WASHINGTON, Dec. 10, 2008
Pre-Bailout, Firms Bankrolled Conventions
Big Donors Gave Millions To Democratic And Republican Conventions Weeks Before Asking For Government Handouts
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Donors, Bailouts & Politics
Republicans and Democrats got plenty of help this political year from their friends in big business and now they're looking for a bailout. Sharyl Attkisson follows the money.
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A worker positions the standard for the Pennsylvania delegation on the floor, before the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., Sunday, Aug. 31, 2008. Major corporations, labor unions and individual millionaires dumped $118 million into the nominating conventions for Barack Obama and John McCain, according to reports from the Campaign Finance Institute and the Center for Responsive Politics. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Snapshots from the podium, the floor and host cities.
The big donors included AIG, Ford Motor Co., Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Freddie Mac.
In all, major corporations, labor unions and individual millionaires dumped $118 million into the nominating conventions for Barack Obama and John McCain, according to reports from the Campaign Finance Institute and the Center for Responsive Politics. The private groups compiled the numbers from filings required under federal law.
Wall Street financial institutions were by no means the largest donors.
Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian of Beverly Hills, Calif., was watching his investment in Ford Motor Co. dwindle in mid-August when he sent $2 million to the Republican convention in Minneapolis and $1.5 million to the Democrats.
"This man had a major investment in a troubled industry and had good reason to want to get political support," said Steve Weissman, associate director for policy at the Campaign Finance Institute, one of two nonpartisan private groups that analyzed the donations.
Ford spent $100,000 on each of the two conventions. Ford could benefit from the proposed auto industry bailout being worked out in Washington. Ford wants a $9 billion standby line of credit in case a competitor fails.
A potential bailout recipient, General Motors Corp., loaned hundreds of new cars to the Democratic and Republican convention committees.
Freddie Mac had just posted an $800 million dollar loss, but managed to come up with a half million dollars for the conventions, reports CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. While AIG was going down the tubes, it dropped $1.5 million on the conventions.
That's equal to what AIG interests had given in strictly-limited direct donations to candidates and parties in the previous four years, Attkisson reports. AIG has since gotten $112 billion dollars in taxpayer help.
Also getting into the act were operators of hedge funds, a huge and largely unregulated part of the financial services industry that hopes to remain as free from regulation as possible, notwithstanding its role in the financial meltdown.
Hedge fund operator Raymond Dalio of Bridgewater Associates in Westport, Conn., gave $2 million for the Republican convention. The Democratic convention received $500,000 from James Chanos of Kynikos Associates in New York City. In all, major hedge fund operators gave nearly $4 million, $2.7 million to support the Republican convention.
Private financing of the national political conventions is among the last avenues for corporations, unions and wealthy individuals to curry favor through big-bucks political contributions. Congress banned the giving of six-and-seven-figure donations to the political parties, offerings known as "soft money," in a 2002 law that revamped campaign financing in response to concerns that large sums of money could give donors undue influence and lead to corruption.
Together, all the donors spent $61 million on the Democratic convention and $57 million on the GOP convention.
Among the corporate contributors:
Some donors got their checks in early, like AIG, which sent its check for $750,000 for the Republican convention over a year ago. Others gave early and late, like Morgan Stanley, which sent $100,000 to the Democrats in April, and another $50,000 on Sept. 10.
The Federal Election Commission has continued to allow large contributions to flow to local committees set up to host the political conventions, and those host committees promise donors special access to each party's top leaders.
Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, said that by taking advantage of a false distinction between a political party and the committees hosting the conventions, labor unions were able to support the Democratic Party in a way that hasn't been allowed since the days of soft money, when labor was among the biggest contributors.
The Laborers' International Union provided $1.6 million for the Democratic convention, and the Service Employees International Union gave $1.35 million.
Among the biggest convention contributors, two retailers and a telecom company split their donations while giving mostly to the GOP: Target spent $3 million on the Republican convention, $400,000 on the Democratic; Qwest spent $2.9 million to support Republicans, $841,000 for the Democrats, and Best Buy gave $2.3 million to the Republican convention, $299,000 to support the Democrats.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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What''s commonly known as "greasing the wheel"....
now that''s an interesting paragraph all by its lonesome...
Already, congressmen of both houses, on both state and federal levels, complain they must spend most of their time speaking at rubber-checken dinner circuits in hopes of scoring with a few big donors. A vanishing minority of their time is spent for their constituents.
By now, everyone realizes "business as usual" is a magic prescription for conflict of interest, and easily accounts for the overweening influence of a rich, corporate elite on American politics. As the cynical expression goes, "America has the best congress money can buy".
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Posted by raskal_2 at 10:51 PM
You must be a cherry picker when you read articles. They spent millions these individuals and corps on both parties. Yet all you can do is focus on Obama. Idiot. Interestingly enough, when Obama said that corps should pay more taxes, you all screamed bloody murder. None of you said a word about the millions that were already reportedly spent for the parties.
study early 20th century American history about the coal miners and the other trades that fought and died for the rights of the worker. if you can''t see the good unions provide for the worker(even the non-union workers)and their family you are blind, dumb, or a liar. i am proud of my union membership. our commitment to continued training(after a 5 year apprenticeship) and our standard of excellence make our members some of the best crafstmen in the world. workers from my union and my local are highly skilled and highly sought after. they are known and respected world wide for their knowledge and their ability to get the job done on time and under budget.
live better/work union
As much as I can, I will vote for 3rd party candidates until one becomes viable.
There is no difference between Dems and Repubs, they just take turns destroying this country.
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Posted by mrs_premise at 08:52 AM : Dec 11, 2008
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This is the most idiotic drivel I have ever heard and I hear a lot of it here. You are funny...
Posted by sd_eric1
I''m sure union demands have nothing to do with so many companies choosing to leave this country and set up shop in 3rd world countries, right. Wrong. We already know we make quality products...it''s the wages, taxes, and government regulation that is strangling business owners. You can''t pay an entire work force $70 an hour plus benefits and all the taxes while having to kick in for all the adjustments ($$$$)regulation brings without seeing the bottom drop eventually. Granted upper management is making sure they get theirs first and are making decisions regarding profit that do not include the work force...but it all adds up. Congress has yet to step up and take any responsibility for the messes they have made by insisting on sticking their big fat noses in where they don''t belong...and now they have a toe hold that will never get them out of the business owner''s pockets. Exactly what Congress had hoped would happen. They''ve been itching to get inside the pockets and run things. But no one is demanding a single thing of Congress....nothing.
posted by firehose12
How do you know ? do you actually know any UAW members. I do and they volunteer in the community, are always ready to donate or take up collections for charitable causes. They are just like any other middle class citizen. Your problem is you are jealous of them because they make more than you do and have better benefits. My philosphy is if you make more then I do or have more then I do great. I picked my career, so I either live with it or change it if I want to get more.
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by sd_eric1
December 11, 2008 6:51 PM EST
- in response to likeitis5050. much of what you say is true. i do take issue with the somewhat misguided statement "You can''''t pay an entire work force $70 an hour plus benefits" uaw workers do not bring home 70$ an hour. http://www.uaw22.org/index.cfm?zone=/unionactive/view_article.cfm&homeID=107472 "average wages for workers at Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors were just $28 per hour as of 2007. That works out to a little less than $60,000 a year in gross income--hardly outrageous. Seventy dollars an hour in wages works out to almost $150,000 a year in gross income, if you assume a forty-hour work week." this is a matter of record from the senate banking committee hearings and it is indisputable. their total package is in the 70$ an hour range, but they are not cashing checks every week for 150,000$ http://truthfeeds.com/Daily-News/184714/Sen-Bob-Casey-Autoworkers-and-Unions-being-scapegoated
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