Posted on 10/31/2014 5:20:52 PM PDT by Steelfish
Once A Crusader Against Big Money, Gov. Brown Is Collecting Millions
By MICHAEL FINNEGAN, BEN WELSH Gov. Brown built his career crusading against big money in politics. Now, that fight comes with a qualifier 'You bet I was influenced,' Gov. Jerry Brown once said of donations to his campaigns for governor Twenty years ago, one of the first callers to Jerry Brown's radio show, "We the People," asked whether campaign money had influenced him as governor in the 1970s and '80s.
"You bet I was influenced," he said. "You think you can collect $10 million or $20 million and not let it affect your judgment? Your behavior is influenced, and that is the vice that is destroying us.
"People who work in a fish factory," he added tartly, "don't realize they stink."
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FOR THE RECORD
Oct. 31, 9:35 a.m.: Earlier versions of this post identified a person in a photo caption as Anne Gust Brown, Gov. Jerry Brown's wife. The person is Nancy McFadden, an aide to Brown. The caption also stated incorrectly that McFadden had asked for donations to the Brown campaign and the state Democratic Party.
You think you can collect $10 million or $20 million and not let it affect your judgment? Your behavior is influenced, and that is the vice that is destroying us. - Gov. Jerry Brown, in the 1990s ------------
Brown, 76, built his career crusading against big money in politics. In his first run for governor, in 1974, he refused donations from lobbyists and co-authored a ballot measure that put California's landmark Political Reform Act on the books, banning direct contributions from lobbyists and requiring detailed disclosure of other donations.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
And besides, I neeeed the money, which doesn't grow on trees you know.
A whore by any other name . . .
Gov. Brown built his career crusading against big money in politics …Baloney. No Democrat ever does, least of all the Edmund Gerald Browns of the world.
Is he still pushing the flat tax like he did running for president in 1992?
Being as utterly objective as I can (and no I do not, did not, nor will I vote for Moonbeam) ... Brown has really moved off some of his far left lunacy. He’s not exactly in the middle but maybe old age has wised him up just a bit.
I think you’re right. He is no longer a wild dreamer now he is just an uber corrupt money grubbing politician.
To most politicians, but especially liberals, life is just theater.
They find out what the sheeple want to see and hear and that is what they show them.
Behind the curtain they do exactly the opposite.
But the most successful politicians actually learn how to program the sheeple.
In this case, they convince the sheeple that they are unhappy and that their unhappiness is caused by the wealthy.
Then they rant and rave against the wealthy while on stage.
But behind the curtain they sell favors, tax breaks and special treatment to the wealthy and in return they rake in money by the truckload.
The sheeple are happy because they heard the politician lambaste the filthy rich.
The wealthy don’t care if they hear a few insincere harsh words.
As long as they prosper through influence with powerful government figures they are happy.
And the politician is happy because the sheeple love him, the wealthy need him, and his bank accounts get fatter and fatter.
“Once A Crusader Against Big Money”
The LA Times should be ashamed for throwing that emotionally distressing term - Crusader - around as they did. They use it as if it were a good thing.
(Yes. This is sarcasm.)
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