NRG Energy, Inc. rejected Sunday a $6.1 billion takeover bid by Exelon Corp., openly challenging whether the Chicago-based parent company of Commonwealth Edison could successfully manage what would have been the country's largest power generation company.
Exelon made an unsolicited all-stock offer last month that valued NRG at a 37 percent premium, a figure that dipped to 9.4 percent by the close of the stock market Friday. The offer proved underwhelming to the board of directors at NRG, which unanimously turned down a merger it said "significantly undervalues" the Princeton, NJ-based company.
``Under your proposal, NRG shareholders would own only 17 percent of the combined company while contributing over 30 percent of a combined NRG-Exelon free cash flow in 2008,'' the company said in a letter sent Sunday to Exelon Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Rowe.
*snip*
As best we can tell, we see no evidence of even a single senior executive at Exelon with any experience whatsoever working at a true competitive power generation company," the letter said.
A merger would have given Exelon a leg up in plans to build additional nuclear power plants nationwide.
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Obama’s Exelon ties, Ayers connection
Snippet:
Obama accepted Exelon lobbyist’s cash
In “An asterisk to Obama’s policy on donations”, Dan Morain, of the Los Angeles Times, wrote April 22, 2007:
Exelon spent $500,000 to influence policy in Washington last year. Although Obama took no money from Exelon’s Washington lobbyists, he accepted $1,000 checks from lobbyists John P. Novak and James Monk of Springfield. In Springfield, Novak represents Exelon., and Monk is president of the Illinois Energy Assn., a trade group that represents Commonwealth Edison.
Monk and Novak said they do not lobby in Washington. But their clients care about federal issues, including where to store nuclear waste and what restrictions to place on coal-fired plants.
*snip*
In the 2008 election cycle alone, we turn to OpenSecrets.org, which on August 29, 2008, found 216 entries for Exelon totalling $185,761 for Sen. Obama. A second search that included both Obama’s name and that of his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, found 261 entries for Exelon totalling $228,361.
Quick math shows that only 45 Exelon entries are for McCain for a total of $42,600.
Obama’s Exelon contributions outnumber those of McCain by more than five times.
*snip*
The bundlers, the contributors
We have at least two Exelon bundlers for Obama.
Public Citizen’s White House for Sale website provides general information about the identities of and amounts raised:
* Frank Clark, confirmed most recently as a federal lobbyist in 2000, has raised at least $200,001.00. Additionally, as a Mega-Donor, Clark has contributed an additional $28,500.00 to political action committees supporting Obama.
* John W. Rogers Jr. has raised at least $500,001.00.
In fact, Del Jones wrote August 20, 2008, at USA Today of John Rogers:
John Rogers,.... is an Obama bundler of significance, one of only 36 people who have raised more than $500,000, according to Obama’s website. ....................
~~~
((NOTE: Com Ed is owned by Exelon Corp.))
Obama’s Lobbyist Connection
When Illinois utility Commonwealth Edison wanted state lawmakers to back a hefty rate hike two years ago, it took a creative lobbying approach, concocting a new outfit that seemed devoted to the public interest: Consumers Organized for Reliable Electricity, or CORE.
CORE ran TV ads warning of a "California-style energy crisis" if the rate increase wasn't approved—but without disclosing the commercials were funded by Commonwealth Edison.
The ad campaign provoked a brief uproar when its ties to the utility, which is owned by Exelon Corp., became known.
"It's corporate money trying to hoodwink the public," the state's Democratic Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn said.
What got scant notice then—but may soon get more scrutiny—is that CORE was the brainchild of ASK Public Strategies, a consulting firm whose senior partner is David Axelrod, now chief strategist for Barack Obama.
*snip*
Neither Axelrod nor his partners at ASK ever registered as lobbyists for Commonwealth Edison—and under Illinois's loose disclosure laws, they were not required to. "I've never lobbied anybody in my life," Axelrod tells NEWSWEEK. "I've never talked to any public official on behalf of a corporate client." (He also says "no one ever denied" that Edison was the "principal funder" of his firm's ad campaign.)
But the activities of ASK (located in the same office as Axelrod's political firm) illustrate the difficulties in defining exactly who a lobbyist is.
~~~
Sidebar ~~ another Axelrod dalliance:
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U. of C. shunning poor patients?
Sen. Barack Obama's wife and three close advisers have been involved with a program at the University of Chicago Medical Center that steers patients who don't have private insurance -- primarily poor, black people -- to other health care facilities.
*snip*
Obama's top political strategist, David Axelrod, co-owns the firm, ASK Public Strategies, that was hired by the hospital last year to sell the program -- called the Urban Health Initiative -- to the community as a better alternative for poor patients. Obama's wife and Valerie Jarrett, an Obama friend and adviser who chairs the medical center's board, backed the Axelrod firm's hiring, hospital officials said.
~~~
The beat goes on. Only the faces are changed. Axelrod lobbied, as opposed to BO's anti-lobbyist campaign staff statements, and has been a surrogate for MO and BO's interests. Now, BO wants Valerie Jarrett to be his IL senatorial replacement.
Regarding the nuclear/energy issues, I bet public records are available showing whom in Snowbama/Pelosi/Reid et al's clan are investing into various energy companies.
We see the real face behind the mask. And Axelrod's still
on their website.Let's see how long it takes for them to scrub it.
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• Partner Bios •
ASK Public Strategies partners:
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312-664-0153
312-664-0174 FAX
info@askps.com |
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• David Axelrod •
David Axelrod is one of the preeminent political and public affairs consultants in the United States. He has produced winning media and messages for over 150 political campaigns at the local, state and national levels, as well as a number of public and private sector organizations.
A former journalist, Axelrod established his firm in 1985, after managing Paul Simon's upset victory over incumbent U.S. Senator Charles Percy in Illinois. Since then, he has worked for leading Democrats across the country, including Governor Deval Patrick in Massachusetts; U.S. Senators Hillary Clinton, Herb Kohl and Chris Dodd; Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in New York; Governor Tom Vilsack in Iowa; Congressman Rahm Emanuel in Illinois; and many of America’s leading mayors including Richard M. Daley in Chicago; John F. Street in Philadelphia and Dennis Archer in Detroit.
In addition to candidate races, Axelrod has developed successful media campaigns for many ballot initiatives and independent committees. Axelrod also serves as the principal media consultant for the national AFL-CIO and has produced media for the Democratic National Committee, and the Democratic Senatorial and Congressional Campaign Committees.
A native of New York City, Axelrod graduated from the University of Chicago and spent eight years as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, where he covered national, state and local politics. In 1981, he became the youngest political writer and columnist in the paper's history. He also served as the paper's City Hall bureau chief.
Axelrod has lectured on political media at many universities including Harvard University, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and the University of Pennsylvania. He's a frequent guest on national TV shows, including CNN's "Crossfire" and “Inside Politics” and MSNBC’s “Hardball."
*David Axelrod is currently on leave from ASK Public Strategies.
~~~
News hack to political hack. The Chicago Way?
