Kerry Leads in Lobby Money

[bicentennial_baby]

Anti-Special-Interest Campaign Contrasts With Funding

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who has made a fight against corporate special interests a centerpiece of his front-running campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, has raised more money from paid lobbyists than any other senator over the past 15 years, federal records show.

Kerry, a 19-year veteran of the Senate who fought and won four expensive political campaigns, has received nearly $640,000 from lobbyists, many representing telecommunications and financial companies with business before his committee, according to Federal Election Commission data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

For his presidential race, Kerry has raised more than $225,000 from lobbyists, better than twice as much as his nearest Democratic rival. Like President Bush, Kerry has also turned to a number of corporate officials and lobbyists to "bundle" contributions from smaller donors, often in sums of $50,000 or more, records provided by his campaign show.

Most members of Congress and presidential candidates turn to corporations and their Washington-based lobbyists for political assistance, most often with fundraising. But Kerry has made his fight against "Washington special interests" a new theme of his presidential campaign and opened himself to accusations of hypocrisy from rivals and campaign finance watchdogs.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64727-2004Jan30.html?nav=hptop_tb

[David Dunham]

1. kerry needs money to run, but won't be influenced like bush

[ibegurpard]

3. Please say something more convincing than that

It's one of my biggest hangups about Kerry and the current state of the Democratic Party in general.

[FubarFly]

7. mine too n/t

[George_Bonanza]

11. What about the newly reformed centrist: Howard Dean?

I am not trying to engage in a catfight, but if you are demanding more than a candidate's word, why not examine your own candidate? A DLC centrist governor turned angry progressive?

[ibegurpard]

12. Howard Dean's money is coming mostly from small donations from

people like me. Whether or not he is a centrist is not really the point here.

[sandnsea]

15. Vermont records??

How do we know what he did in Vermont. He won't release his records.

And when those 4th quarter numbers come out, this will all change in a hurry. Wait until you see where that $40 million really came from.

[ibegurpard]

19. I'm sorry were you addressing me?

I'm not sure how Dean's Vermont records have anything to do with what I said.

[George_Bonanza]

16. So he will feel a lifelong debt to those regular people?

Once he's in the WH, the fact that he will continue to be in touch with those regular people is really up to speculation, just like with you about Kerry. So it's all speculation and taking people's words for it. You can't attack Kerry without attacking Dean.

[jpgpenn]

20. LOL

:wow:

[Leilani]

2. Amazing

Not exactly a "grass roots campaign."

And what change from the Bush administration will this give us?

And Senator Kerry attacked Clark for being a lobbyist.

[sandnsea]

14. Where's Clark's records?

Is he going to release them? Has he volunteered to release all the records from his meetings?

Kerry has. That's the difference.

[dogman]

18. In plain sight.

Clark released his during the NH campaign, they are available on his website so even you can look at them.

[jpgpenn]

21. sickening isn't it?

:puke:

[AnnitaR]

4. Kickin it for Kerry

:kick:

Want all to see what kind of candidate he really is!

I'm appalled that this is the man that will be our nominee.

Oh and lest we forget:
IWR
Patriot Act
No Child Left Behind

Let the coronation continue!

[stickdog]

5. Whoa! Major newsflash!

WP prints an anti-Kerry article!

Stop the presses!

[frustrated_lefty]

6. Get used to it, front-runner status is fun, right?

And you might be more convincing to fellow democrats if you actually addressed the point raised instead of the typical "oh, that's irrelevant," or "oh, that doesn't count," or "oh, he's dealt with this type of attack for 30 years (in a massively liberal state in which he hasn't ruffled feathers)." I dunno, you might actually address the substance of the issue being raised.

[THUNDER HANDS]

8. yeah, heaven forbid

We actually try to compete with Bush in fundraising.

If we combine grassroots financial support with selective business support, we can easily match Bush in money.

[DrFunkenstein]

9. Wellstone-Kerry And Quid Pro Quo

First of all, Kerry has long been at the forefront of campaign finance reform. The McCain-Feingold reform was a much paler version - but a direct descendant - of the Wellstone-Kerry proposal several years earlier.

Secondly, getting individual contributions from the business community is hardly an indication of wrong-doing. If there is proof that there was undue influence as a result of the contributions, that would be another story. Sans that, Kerry is just an effective fundraiser who refused soft money PAC contributions.

[Virgil]

10. Okay, I was wrong about Kerry

He has only been in the Senate 19 years. I said 24 earlier. I can admit when I am wrong.

[sandnsea]

13. Bill Weld - ten million dollars - dupe

This is a dupe, but anyway. Most of this money was during the Bill Weld campaign where Kerry put in almost $2 million of his own money which is more than the lobbyist money he collected his entire life. So I guess, based on money, he's beholden to himself. Edwards put in $6 million durings his very expensive campaign. They cost alot of money.

He's releasing 19 years of records that will document every meeting and the purpose so everything will be out in the open.

Clark, releasing lobbyist records??

Edwards, releasing his bundling records?

Dean, releasing his Vermont records?

Nope. Just Kerry. Voluntarily. That's an honest candidate. That's leadership.

[bigtree]

17. John Kerry Releases Fundraiser Names in Effort to Improve Transparency ::

Donor list:
http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/donors.pdf

Democratic Presidential Candidate John Kerry today released the names of supporters who raised over $50,000 for his presidential campaign. The list has been posted for the public on his web-site at www.johnkerry.com

John Kerry said, “Throughout my career I have fought for reform in the campaign finance system and I believe strongly that voters should know who is funding campaigns. There is no better reason for transparency than the Bush Administration’s blatant reward of campaign contributors with tax breaks and special favors at every turn.”

“I hope that every Presidential candidate will show their commitment to transparency by releasing the same information from their campaigns.”

The Washington Post said, “Mr. Kerry's release of the names puts him in the forefront of meaningful disclosure

[Skip Intro]

22. That's a little misleading

The title implies he's releasing records that will lay these questions to rest, when in fact what is being released are records from this presidential campaign.

Many of the questions about Kerry's taking money from special interests, however, concern his long tenure in the US Senate, and his recent statements that he has only accepted money from individuals.

From the WaPo article:

Kerry said on Jan. 19 that he would "happily release any lobbyist meeting I've ever had," but he has yet to do so. Cutter said Kerry will not release records until he compiles data on every meeting over the past 19 years, which will be a "pretty lengthy process." Kerry will not release it "piecemeal," she said.

[DFLforever]

23. Topic is worth much consideration

:kick: for late-nighters in the West

[OutlawCorporatePolls]

24. hehe

It's time for the new media to take down old media's frontrunner. Please send my signature links to as many undecided dems as possible. Time to attack back.

Question of the day: How come the old media is not reporting the delegate count? Particularly in this team sport nation, as you'd think the people would want to know.

A: cuz they dont want americans to know the real score. they dont want the sheeple to know that kerry only has 100 of the 2,161 needed, or 4.6% of the amount of delegates needed. let the corporate polls do the talking (and swaying).

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/primaries/pages/misc/more.html

[Adjoran]

25. The point is

that you can't run a campaign against "special interests" if you're the prime beneficiary of their largesse.

Oh, the money wasn't from PACs or special interests "directly?" Good. The corporations can't legally donate directly to federal campaigns. This money didn't come from average workers at the companies, it came from, and through, their lobbyists.

Now, maybe these guys are complete saps and give their own money to a guy who has been fighting against them for 19 years. And, maybe the Easter Bunny could whip Sasquatch.