. Ain't gonna mean a thing if we're right about

the voting machines . . . and we can't get the media's lips off the Repukes' asses . . .

[Xipe Totec]

6. Wall Street does not WANT change, but they see it coming

This is nothing more than hedging. They see the power shifting away from the repugs, so they're trying to buy influence early and cheaply with the next group coming to power.

Here are the seeds of the next political scandal. Gotta watch where this money is going.

:think:

[Orangepeel]

7. I think it is some of both

"The investor class" as pollsters call it, isn't entirely made up of bush's top 1% buddies. Most investors were doing better under Clinton than under bush. There were multiple reasons why investment was stronger then, but not least among them was the balanced budget and cutting the deficit (government borrowing syphons off money that would have been invested in private business).

[Xipe Totec]

9. Perhaps you are right,

but investors are, by definition, motivated by money. Politics to them is just another means to the same end.

It may be that investors are genuinely fed-up with the fiscal irresponsibility of the repugs but that does not mean they have suddenly grown a social conscience. In a very real sense, these are the true dyed-in-the-wool conservatives, rather than the neocons we've had to endure for the last six years.

Our paths may be running parallel at the moment but that will change. When it does, we want to make sure that the politicians in power stay on the right path; responsive to John Q. Public, rather than to the investor class.

:dem:

[worldgonekrazy]

17. The thing to keep in mind...

...is that investors are not doing well under this administration. Yes, corporate profits are at insane, nauseating all time highs, but the stock market recognizes that the long term implications of that are actually not so good for our economy. Shifting all the wealth so precipitously to the upper classes, while saddling the middle classes with crushing debt in the form of deficit spending, is only going to weaken the consumer base and crush the economy in the long run. Even if its motivated by greed, many on wall street can see this and want to stop it.

[AX10]

24. True. Some 40% of Americans are invested in the stock market.

[unblock]

12. actually, yes, they DO want change.

investing is becoming riskier and with less upside under given the shrub philosophy. dealmaking is now dependent on shady arrangements with government cronies. interest rates are on the rise. macroeconomic statistics are being fudged. the dollar is going down.

this is not a great investment climate. well, overseas investments are doing great, but wall street doesn't really need a republican in the white house for that.

[4_TN_TITANS]

14. "well, overseas investments are doing great"

You got that right! I'm at 21% interest on my foreign invested 401k as of today.....

I should feel a little guilty betting against the US, but if the government wants to give our jobs to China, etc., I'm betting on those economies.

[Xipe Totec]

18. Sad but true

In the age of globalization, outsourcing, and multinational corporations, what defines American business? Is Ford an American company? Coca Cola? Exxon? Microsoft? Sure, they're chartered in one of the 50 states so, technically, they're American. But their interests are global and so is their influence. They do business overseas and keep the profits overseas, just so the do not have to pay US taxes. They repatriate profits only if and when it suits them for a specific financial purpose.

So, are business interests and American interests aligned anymore?

I wonder...


Good move on your part to take a pragmatic approach and put your investments to work where they make the most profit.

[lakeguy]

20. my 401k is heavy into foreign blends as well

and i have been making ~20% the last couple of years as well. my coworkers have been mostly breaking even or making 1-2% on their domestic blends.

[BrightKnight]

21. invested mostly overseas for years and doing very well

A return to good government would probably bring a lot of investment back to the US.

[AX10]

23. Asia is THE PLACE to invest these days.

They are quickly becoming world powers, primarily China and India. Japan is doing better these days too.

[Doctor_J]

8. We somehow have to turn this into 51 Senators and 218 House

seats. Start by hiring more lawyers to contest all of the phony election results.

[mopinko]

10. yup

count the votes, and everything else will take care of itself.

[electropop]

11. Wall Street knows which side to bet on, it's how they make a living.

They know the Dems are taking over, and they need to grease the skids.

[warrens]

13. Big business as a whole is trending Dem

Not the pharma and awl bidnesses, but the mainstream ones are starting to rethink their blind support for repukes. Smirky has basically made it safe for CEOs to pull down record pay, so the average exec is still in the herd, but shareholders, directors and the financial end of the businesses are turning to Dems.

Wal-Mart offering to work on a national healthcare program is one indicator. That would have been heresy four years ago; today, big business has to admit Clinton was right all the time and that this medical system is totally broken. The war is rewarding only a handful of companies, most of them Bush cronies, and our oil supply, far from being more secure, is more tenuous than ever.

I see a lot of Repukes going to their usual donors and getting told to fuck off.

[gully]

15. "When we all do well, we ALL do well."

Bill Clinton - paraphrased.

That quote comes to mind upon reading the article above.

[Voltaire99]

32. Sure, sure.

Tell it to all those workers screwed by big business with Bill Clinton's blessings.

Primer: One Market Under God by Thomas Frank.

[MGKrebs]

16. It seems Dean didn't scare away as much biz as feared...

by some.

[BrightKnight]

29. Dean is a common sense, good government moderate.

He speaks his mind forcefully but he does not have a radical message.

[Oak2004]

19. Big Business is not the people's friend but they are not suicidally insane

You won't find me in the cheering section for big corporations, but even they know that they can't profit with money that doesn't exist surrounded by an overheated environment polluted by nuclear fallout. Sure, they hedge their bets. But it's more than that. This Administration is running the country, and the world into the ground, for everyone, rich, middle-class, and poor alike.
Similarly it's not surprising that, in the 30's, some of the wealthiest Americans backed the New Deal, not because they didn't want to remain filthy rich, but because they saw the writing on the wall and understood that unrestricted capitalism and ever greater concentration of wealth would be the end of them, too.

And if running the world into the ground isn't enough for the more shortsighted corporate masters, business can't trust these mutant invaders disguised themselves as the Party of Lincoln anymore.

Imagine that you are Mr. C.E.O. of Heartless Industries Inc. You were paying Corrupt Republican Lobbying Associates LLC millions of dollars to relax regulations that currently prevent you from dumping tetrogenic compounds into the water supply of the prenatal care clinic down the road from one of your plants. Your lobbyist says he's bought you a few senators, and they do seem to be fighting for you. But for some reason some other Republican senator is stubbornly refusing to let your bill get out of committee.

Then you learn some of the details about the Jack Abramoff Indian gambling case.

Will you believe you're getting your money's worth? Or will you wonder if you are being taken for a ride? Wouldn't you rather deal with the people who might not relax those regulations for you, but who you at least know aren't ripping you off while sticking a knife in your back?

[AX10]

22. They may want change, but Wall Street sees the tide turning against the...

GOP. Also, they know that the GOP is not good for the economy. Good for the richest, yes, the majority that makes the economy run, NO! If there are no respectable jobs for Americans at large, then you can kiss the economy good bye.

[Mrspeeker]

25. I'm not so sure

That out doing the repubs in contributions from huge corporations is a good thing!

[DavidMS]

26. I have a couple of thoughts on this:

Are the filthy rich finaly filing devorse papers against the religous right?

Is it because CEOs realize that with the Theocrats in power it will be much harder to get their mistresses abortions?

Could it be because the filthy rich reconize that the political tide is turning and a couple of legal bribes will do alot to prevent the sort of investigations that Wall Street dreads?

I don't know.

[skipos]

27. Maybe Wall Street is finally accepting the fact that

democrats are better for the stock market

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/columnist/krantz/2005-12-02-presidents_x.htm

and better for the economy

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=131769

[confludemocrat]

28. Since Dems strategy is to outflank Repubs on the right then this would fit

"We can do better in Iraq"
"We can fight the 'war on terror' better
"we can build a wall on the mexican border"
and on and on

[BrightKnight]

30. a healthy business environment

Democrats want a healthy business environment. It should be obvious to anyone that the overall economic environment would be far better with Democratic leadership.

A corrupt one party state is not a healthy business environment. The chorine capitalism ship is sinking And I hope that Wall Street gets off first.

[Lucky Luciano]

31. I work as a trader for a large investment bank....

A lot of peopleat my bank are extremely smart and know that b*sh is a boob - downright evil you might even say. There is one bond-trader that still maintains his John Kerry pictures on his desk because of the asshole sitting next to him that still seems to love b*sh. Rarely do people talk politics because people do not want to create enemies when trading, but occassionally people will slip things in to make it clear where they stand - a Daily Show comment...or when reading a newspaper article discussing how b*sh "liberated" Iraq, someone commented that Murdoch's slimy fingerprints must have been all over that - it was a Murdoch paper. Numerous other remarks - quite frankly, aside from that one moron who still idolizes b*sh, I have not heard a single positive comment about the boob in chief.

Most Wall St republicans just don't want to pay taxes for social programs...admittedly, I think it is a bloated budget. I think a lot of spending there should be optimized better - though national Healthcare makes sense to me. ...the military budget is clearly bloated as well...Social security is not part of the bloat...it is clearly a low-risk investment (if it is not intentionally destoryed that is) that pays off to those who pay in - nothing wrong with that.

Our managing director in London commented about how he is a Republican. I was appalled...but then he clarified - "...just to be clear, a republican in England is one who prefers to disband the silly monarchy - as opposed to an American Republican who caters to a few wealthy individuals and corporations at the expense of humanity as a whole."

When I first started work at the bank fresh out of school, I had drinks with a managing director that is the head of exotic derivative trading (MIT Physics PhD - smart dude) - he was full of a lot of fire discussing the incompetency of b*sh - as well as his evil. I reminded him that b*sh may not be incompetent because he has always gotten what he wanted (before his polls slipped). Then the MD commented, "ahhh...good point - it could be purely planned evil in the guise of foolishness...he HAS gotten much of what he wanted!"

After Katrina, it was someone at my bank who posted this hilarity on one of our intra-bank chat channels:



While I and the rest of the Wall St may not be completely aligned with DU, I and many of my colleague still share much in common here. I would like to pay less taxes because I fel so much of the money is wasted. It would bother me less if the money was well spent....If the US had no national debt (fantasy land...I know), I would say a tax bill of 25% would be about fair - I assume the money would be efficiently spent though (more fantasy land).

[AX10]

33. I know what you are talking about.

There are many people in business that do not like not trust Bush. They understand that he is a dangerous extremist.