Much of the money democrats collect from the super rich can be thought of as either corrupt, as in the case of major real estate developers looking for Section 8 money, or "protection" payments. (Look what happened to Bill Gates, who wasn't paying up). Then there is the money from Hollywood types, who pay up to get prominent pols to their parties, to get an invite to sleep in the White House, etc. This is money being paid by the brain - dead in pursuit of personal narcissistic gratification.
CENTER FOR RESPONSIVE POLITICS
MONEY IN POLITICS ALERT
Vol. 5, #65 December 8, 2000
tel: 202-857-0044, fax: 202-857-7809
email:
info@crp.org, web: www.opensecrets.org
The Neverending Story II:
A Look at Donors to Gore's Recount Committee
By Holly Bailey
In his bid to capture Florida's 25 electoral votes and thus control
of the White House, Vice President Al Gore in the week following
Election Day tapped a who's who roster of Democratic loyalists
to finance his mounting legal challenge for the presidency, raising
an estimated $3.3 million in only a few days.
But according to documents filed Thursday with the Internal Revenue
Service, Gore's biggest supporter turned out to be a registered
Republican. Steven Kirsch, a high-tech philanthropist and founder
of the search engine Infoseek, wrote a $500,000 check to the
Gore-Lieberman Recount Committee -- 500 times the amount Kirsch
could legally contribute to Gore's regular presidential campaign
fund.
But Kirsch wasn't the only one writing a major check for Gore's
legal bills. Eight others, including the actress Jane Fonda ($100,000),
Hollywood producer Stephen Bing ($200,000), Slim Fast Foods chief
S. Daniel Abraham ($100,000) and Minneapolis investor Vance Opperman
($100,000, also wrote six-figure checks to the recount fund,
to which contributions are not legally limited.
The Democrats have outraised the GOP in soft money over the years. Democrat soft money comes almost entirely from the very wealthy, like tort lawyers. This is one reason the GOP objecting to the soft money ban and the Democrats backing it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I expect that if the SCOTUS doesn't rule that provision of the campaign finance bill unconstitutional, the Democrats will try to find some way to undermine it.
