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Elections — No Comments
31
Oct 12

2012 Elections Predicted to Cost $6 Billion

Source:

This election will cost $6 billion, $700 million more than the next most expensive election, the Center for Responsive Politics is reporting today.

[...]Here’s how the spending breaks down:

The presidential election alone accounts for $2.6 billion, which is actually a decrease from 2008 when, all told, nearly $2.8 billion was directed at the presidential race. In 2012, presidential candidates along with major party committees are expected to spend about $2 billion. Outside organizations that report spending to the Federal Election Commission are predicted to spend more than $528 million to influence the presidential race. Spending by the party convention host committees and public funding for the conventions totaled $142 million.

Spending in congressional races is projected to increase slightly in 2012. House and Senate candidates combined will spend about $1.82 billion, up from $1.81 in 2010. House campaign spending alone will total nearly $1.1 billion, a slight increase of 3 percent more over 2010. In the Senate, spending by candidates will approach $743 million, which is down about 7 percent compared to 2010.

Elections — 1 Comment
25
Oct 12

Poll: New York Business Leaders Overwhelmingly Support Reform Of State Campaign Finance Rules

Even those that finance the elections think the system is corrupt:

New York business leaders believe the state’s current campaign finance rules benefit major donors at the cost of ordinary citizens– and overwhelmingly want the system reformed, according to a first-of-its-kind survey.  Today in Manhattan, the Committee for Economic Development (CED) released results of a Zogby Analytics poll of 300 New York State business leaders. Poll results show that New York business leaders broadly support state campaign finance reform:

  • 70 percent of respondents support major changes in the way election campaigns are financed. 88 percent overall support making changes of some kind.
  • 62 percent of respondents believe corporate donations are bad for the political process.
  • Nearly 70 percent of respondents believe that elected officials in New York are more concerned with the needs of those who finance their campaigns than average New Yorkers. 

The findings add a new facet to the campaign to persuade New York legislators to fix the state’s controversial campaign finance system.

Elections — No Comments
25
Oct 12

$2 Billion Raised to Buy the Presidency in 2012

All this money being raised to buy the White House has nothing to do with democracy. Elections should be ideas, ability and experience. Since neither party has any of the above to offer they instead try to buy your vote:

The 2012 presidential campaign was expected Thursday to pass the $2 billion mark in fundraising, according to accounting statements submitted to the government, thanks to an outpouring of cash from both ordinary citizens and the wealthiest Americans hoping to influence the selection of the country’s next leader.

The eye-popping figure puts this election on track to be the costliest in history, fueled by a campaign finance system vastly altered by the proliferation of “super” political committees that are bankrolling a barrage of TV ads in battleground states.

Elections — No Comments
21
Oct 12

Obama Campaign Borrows $15M from Bank of America

Is any wonder why Americans can’t get a loan while bank profits are all-time highs. Who do you think Obama will be serving in his second term. But no change there:

Obama For America took out a $15 million loan from Bank of America last month, according to the campaign’s October monthly FEC report. The loan was incurred on September 4 and is due November 14, eight days after the election. OFA received an interest rate of 2.5% plus the current Libor rate.

Warren Buffett, Obama donor and namesake of the infamous “Buffett Rule,” invested $5 billion in Bank of America last year in an effort to help the ailing financial institution. Last month, two weeks after OFA took out the loan, Bank of America announced a plan that would lay off 16,000 workers by the end of the year.

Politics — No Comments
04
Aug 12

Obama Turns Birthday Party into a Fundraiser

He gets slimy by the day. The campaign money chase has reduced everything into some political ploy in this White House. It reminiscent of the Clinton years when the first family sold and prostituted every human contact into a pursuit for fundraising dollars. Nothing is beneath politicians. Nothing:

President Obama is turning 51 on Saturday, with just three months until Election Day. So he will celebrate in true political fashion: spending “downtime,” as an e-mail invitation put it, at a party at his Chicago home with a bunch of strangers who made campaign donations to be there.

That party, on Aug. 12, will mark another milestone in the transformation of the president and his wife, who once tried to limit the role of politics in their lives and now seem to be increasingly giving themselves over to it. Even some longtime Obama fund-raisers expressed surprise over the party’s site: the Obamas have limited their schmoozing hours in Washington, sequester themselves while on vacation and seldom invite many outsiders into the White House living quarters. Until now, they have kept their Chicago home mostly sacrosanct, allowing only limited photographs of the interior.

The party raises questions about how far the Obamas will go in mortgaging their personal appeal for political gain in the months ahead. In poll after poll, voters give Mr. Obama higher marks as a person — a trustworthy leader, a committed father — than as a steward of the economy. Aside from their house, how much of themselves are the Obamas willing to offer up?

Corporatocracy — No Comments
05
Jul 12

The Ten Companies Making The Biggest Political Donations

The 10 companies on our list operate in different industries. While one might think financial firms, tethered to the federal government by the financial crisis bailout, and defense companies, which count on billions of dollars in government contracts, would dominate the list, they do not entirely. Microsoft is on the list, as is AT&T, cable company Comcast, and film studio Dreamworks. In addition to the sums each company donated and to which political party, we also added how much these companies have spent on lobbying, which is counted separately from political donations. As tempting as it is, we did not speculate on the reasons behind the companies’ contributions.

Based on data collected and published by the Center for Responsive Politics on its website, opensecrets.org, 24/7 Wall St. has identified the 10 publicly traded companies contributing the most to candidates, political parties, and PACs. The Center for Responsive Politics calculates total political contributions made by either companies’ PACs or employees within a given election cycle (beginning in January 1, 2011 for the 2012 cycle) that are over $200. 24/7 Wall St. also examined lobbying expenditure data, also published by the Center for Responsive Politics. Finally, we relied on the 2012 Washington Technology Top 100 for revenue earned by the top government contractors.

via The Ten Companies Making The Biggest Political Donations – Yahoo! Finance.

Corporatocracy — No Comments
30
Jun 12

GOP backer, casino mogul Adelson reportedly gave $10 Million to Koch brothers’ efforts

Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson has donated $10 million to the Koch brothers’ efforts to elect Republicans and oust President Obama and other Democrats — forging perhaps the most powerful, well-financed political fundraising machine of 2012.

Adelson donated the money last weekend during a Koch brothers’ fundraising summit in suburban San Diego. The private deal was confirmed Friday, according to the Associated Press and other news agencies.

Adelson has already contributed $10 million to Restore Our Future, which is the super political action committee that backs GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and $5 million each to two organizations promoting House Republicans.

via GOP backer, casino mogul Adelson reportedly gave $10 M to Koch brothers’ efforts | Fox News.