With the approach of the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s destruction of campaign finance regulation and limits on corporate contributions with their “Citizens United” ruling, it’s important to digest the visceral impact of the decision and the wreckage of democracy that it left “on the ground,” specifically in the 2010 elections.
One detailed look at a specific industry and specific players that used the opportunity for unlimited and mostly secret campaign contributions comes from the Center for Public Integrity and NBC News.
Their report chronicles the last-minute cash infusion into Republican campaigns from multi-billion dollar hedge funds that stood to benefit if the anti-regulation conservatives they were lavishly bankrolling were elected to Congress and, as part of the GOP’s sweeping takeover of the House, were inserted into powerful posts that allow them to basically do the bidding of the very industries that funded their political campaigns. One Republican lawmaker’s political action committee raised nearly 100 percent of its money from one Wall Street firm alone.
A small network of hedge fund executives pumped at least $10 million into Republican campaign committees and allied groups before November’s elections, helping bankroll GOP victories that this week will change the balance of power in Washington, according to a review of campaign records and interviews with industry insiders by the Center for Public Integrity and NBC News.
Bitterly opposed to President Barack Obama’s economic and regulatory policies — including proposals to increase taxes on some of their profits — top Wall Street hedge fund moguls were unusually energized during last year’s election. They held multiple fundraisers and coordinated strategy to direct what appear to be unprecedented sums into the coffers of GOP and allied political committees, according to industry and GOP fundraising sources.
Many substantial donations from the hedge fund executives escaped public notice either because they were made late in the campaign (and therefore weren’t reported until after the election) or were funneled through third-party groups, obscure “joint fundraising committees” and newly created political nonprofits that are not required to disclose donors.
And the problem goes far beyond just the effects of the Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” ruling. The existence of special political committees gives lawmakers and political party operators the perfect structure to funnel virtually unlimited contributions from deep-pocketed donors. It also affords corporations and industries the opportunity to purchase political influence with both the politicians and partisan organizers that run these operations and the candidates, such as in the 2010 midterms, that are the gleeful recipients of record amounts of cash from these powerful political organizations. The true source of the money can remain hidden, and the ubiquitous special interests can complete their power grab.
The new GOP-controlled House may be far friendlier to the hedge fund industry, as some of its key allies are now poised to inherit important leadership positions. Incoming Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia has been a key critic of the “carried interest” proposal and recently vowed to “reign in the regulatory policies” under the Dodd-Frank law to block it. In the last two years, Cantor’s campaign committee; his leadership political action committee, the Every Republican is Crucial PAC; and the Cantor Victory Committee, a joint fundraising committee he headed, all received substantial contributions from hedge fund partners. Among them: $31,400 from Cohen and executives at SAC, $32,400 from Blue Ridge Capital and $50,200 from Gruss Investments. Six top executives at the giant private equity firm KKR also contributed $55,000 to Cantor’s joint fundraising committee.
[...] the rest here: How Hedge Fund Billionaires Bought the 2010 Elections (And They … Share and [...]