Comments on: campaign contributions

campaign contributions

Raichle — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 19:07:40 -0800

Who is funding a candidate and for how much. You can search by name or zip code to find out. Here is a link to prominent pittsburgh people that have contributed.

By: fvw

fvw — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 19:42:35 -0800

From that second link: Jim Broadhurst, CEO of Eat'n Park restaurants, $2,000 to Kerry and $1,000 to Bush. Why would anyone give money to both Bush and Kerry's campaign, unless he's afraid a third-party candidate is going to win?

By: anathema

anathema — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 19:43:35 -0800

It's called insurance.

By: trharlan

trharlan — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 19:44:27 -0800

If campaign contributions = influence purchases, as many allege, it shouldn't be that hard to figure out. Maybe you were being sarcastic.

By: trharlan

trharlan — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 19:49:54 -0800

By: fvw

fvw — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 19:55:53 -0800

But if campaign contribution really is public, wouldn't whoever wins be just as grateful to someone who gave no campaign contributions as to someone who gave both parties an equal amount? And anyway, $2000/$1000 seems pretty low for buying influence, I'd imagine you'd have to pay a lot more than that.

By: goneill

goneill — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 20:50:56 -0800

If you pay $2000 and you get 100 of your 'business associates' to pay $2000 then it adds up.

By: boaz

boaz — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 20:57:15 -0800

It's funny that there's actually a PAC called, no joke, A LOT OF PEOPLE SUPPORTING TOM DASCHLE INC. I found it while looking up Bill Gates' donations, and you gotta hand it to Bill, he's one even-handed guy.

By: boaz

boaz — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 20:57:50 -0800

Okay, it's actually a campaign comittee but still.

By: SteveInMaine

SteveInMaine — Thu, 30 Sep 2004 03:22:09 -0800

Holy carp! Somebody I know who in the past has referred to himself as a republican operative donated $250 to Kerry, $0 to Bush. This listing is pretty up to date - it shows contributions dated August 2004.

By: nofundy

nofundy — Thu, 30 Sep 2004 05:02:10 -0800

That Pittsburgh list is very incomplete. It doesn't even show Richard Mellon Scaife who contributes millions to right wing causes every year and is the most politically activist person in the city.

By: SteveInMaine

SteveInMaine — Thu, 30 Sep 2004 05:45:47 -0800

nofundy: Type Scaife's name in the lookup from the main link and you'll get different results.

By: nofundy

nofundy — Thu, 30 Sep 2004 07:02:32 -0800

You are correct Steve. I was attempting a little jab at the second link. Guess who owns the paper? ;-)

By: Shane

Shane — Thu, 30 Sep 2004 08:16:45 -0800

Excellent. Follow da trail. On a similar note, Pfizer wants to own everyone's ass. They take congressmen on luxury junkets continually, especially recently before the drug bill that boosted the industry's profits by literally billions. But that's a post all by itself.

By: Daddio

Daddio — Thu, 30 Sep 2004 09:12:39 -0800

It's also instructive to find out about your local candidates' interests. There's a guy in the San Francisco Bay Area that's running for State assembly as a liberal Republican (Steve Poizner). He's contributed to Bush and a pro-life candidate from Kansas, as well as to Kerry (back in 2001) and to a pro-choice PAC.

By: billsaysthis

billsaysthis — Thu, 30 Sep 2004 12:11:00 -0800

There's a guy in the San Francisco Bay Area that's running for State assembly as a liberal Republican (Steve Poizner). He's contributed to Bush and a pro-life candidate from Kansas, as well as to Kerry (back in 2001) and to a pro-choice PAC. Have you seen the TV ads for his opponent Ira Ruskin? They explicitly make this point. I actually met Poizner in April when he spoke to a group for which I webmaster and though he comes across as intelligent and personable I was in no way inclined to vote for him; fortunately for Poizner I live just south of his district.