This weeks "I told you so" moment in Broken Compass Politics is made possible by Jonah Cohen at the NM GOP, whose press releases are actually worth reading.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT JONAH COHEN
JUNE 1, 2006 505-298-3662 (W)
Richardson’s Seamy Campaign Contributions
Mismanagement at the Richardson Campaign
(Albuquerque, NM) – Yesterday, The New Mexican revealed that a “state prison contractor involved in the investigation of a relationship between Corrections Secretary Joe Williams and a lobbyist contributed $10,000 to Gov. Bill Richardson's re-election campaign. The political-action committee for Aramark…contributed to Richardson's campaign in May 2005.”
“That was about a year after Aramark renewed its contract with the state Corrections Department,” says the article, intimating some kind of quid pro quo occurred.
Recent history suggests that taking money and perks from seamy contributors are part of the financial success behind the Richardson campaign.
Three weeks ago the Associated Press reported that, of all the state candidates, Governor Richardson received “the largest share of the political money” from lobbyists and their employees, highlighting that among “the contributions to the governor’s re-election was $75,000 from a private equity real estate fund, RS Property Fund V. The fund is affiliated with a San Francisco-based investment company, RS Investments.”
Who is RS Investments?
It’s the same company that, in late 2004, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged with violating the anti-fraud provisions of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Without admitting or denying the charges, RS Investments “agreed to pay $25 million to settle the Commission’s fraud charges, including disgorgement of $11.5 million and a civil penalty of $13.5 million.”
A week later the Associated Press underlined that a “tobacco company that lobbied the New Mexico Legislature this year for tax changes provided Gov. Bill Richardson with tens of thousands of dollars worth of free jet airplane flights.”
Predatory lending, fraud, Big Tobacco, unscrupulous trade-offs and implicated lobbyist friends – these are some of the shadows that loom behind the dollars funding the Richardson campaign, even as Richardson with a straight face pontificates: “It is unacceptable that New Mexico does not limit or include any accountability for campaign contributions or gifts to elected officials. We’re watching on TV each night the fallout from our weak ethics laws.”
Technorati Tags: Bill Richardson, corruption, Democrats, Elections, Fundraising, lobbying, Mike Stratton, New Mexico, Politics, reform, Republicans
On Wednesday, October 14, 2008, the eyes of the world were fixed on Hempstead, New York and the third and final U.S. Presidential Debate. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois entered the arena with an eight-point lead according to an average of national polls as compiled by CNN, and it appeared that he was content to sit on that lead. Sen. John McCain of Arizona took advantage of Obama’s laurel resting and brought the fight to him regarding the younger candidate’s policies, judgment and qualities of character. When Obama did adopt a more critical stance regarding the economic policies of the past eight years, McCain was quick to point out that he is “not President Bush.” He stated that he would enact an “across the board spending freeze,” take a hatchet to some programs and use a scalpel on the remainder once the dust settled. Obama’s stance sounded more conservative; he would “go through the federal budget page by page, line by line” in order to close programs that aren’t working as they should. Both candidates claim their economic plans will bring needed change to a broken America, but will it leave consumers with the ability to choose where and when they’ll have access to payday loans? That remains to be seen. Just because Americans see themselves as living in “the land of the free” doesn’t mean that interest groups (i.e. banks and credit unions) want them to have the freedom to choose.Post Courtesy of Personal Money StoreProfessional Blogging TeamFeed Back: 1-866-641-3406Home: http://personalmoneystore.com/NoFaxPaydayLoans.htmlBlog: http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/
Posted by: Payday Loan Advocate | Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 02:08 AM