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Subscribe to RSSThe millionaires, billionaires and companies giving big sums to political committees supporting Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Barack Obama have important business with the next president. Some are already in trouble with the government. Some are pressing for new laws or regulations that would benefit their interests in energy, mining and high finance.
The Associated Press reviewed financial reports, regulatory filings, court records, public statements and more to identify favors that the biggest donors so far in the presidential campaign might want in return for their contributions worth $100,000 or more. In some cases, these donors have given $1 million or more to help Obama's challengers or the president.
An exhaustive review of their motives is nearly impossible, since new federal rules governing such contributions allow donors to effectively remain anonymous if they funnel cash into the campaign through corporate partnerships or other mechanisms that can frustrate investigation.
The presidential campaigns all have said they do not trade political favors for election money.
Among AP's findings:
—An energy firm run by William Koch, a $1 million donor to the pro-Romney political committee, paid to lobby Congress on mining and safety issues and also over a proposed federal land swap that would enlarge the donor's Colorado ranch.
—The casino company run by Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire whose family has given $11 million to a political committee that supports Gingrich, has acknowledged it's under federal investigation by the Justice Department and a civil probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The company denies wrongdoing and says the investigation stems from an allegation by a disgruntled employee. Adelson's family has provided nearly all the money that the pro-Gingrich group has received so far.
—A hedge fund run by a New York investor, Paul Singer, who gave the pro-Romney group $1 million, has pushed for federal laws that would give official U.S. backing to the firm's legal efforts to profit from the debt of distressed and Third World nations.
—A board member and former chairman of a prestigious Los Angeles hospital, John C. Law with the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, has given the pro-Obama committee $100,000 as the hospital has lobbied Obama's administration over Medicare and Medicaid funding for teaching hospitals and electronic medical records, the National Institutes of Health and Army research programs.
— A Pennsylvania coal producer, Consol Energy Inc., which donated $150,000 to the pro-Romney group, paid a $5.5 million fine last year for violations of the Clean Water Act at six of its mines. It is lobbying to prohibit the federal government from regulating greenhouse gas emissions. Weeks after the company gave money to support Romney, who previously had agreed that humans are contributing to climate change, the candidate appeared to back off that position and said he would oppose spending high amounts of federal money to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, like those from coal plants.
The high-dollar contributions have flowed into the presidential campaign through so-called super PACs, which can support a specific candidate but can't lawfully coordinate their spending with a candidate's campaign. The groups, given a green light by the Supreme Court in 2010 when it stripped limits on corporate and labor union spending in elections, have already proved to be strategically successful for candidates. The pro-Romney group, Restore Our Future, spent $8.8 million on ads in Florida alone — more than Romney's own campaign — and has already booked TV spots in Arizona, Michigan and Minnesota.
A Romney campaign spokeswoman, Andrea Saul, dismissed any suggestion that wealthy donors are motivated by their private interests to fund the committee's operations.
"To the degree Americans support Mitt Romney," she said, "it's because he can reverse the decline of the Obama economy and get Americans back to work."
Obama so far has fewer big-money donors. He is able to marshal the resources of the Democratic National Committee, and it is typically easier for incumbents to raise money closer to the November election.
Public-interest groups have warned since the Supreme Court ruling that wealthy individuals, corporations, unions and other interests would seek favors in return for unlimited campaign contributions.
"The size of these donations counts for a lot, and the candidates will naturally be grateful to these organizations and their donors," said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics in Washington. "And with greater support, comes increased gratefulness."
Consol, which gave $150,000 to support the pro-Romney group, is the largest producer of coal from underground mines, with operations in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It also has interests in natural gas, using hydraulic fracturing — known as fracking — to extract gas with high-pressure streams of water, sand and chemicals.
Most of Consol's coal is sold to electric utilities. Such utilities are the dominant source of sulfur and carbon dioxide emissions, and Consol has backed Republican efforts to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency under Obama from issuing greenhouse gas regulations that the company says could increase its costs and affect the market for coal and natural gas.
Consol spent more than $3 million on energy and environmental lobbying last year, including the hiring of a Washington firm, Forscey & Stinson, to support legislation that would prohibit the EPA from issuing the greenhouse gas rules.
Romney once expressed clear concerns about global warming. Last June, he told a New Hampshire town hall that humans have contributed to climate change, although it is not clear by how much. "And so I think it's important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may well be significant contributors to the climate change and global warming that you're seeing," he said.
On Oct. 27, after Consol gave $150,000 to help Romney's presidential campaign, he visited the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, the arena where the National Hockey League's Penguins play. "My view is that we don't know what's causing climate change on this planet," Romney said. "And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce (carbon dioxide) emissions is not the right course for us."
Six days after Romney's remarks, his campaign deposited $1,000 checks from four of Consol's senior executives." Another executive, J. Brett Harvey, the company's chief executive officer, also serves on Romney's 2012 Pennsylvania Finance Committee.
Consul spokeswoman Lynn Seay said it is common practice for the company "to support political candidates that share a similar philosophy as it relates to a domestic energy policy that recognizes the value and importance of coal and natural gas."
Last month, the EPA objected to Consol's proposal for a mountaintop removal mine in southern West Virginia that would be one of Appalachia's biggest. The EPA had first objected to a permit for the mine on the day that Obama was inaugurated.
Among the pro-Obama group's biggest donors, the Service Employees International Union, has given $1 million so far toward his re-election as it fights Republican plans to restrict the National Labor Relations Board's authority to force employers to move or close plants in efforts to avoid unionization.
The Obama super PAC, Priorities USA Action, also received $100,000 from Law, the managing director of Warland Investments, a commercial real estate and investment firm in Santa Monica, Calif. Law is on the board at Cedars-Sinai and was previously the hospital's chairman. The hospital spent $369,000 in 2011 lobbying on federal health policies during Obama's presidency, according to Senate records.
The pro-Gingrich group, Winning Our Future, has been kept running largely with money from casino mogul Adelson. He and his wife, Miriam, gave $5 million each this month. Miriam's eldest daughter gave $500,000, and her other daughter and son-in-law donated $250,000 each.
Adelson's casino, Las Vegas Sands Corp., has been the target of federal investigations, in part over allegations that the company bribed officials in expanding its Chinese business. A spokesman declined to publicly discuss his boss' support for Gingrich. Adelson wrote last month in an email to The Washington Post: "My motivation for helping Newt is simple and should not be mistaken for anything other than the fact that my wife, Miriam, and I hold our friendship with him very dear and are doing what we can as private citizens to support his candidacy."
The head of a New York-based hedge fund, Singer of Renaissance Technologies, gave the Romney super PAC $1 million. Renaissance lobbied Congress last year on proposals that would aid hedge funds in efforts to collect on debts purchased from Argentina and other foreign governments. Renaissance is one of several international hedge funds that have bought debt in distressed and Third World nations at low prices and sometimes have used lawsuits to force the countries to pay restitution.
A spokesman, Peter Truell, declined to discuss Singer's support for Romney but Renaissance officials have said that buying sovereign debt is only one aspect of the company's business.
Singer has also been outspoken in his criticism of some aspects of the massive overhaul of banking and trading regulations brought by the Dodd-Frank Act and other legislation since the recession. Last August, Romney told a New Hampshire audience that he favored repealing the Dodd-Frank law.
Another executive, William Koch, also gave $1 million to the Romney super PAC from his personal funds and corporate accounts. Koch runs Oxbow Carbon LLC, a fossil fuels processor and mining company that wants changes to laws and regulations on mining, safety issues and climate change. Unlike his brothers, Charles and David Koch, who are long-time supporters of conservative causes, Bill Koch has funded both GOP and Democratic candidates in the past.
"Despite the political statements, this administration has done nothing to help the coal industry, and we feel their energy policy is debatable," said Brad Goldstein, an Oxbow spokesman.
Oxbow also pushed for approval of the Central Rockies Land Exchange, a proposed swap of land tracts in Colorado and Utah to enlarge Koch's 4,500-acre Bear Ranch. The proposed deal with the federal government would allow Koch to acquire several adjacent parcels of federal land in exchange for turning other tracts over to the U.S. The proposal, which requires congressional approval, has brought some local opposition but is under consideration.
___
AP Business Writer Daniel Wagner contributed to this report.
Contact the Washington investigative team at DCinvestigations (at) ap.org
Follow Jack Gillum at http://twitter.com/jackgillum
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If anyone doubts what has been happening to the country's economy,
you need to watch these....
billmoyers.com/video/
Three full videos on left, watch bottom to top... Kinda puts it in a nutshell.
@ Egilman Thank you for the link and the education I have a love of learning on both sides.
Thanks for the link, Egilan. Bill was one of the few that told the truth and got fired.No more free press.
Mitt Romney will flip-flop for cash. He wants to turn it into an Olympic sport, and he's going for the gold!
Thanks for the link, Egilman. Every American should watch the Moyers videos.
Mitt is a b.s artist and will lose to Obama ,because Obama is a master of b.s.
Republicans cry about leaving debt for grandchildren. Other problems they don't worry about is leaving grandchildren poorly educated, environmentally poisoned, without access to health care, impoverished, and jobless.
Affinity,
There are democrats that stand for the same things. It is not a world where all republicans are bad and all democrats are good.
Yes it is! (Just kidding...)
We have the same goals, at least those of us who want what is best for the country, not just what is best for ourselves do.
The difference is in how we approach problems. Republicans tend to follow an ideology that works well under certain circumstances. Unfortunately, the circumstances in which we currently find ourselves are not solved by continuing that same Republican ideology. In fact, that ideology is the main cause of our economic situation. During the reign of Bush II, we borrowed money to wage war, allowed jobs to be exported, cut support for education and healthcare, and ignored man-made environmental damage, just to name a few.
I like to think Democrats are more flexible and more open-minded about problem solving.
In the long run, it is not about party, it is about country. If Republicans were more willing to compromise, we could get a lot more done here.
The climate of attack and counter-attack clearly isn't working, except for the people who make money from controversy.
Unfortunately KayBee,
The radicals of both parties have seniority, and until they are gone it's not going to change, besides they all have their heads directly up big businesses azz, we need new blood in congress more than the presidency in my opinion.
We, the citizens, have no hope of changing things until that comes about.
"The radicals of both parties have seniority..."
That is why we need TERM LIMTS on congress, as well as anonymity of political donations. Two terms in the house, two in the senate, then back to civilian life to live under the laws you passed. Their pension options should be the same as ours; contribute to private plans as you choose and pay into social security. They should live with the same medical plan choices as well; aren't they are exempt from Obamacare?
That will eliminate most of the power seekers and those looking to enrich themselves, leaving those who wish to SERVE.
All political contributions should be anonymous. You can't sell influence if you don't know who is buying. Every individual or corporation should have the right to support the candidates they feel will act in their best interest; that's freedom. But end any quid pro quo or "pay to play" (IOW, bribery).
Will some find ways to cheat? Sure! But a few cuffed and frogmarched to the courthouse will slow THAT down!
Egilman, We get what we settle for.
If the economy has an unemployment rate of 6.5 - 7.0% by October, the recovery will be validated as being real and Obama is reelected without any doubt. No need for endless analysis and commentary as this is the way the election will play out.
The analysis is very simple. Abbott and Costello did it . Abbott -unemployment 8%. Costello- no ,16 % out of work. They figuered out that by dropping people ( stopping paychecks to the unemployed ) from unemployment rolls they can increase employment . So it is here. All unemployment #s have been phoney -the actual unemployment is over 20 %. Unless our economy returns from India , China, all wars are stopped, importation of slave labor products stop, all everybody can do is whisle dixie while further job killing takes place.
Watching the caucases in Nevada. Adelson 11 M ( under investigation) to Gingrich, Singer , Koch ( 2M)-to Romney. No wonder they are most talked about and being promoted and they will get us into war with Iran . I wonder how much they gave CNN to promote the two ? Money talks and the b.s. is swaying votes there.
We might as well put Obama back in, Romney is not going to beat him, they are cut from the same cloth!
The Republican establishment is going to hand Obama 4 more years, because they are doing all they can to keep Gingrich from winning and he is the "ONLY ONE" that can take Obama down! And Nancy Pelosi and everyone in the White House knows it too. Gingrich would wipe out all the so called accomplishments Obama thinks he has made and he would balance the budget and put the Country back where it should be, but that is too BOLD of an idea for the Republican establishment to accept, so they hope to just get control of the Senate, knowing Romney can't beat Obama.
Sometimes your worst enemies are members of your own party that are themselves too far to the left that they are unwilling to admit it, and they don't want to make the deep changes that must be made, they have become too comfortable in their lifetime of service that they forgot they were sent there to serve the people and not themselves.
"..., they have become too comfortable in their lifetime of service that they forgot they were sent there to serve the people and not themselves."
Correct. See my comment #5.1 for a proposed cure for that disease.
Well of course Mr. barbie doll,my dad left me a fortune when he died and i reaped all the benefits without doing crap for my money ,won..DUH.. you actually think Americans(and i use that term loosely)would really do their homework on what he or newt i cheated on my dying wife at least twice have the attention span to really decide who should run this country..I am sooo glad i have food and protection,and a plan to wait most of you out till you choke on your own ignorance..Enjoy your last years.,I mean months. ..lol..Our founding fathers are rolling over in their graves and i personally can not wait till 99% of you are gone..Throwing up in my mouth just a little..No great empire ever lasts and our,(excuse,me)YOUR time is allmost up..MY god..Enjoy your last months..WOW kepp drinking the water!!
Johnson are you ok? I think you must be sick, to spew such sh-t. Our country, i mean your country. What b.s.! You need to go back to school, you cant even spell. Such tripe! You are a big part of this mans country's wrongs. You have to be a republinut. No one in their right mind would speak such trash to an American. Go away, go back to your beloved China, where your fellows sent all the good paying jobs.
We all know that investment capitalists provide a public service for peoples' needs and that hospitals are heartless, profit motivated, manipulators. Way to go Obama.
Willard Romney, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and what's his name Santorum have not yet produced their birth certificates. What are they hiding? The Republican candidate in 2008 was born in Panama. We don't need another one of those semi-Americans.
That's actually funny you brought that up, affinity.
See, McCain was an actual War Hero, whose parents were both citizens, and whose grandparents on both sides were all citizens. But he was born on a military base.
There were no questions about his citizenship at all, it was well documented.
WE HELD CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS ON HIS ELIGIBILITY TO BE PRESIDENT.
Obama, questions swirl around his mysterious past. He spends millions to keep his records sealed, and has yet to produce his bona fides in ANY official setting. I think any OBJECTIVE person would want to know why.
So...
Why did we have congressional hearings on McCain, a War Hero, but Obama gets a pass?
Why does Obama get a pass? Why doesn't he have to answer the same questions McCain did?
Objectively speaking, it makes no sense to hold them each to completely different standards.
Too soon we forget, to late we get too smart.
The Presidency of Barack Obama ~~began at noon EST on January 20, 2009, ~~~2012, now still trying to straighten the economy out, with no help.
Look at the facts, ~~~ 2008, the economy and economic system went into the “can” as one senator said, as 2008 was a culmination 2000 to 2008,~~~ caused by the GOP, administration and Governing, of anarchy of the free market gambling, (not business, just gambling) by the predator flipping, fueled by the taking away the rule of having to qualify for buying a house. This using other peoples bundled, mortgages, (other peoples owned liability assets) money the liabilities of owned debt).
Putting the treasury in trillions and trillions of dollar acid assets,
Thus the destruction of the national economy, carried through to the world recession/ depression.
The world economies followed the United States, as we were supposed to know what we were doing?
To my Fellow Republicans,
You are asking me to vote for your party in spite of the sour taste your 8 years in power left in my mouth and deep down my throat. Your argument are: 1)that you have learned your lesson and you are promising me that you will not be a train wreck this time. 2) that President Obama does not understand the economy.
You are asking me to forget that Obama has been trying to clean up your mess for the past 3 years without your help, and even with all the obstacles you are putting on his path and on the path of the recovery.
Let’s assume for one second that I am buying your rationale because I am still without a job, or because I find that the economy is not picking up as faster as I wanted, or because I don’t like how Obama smiles or walks, or because I believe he is a Muslim who was not born in the US, or because I don’t like the mole he has on his SKIN (look at his face). Let’s assume for one second that I also forget that your party turned the biggest surplus of the American economy into the biggest failure of all times, and that the Bush government traumatized me with their fabricated color-coded alerts each time the dust settled down to show how incompetent they were. Let’s assume for one second that I forget all that and that I accept to give Obama a pink slip. My question now is “Who can do better? What is the alternative? Romney? Santorum? Gingrich?
For someone who did not have any “previous business experience”, Obama has done OK if we consider the situation he inherited and the constant obstruction of your party. When he got into office, the economy was shedding 750.000 jobs a month. In the last 3 months of Bush only, we lost 2.24 millions jobs. First, Obama STOPPED THE BLEEDING, then, without the help of the Repu-gnants-blicans, and with their constant obstruction, he managed to drive the economy off the red toward a net positive 250.000 jobs a month. In the last 23 months, Obama added 3.7 million jobs to the economy. There are the FACTS, not talking points. Just remember when Bush left office and when Obama took office.
Let’s compare to Romney, the Repu-gnant-blican front-runner and probable nominee. He claims that he knows how to fix the economy. But he doesn’t give me that impression. Just consider that Romney would have let the auto industry “go bankrupt”. Obama rescued the auto industry and 2 years after, they have paid back the bailout money and General Motors is again the number one world car seller, saving thousands of jobs, rebranding the American seal of quality.
Who was right on this call? Obama was, not Romney.
For sure, Romney does know how to tear off companies and sell the pieces for a profit, while laid-off workers get a pink slip. I give you that, he really knows how to do that. It remind me of Geiko, Michael Douglas' character in Wall Street. Romney will say: Greed! Greed! Greed! like others say: Amen! Amen! Amen!
Romney said it clear and loud “I am not concerned about the very poor”. Due to the miserable handling of the economy during the 8 years of your party in power, I can say that I am a poor, since I lost my house, my job has been outsourced to Mexico (thanks to your party), who do you think I will trust to get me out of this mess?
Obama of course, certainly NOT Romney because Obama is fighting for the middle class and is very well concerned about the very poor.
There are plenty of indications that under a President Romney, big corporations (insurance companies, drug companies, credit cards companies, oil companies, Wall Street) will no longer do their dirty jobs in the shadow but they will cut your throat and mine in plain daylight without impunity because they will know that your President Romney will have their back. After all, even if they are people, (as Romney claims), they cannot be trial and sentenced for murder (Try to apprehend a “people” composed of 2500 persons!).
On foreign policy and war on terror, your party had 8 years to find Bin Laden and his associates. But they could care less. Bush said “I am not concerned about his whereabouts anymore” and he left office without a major victory over Al Qaida. Obama killed Bin Laden and 95% of AlQaida, he got rid of Kadaffi (without losing one American life), he got us out of Iraq, he will soon get us out of Afghanistan, and he got back America’s influence in the international arena.
So, even when I am NOT satisfied with the slow pace the economy is recovering at, even if I am disgruntled with the way some Democrats are playing politics in Congress (for Repu-gnants-blicans, it's normal), even when I am still waiting to get a job, my perception is that if we elect another Repu-gnant-blican in the White House, my HOPE to ever live the American dream will disappear for ever because I know, deep in my heart, that UNDER A PRESIDENT ROMNEY, THE AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS WILL CEASE TO EXIST. The American society will be further polarized : the 1% wealthy at the very top, no middle class, and the 99% poor at the bottom. Period!
And this is not a picture I want to see.
Of course, there were mistakes done. Like all previous Presidents have acknowledged, nobody gets into the presidential office ready. They all learned on the job whether it was Reagan, Bush one, Clinton, Bush Two, or Obama (even Romney, if he gets elected will have to learn on the job, too). But Obama, unlike any republican candidate, gives me the confidence that his decisions will not be to the detriment of the majority and he will not act like the one who put us into two wars he did not pay for.
In spite of his 6 years running for office and because he has spent all his life out of touch of the average American, Romney will never get my vote. When he claimed that he too was unemployed, when I know that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, when I see he was making 6 millions just sitting on his a.. doing nothing, I am asking myself “how can a man like him ever understand my pain or the pain of the average American worker?
Tell your fellow Repu-gnants-blicans to stop working against the recovery and the American people and to VOTE OBAMA – BIDEN 2012.