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The Art of Buying Politicians

The Facts about Institutional Campaign Funding

 By JB Williams  Sunday, May 11, 2008

The 2008 Presidential election promises to make history no matter who wins. It will cost more than $1 Billion dollars to fill a $400,000 a year job and not one of the three remaining candidates is qualified for that job. Now that’s a history making event worthy of comment!

Every dollar is spent in an effort to buy a politician and every politician is for sale. There are only four types of political contributions.  

• The individual attempt to buy gifts from the public trough via Democratic Socialism • The individual effort to buy freedom and liberty and reverse Democratic Socialism • The institutional effort to buy commercial advantage in an increasingly over-regulated economy • The international effort to buy access to American assets for global use

Every penny spent on national campaigns represents an investment in one or more of these four categories. At the base, there are two opposing agendas. On one side are those seeking the rights to the earnings of others for personal gifts from and treasury and/or commercial advantage by way of government secured and protected monopolies for profit.   On the other side are those seeking the old American right to Life, Liberty and Happiness in a free-market of ideas, enterprise and individual earnings. These two concepts are always at war with each other and in modern politics, politicians pander to one side or the other, sometimes both, in pursuit of personal political power and wealth.   Despite campaign rhetoric, every candidate is for sale. The question is, - who is buying them and for which agenda? This is a study of the top 20 institutional political investors for each of the three remaining presidential candidates in the 2008 race - and you might be surprised to learn who is buying whom and why. Believe it - EVERY last penny is intended to “lobby” the recipient for future favor!   As you will see, the notion that “fat cat” corporate investors are not influencing every campaign is an outright lie. These are America’s smartest investors. This money is not being spent for nothing.  

Meet the Pros

  The most professional political investors are those smart enough to buy favor from all candidates so that no matter who wins the election, their favors are covered. In the top 20 institutional investors list, we find five such investors and to no surprise, all five are masters of investment strategy and they have only one political ideology, win no matter what. In order of contribution, they are…

Goldman Sachs	$1,118,601	11.5%	48.7%	39.8%
Citigroup Inc	$944,800	21.8%	35.1%	43.1%
Morgan Stanley	$781,372	16.0%	32.5%	51.6%
JP Morgan Chase & Co	$753,122	16.4%	47.0%	36.6%
Lehman Brothers	$680,557	14.5%	45.9%	39.6%
Total	$4,278,452	McCain	Obama	Clinton

  These five institutional givers appear on the top 20 donors list for each of the three presidential candidates. And again, contrary to campaign rhetoric, you can see that these “fat cat” institutional investors favor Democrats Obama and Clinton, not capitalist Republican pig John McCain. So, one can conclude that these five companies belong in categories 1 and 3 above, but are hedging their bets to cover their favors no matter who wins the election. Obama is the big winner in this category.  

Meet the Democratic Socialist Ideologues

  These investors are driven by political ideologies and they invest only in those politicians who see things as they see them. They too hedge their bets a bit by funding all candidates who represent their ideology, in hopes that at least one of them will win. They do not fund across ideological lines to any degree. The following seven institutional givers appear only on Democrats Obama and Clinton top 20 donor lists.  

University of California	$611,943	60.7%	39.3%
National Amusements Inc	$560,561	55.9%	44.1%
Skadden, Arps et al	$491,023	54.3%	45.7%
Time Warner	$452,878	54.3%	45.7%
Kirkland & Ellis	$383,527	49.8%	50.2%
Microsoft Corp	$373,662	52.5%	47.5%
Latham & Watkins	$364,479	54.9%	45.1%
Total	$3,238,073	Obama	Clinton

  This group firmly belongs to groups 1, 3 and 4 above and in their quest for commercial favor from Democratic Socialists in Washington, they clearly favor Obama. Obama wins this category.  

Meet the Anti-Obama Investors 

These four institutional investors support both Clinton and McCain, indicating some level of discomfort with Barack Obama, though the cause of that discomfort is not investigated here.  

Merrill Lynch	$409,259	55.4%	44.6%
Greenberg Traurig LLP	$370,737	46.9%	53.1%
PricewaterhouseCoopers	$256,850	27.2%	72.8%
Bear Stearns	$234,990	34.1%	65.9%
Total	$1,271,836	McCain	Clinton

  In the anti-Obama camp, Clinton wins this category.   So far, we can see that capitalist Republican pig John McCain is not doing so well with “fat cat” corporate investors attempting to buy a politician. When we take a look at the top 20 for each candidate, here’s who is winning the race for “fat cat” corporate “lobby” campaign funds.   • 1st Place goes to Barack Obama - $5,716,902 (43.3%) • 2nd Place goes to Hillary Clinton - $5,121,632 (38.8%) • 3rd Place goes to John McCain – 2,376,705 (18%)   Barack Obama is the clear winner among the top 20 political “fat cats.” But if we study the campaign totals from all institutional givers, Obama’s margin of victory is much larger than it appears here. Obama is by far the best funded political campaign of the season and as you can see, it isn’t all coming from poor little government dependent voters in $10.00 contributions as his campaign claims.   To look even closer at the money in search of favor, we will look at the donors who have given exclusively to each campaign.  

Obama’s Strongest Supporters

  These corporate donors support Obama exclusively… groups 1, 3 and 4.  

Google Inc	$293,974		Most powerful Internet Search Engine
Harvard University	$292,441		Where Obama attended Law School
Sidley Austin LLP	$287,795		Global law firm with 1800 lawyers in 16 international offices
Jones Day	$245,875		2300 international lawyers around the globe
Exelon Corp	$229,861		Electric and Natural Gas Distribution and largest US Nuclear Operator
Wilmerhale Llp	$215,231		1000 lawyers in U.S., Europe and Asia
University of Chicago	$208,007		An "ethnically diverse" private coeducation institution

 

Clinton’s Strongest Supporters

  These corporate donors are exclusively funding Clinton… groups 1, 3 and 4.                                

DLA Piper	$505,200		3,700 international lawyers in 64 offices in 25 countries
EMILY's List	$323,567		dedicated to building a progressive America by electing pro-choice Democratic women
Ernst & Young	$164,525		a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services.
News Corp	$152,550		Rupert Murdoch and "right-wing" FOX News Networks and Newspapers

McCain’s Strongest Supporters

  These corporate donors appear exclusively on McCain’s top 20 list… groups 2 and 3.  

Blank Rome LLP	$222,050		U.S. Law firm
AT&T Inc	$149,305		U.S. Telecommunications Company
Credit Suisse Group	$115,625		An international financial services group
Univision Communications	$87,000		Spanish Language Media Group serving U.S. Market
Bank of New York Mellon	$86,500		U.S. Asset Management Firm
Blackstone Group	$86,350		U.S. Investment Management Services
IDT Corp	$84,850		Long Distance Telecommunications Service
Wachovia Corp	$84,050		U.S. Personal and Commercial Financial Services Company
MGM Mirage	$76,100		U.S. Casino Operator
Bridgewater Assoc	$69,900		$150 billion International asset management company

  This group of political investors belongs to groups 2 and 3 above, seeking free open markets, capitalism and individual freedom to make individual choices. This is the only group McCain is winning.  

The Agendas are clear in the Donors Lists

  Obama’s support is coming largely from the “elitist” crowd of international lawyers, powerbrokers and ethnic organizations hoping to seat the second black president.   Clinton’s support is coming from the “elitist” crowd of international lawyers, powerbrokers, and pro-abortion women’s groups hoping to seat the former First Lady behind the Oval Office desk and turn Bill loose in his playpen again.   McCain’s support is coming mostly from U.S. corporations seeking to protect free-market conditions. Though I can’t let the Spanish Language Media Group or the International asset manage company go without note, due to McCain’s ongoing support for open immigration laws and some form of amnesty for illegal migrants already living in America.   Having said that, the stark differences in the donors list of top 20 for each candidate make the agenda’s behind each candidate glaringly obvious. Two candidates are raising money from elitist sources interested in global socialist international initiatives and one is funded largely by U.S. organizations interested in U.S. interests.   Again, a look at all of the institutional investors for these three candidates galvanizes this picture even further. Much more detail is available at http://www.OpenSecrets.org  

An even Finer Point on Topic

  The ill-advised passage of McCain-Feingold resulted in the advent of the 527 organization, where millions more are poured into the election process in a completely unregulated and often untraceable form.   Democrats invented and lead the 527 fund-raising race by wide margin as well, money above and beyond all the direct campaign money reported here. The agendas of the three candidates come into crystal clear focus when you research the agenda’s of the 527 organization behind each candidate.  

The Inescapable Conclusion

  All politicians are for sale. Every penny invested in any campaign has a purpose to it and an expected return attached to it. Rich “fat cats” are NOT leaning towards Republican McCain, but rather towards Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Rupert Murdoch and News Corp are not part of some “right-wing” propaganda machine since they are supporting Hillary Clinton for President.   And when it comes to “fat cat” elitist powerbrokers buying politicians, Barack Obama is hands down the clear favorite!   Keep these facts in mind as you listen to each candidate blame the other for selling out to corporate contributions, international interests and “fat cat” elitists….  

The facts really do matter!

  If we continue to ignore them, we get what we deserve because as Forest Gump’s momma said, “stupid is as stupid does!”