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Saturday, August 18, 2018

N.Y. Times, reporting on NOT taking PAC money, " 'I watched the Hillary Clinton campaign, and recognized that it was so predicated on spending time with wealthy donors and not spending time in middle-class neighborhoods and rural areas,' he said. Don Kuster, who said he has ticked the box for Mr. Paulsen in every previous election, now volunteers for Mr. Phillips’s campaign. [...] 'I asked him ‘What’s your thing?’ and he said, ‘Campaign finance reform,' Mr. Kuster recalled [...]. 'He said, ‘I’m not taking any PAC money. I’m not taking it from the Sierra Club. I’m not taking money from Planned Parenthood. I want to be able to make my own decisions.’ I thought, ‘Ok, that’s something I can support.' "

This link, itself headlined: For Voters Sick of Money in Politics, a New Pitch: No PAC Money Accepted

The headline quote for this post is from near the item's end. Earlier, before the text headlined above:

Campaign finance was once famously dismissed by Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, as being of no greater concern to American voters than “static cling.” But since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010 opened the floodgates for unrestricted political spending, polls have shown that voters are growing increasingly bitter about the role of money in politics.

[...]In Minnesota, Mr. Phillips, a Democrat, has raised more than $2.3 million, 99 percent of it from individuals, and has used his no-PAC-money pledge to mount a formidable challenge in a district that Republicans have held since 1961. His opponent, Representative Erik Paulsen, who sits on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, has raised $3.6 million, more than half of it from PACs.

[...] Frustration with corporate influence in politics was already evident during the 2016 presidential cycle. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who sought the Democratic nomination, rejected corporate PAC money, excelled at attracting small-dollar donations, and criticized the political establishment in Washington for being too beholden to the wealthy.

Donald Trump also made corruption in Washington a central theme of his campaign and promised to “drain the swamp” of politicians who only do the bidding of their wealthy donors.

“Love or hate Trump, I think the moment he stood on stage and said ‘Give politicians money and they’ll do whatever you want,’ was the beginning of his upward trajectory,” said John Pudner of Take Back Our Republic, a conservative group dedicated to reducing the political influence of corporations, unions and other special interest groups.

[...] But Republican leaders have so far not taken up the issue. And Mr. Trump routinely endorses candidates who accept large amounts of money from corporate PACs. In the recent special election in Ohio, Mr. Trump attended a rally for Mr. O’Connor’s Republican opponent, Troy Balderson, a state senator who heads an energy committee and has received more than one-third of his campaign funds from PACs, including some with ties to oil and gas companies.

[...] His message is particularly potent because his opponent, Mr. Paulsen, has taken in the sixth-largest haul from PACs out of the 435 members of the House of Representatives, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

[link in original] Following the OpenSecrets link, the top seven House PAC money takers are to a man, white male Republicans.

Bought? Your guess is as fine as mine.

OpenSecrets listing of Paulsen's money sources; here.

If bought, by whom? Biggest Paulsen money source, Frauenshuh Companies. This link, opening:

Twenty-seven years after cofounding his commercial real estate development firm in Minnesota, David Frauenshuh has quietly become the largest privately held developer of medical facilities in the United States.

His Minneapolis-based company acquires, develops, finances, and manages a growing collection of Class A medical office buildings, multiple-specialty clinics, and ambulatory care centers for large institutional customers across the country. Frauenshuh currently has more than 4 million square feet under management.

In spite of a tough economy, that square footage continues to grow. In the first quarter of 2010, Frauenshuh broke ground on three medical care facilities in Texas, California, and Washington state totaling 315,000 square feet. Before the year is out, construction will have begun on eight more projects totaling 680,000 square feet in five states, including the 300,000-square-foot Virtua Voorhees Ambulatory Care Center in New Jersey.

This 20 percent growth in properties under management will follow the September 2009 opening of the 225,000-square-foot Virtua Health and Wellness Center in New Jersey; and the May 2010 unveiling of the 90-bed Bellevue Medical Center Hospital in Omaha, along with an adjacent 58,000-square-foot medical office building.

That is but a part of the medical-industrial complex standing firmly against Single Payer; so go figure, if bought, by whom.

(credit the Center for Responsive Politics; publisher of the OpenSecrets website)