Posted on 07/14/2017 5:34:51 PM PDT by Kaslin
Unless you live in a deep-blue state or congressional district, hypocrisy is not something you want to have to revisit during a re-election campaign. For red state Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly of Indiana, he should be preparing his defense because this is going to be used against him by the time his 2018 re-election campaign kicks into high gear. The senator has tried to portray himself as a hardcore fighter of this byproduct in free trade but seems to have profited from it through investments with the family arts and crafts business (via Associated Press) [emphasis mine]:
An Indiana senator railed against Carrier Corp. for moving manufacturing jobs to Mexico last year, even as he profited from a family business that relies on Mexican labor to produce dye for ink pads, according to records reviewed by The Associated Press.
Joe Donnelly, considered one of the nation’s most vulnerable Democratic senators up for re-election next year, has long blasted free-trade policies for killing American jobs. He accused Carrier, an air conditioner and furnace maker, of exploiting $3-an-hour workers when it announced plans to wind down operations in Indiana and move to Mexico.
However, an arts and crafts business Donnelly’s family has owned for generations is capitalizing on some of the very trade policies — and low-paid foreign labor — the senator has denounced.
For more than a year, Stewart Superior Corp. and its subsidiaries have been shipping thousands of pounds of raw materials to Mexico, where the company has a factory that produces ink pads and other supplies, according to customs records from Panjiva Inc., which tracks American imports and exports. The finished products are then transported back to a company facility in California, the records show.
Stewart Superior, which also has an operation in LaPorte, Indiana, says on its website that the company’s Mexican factory “brings economical, cost competitive manufacturing and product development to our valued customers.”
Although Donnelly’s brother runs the company, the senator previously served as a corporate officer and its general counsel before he was first elected to Congress in 2006. In a financial disclosure form he filed in May, Donnelly reported owning as much as $50,000 in company stock and earning between $15,001 and $50,000 in dividends on it in 2016 alone.
Joe asked @ustreasury Sec. @stevenmnuchin1 how the WH tax reform proposal will help prevent outsourcing of U.S. jobs. pic.twitter.com/DmmRrYIaVn— Senator Joe Donnelly (@SenDonnelly) May 19, 2017
When Carrier announced they would send their jobs overseas in 2016, Donnelly slammed the move as “unpatriotic.”
“It’s wrong and it has to end. It’s cynical. It’s wrong. It’s unpatriotic. It’s shameful and it’s un-American,” he said.
Donnelly then sponsored the End Outsourcing Act in January. This is, well, not good, senator. Mr. Donnelly will be running for a second term in a state that Donald Trump dominated in 2016, winning it 56/37 over Hillary Clinton.
So what are we do call him a hypocrite or will Democrat suffice. One in the same thing right?
Senator selling stock after AP ties company to Mexican labor
http://wishtv.com/2017/07/14/senator-selling-stock-after-ap-ties-company-to-mexican-labor/
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Indiana senator and longtime critic of outsourcing jobs to foreign countries announced Friday that he’s selling his stock in his family’s arts and crafts company after The Associated Press reported it manufactures some products in Mexico.
Democrat Joe Donnelly said he hasn’t had an active role in the company for 20 years but was taking the action to avoid allowing the issue to become “a distraction from our work to end outsourcing and keep American jobs here instead of shipping them to other countries.” His campaign said he made the statement to reporters at an Indiana Black Expo luncheon.
The AP reported Thursday that Donnelly made at least $15,001 in dividends last year on as much as $50,000 of stock in Stewart Superior Corp., which used Mexican workers to produce dye for ink pads.
Donnelly, considered one of the nation’s most vulnerable Democratic senators up for re-election next year, was highly critical of Carrier Corp., an air conditioner and furnace maker. He accused it of exploiting $3-an-hour workers when its parent company announced plans last year to cut some 2,000 jobs at two Indiana factories by moving production to Mexico.
The senator praised then President-elect Donald Trump in November for reaching a deal that saved 800 of the jobs at an Indianapolis factory.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee quickly criticized Donnelly in a statement Friday, alleging he is “hypocritically profiting” from the company’s actions. It called on him to donate his sale profits to organizations helping the families of displaced workers.
Donnelly has sponsored a bill, titled the End Outsourcing Act, which aims to make it more difficult to transfer jobs to other countries.
“The real issue we need to focus on, days before 300 Carrier workers in Indianapolis face layoffs, is how we can keep manufacturing here in Indiana,” he said in the news release, urging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, to bring the bill to the floor next week.
Donnelly, the lone Democrat elected statewide in Republican-dominated Indiana, is facing a tough re-election bid in 2018. Two Republicans in the U.S. House, Luke Messer and Todd Rokita, have signaled an interest in running.
For more than a year, Stewart Superior and its subsidiaries have been shipping thousands of pounds of raw materials to Mexico, where the company has a factory that produces ink pads and other supplies, according to customs records from Panjiva Inc., which tracks American imports and exports. The finished products are then transported back to a company facility in California, the records show.
Stewart Superior, which also has an operation in LaPorte, Indiana, says on its website that the company’s Mexican factory “brings economical, cost competitive manufacturing and product development to our valued customers.”
Donnelly’s brother runs the company, but the senator previously served as a corporate officer and its general counsel before he was first elected to Congress in 2006. He won election to the Senate in 2012.
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So, this makes it all better.
He’s only vulnerable if someone in the State of Indiana can be found to take him on.
Sounds like he’s trying to do good and keep jobs here in the U.S.
No major role in the company for a long time.. getting rightful dividends from the stock he’s had for years...
I think people throwing mud at this guy have it wrong.
One down...23 more to go!
This seat is an easy pickup y’all but get your wallets ready...
This is getting a LOT of press here in Indiana, by a normally liberal press.
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