Political speech or bribery?

If I give money to a politician or a bureaucrat to get him or her to do something for me, it is called bribery.  Said bribery can result in a fine or a prison term, for both me and the politician or bureaucrat.

However, if I give money to the political campaign of a politician, in the expectation that he will act in my interests, it is now called "political speech".

A real Republican's Senate career was ended when it was revealed that he was given a Minneapolis condo at discount rates.  I don't remember the details, but I think it was a shame that real Republicans like David Durenberger, Bob Packwood, and Edward Brookes went down in flames because they did things that were small misdeeds compared to the shenanigans that go on now in both parties.

Remember that those who throw millions at elections so far have just as many votes as you do – one!

Please also pass on to all your friends:

Always vote because all votes count.  The only votes that don't count are those not cast.

Follow the money follow-up

Rather than just blather here about issues, I did act on campaign contributions. Sen. Amy Klobuchar is up for re-election next year, and so I sent following to her campaign.

"I am seriously considering not voting for any candidate who accepts money from organizations and people who accept campaign contributions from those who have no right to vote for that candidate. The situation for Cravaack is pretty bad, see Coffee Party's call-in "Who's your Daddy?" The FEC does not provide as much details for Senators, but I'm disappointed with both of our Senators from Minnesota. See Follow the money - Minnesota's Democratic U. S. Senators."

Follow the money - Minnesota's Democratic U. S. Senators

On 9 November I wrote an analysis of Rep. Chip Cravaacks' contributions, "Coffee Party's call-in 'Who's your Daddy?'". I wrote that I didn't check on Minnesota's Democratic Senators, Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken. As I'm not too pleased with the contributions to any candidates, I finally found a round tuit to look at Klobuchar's and Franken's contributions.

It's not as easy as looking at Cravaack's. The Senate does not provide the nice summary that the House of Representatives does. Essentially, the only detail is in the scanned copies of the reports that the Senators have to provide. And Open Secrets http://www.opensecrets.org doesn't provide as much detail for the Senate as the FEC does for the House of Representatives. I limited my review to the top 20 contributions from industries.

For Klobuchar this is at http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=2012&cid=N00027500&type=I.

The top industry was lawyers and law firms. Both PACs and individuals gave $754,054 of her $4,056542 contributions from the top 20 industries, or 18.59%. Labor unions are broken down into five types; the total of all five types was $399,549 or 9.85%. Next was "retired" with only individual contributions of $317,000 or 7.82%. Lobbyists were fourth with $229,455 or 5.65%. The remaining groups were five percent or less. My thought is to let her have the votes of these contributors in 2012, if they can vote, and to carefully consider the alternatives to the major parties, including voting for Wright In.

For Franken this data is at http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=2012&cid=N00029016&type=I.

The top industry is again lawyers and law firms, and it is probably followed by unions and retired. I've been searching and writing on this long enough for today. I will jump back to Franken's top contributors. The top four are Time Warner, General Electric, University of Minnesota and Moveon.org. It is kind of hard to know what this means as these are mostly individual contributions; the contribution of a web designer at Time Warner would be considered in this total. Is that web designer in New York or Minneapolis. From the data available on OpenSecrets, I wouldn't know.

What I was looking for is how much Franken may be getting from the medical device industry, given that he has proposed legislation to speed up approval of devices. The first directly health-related company was United Health ranked 37 with $18,150 from individual contributors. However, my thought is the same as for Klobuchar, let him have the votes of these contributors in 2014, if they can vote.

A putdown of an unsolicited political phone call

A few minutes ago I received a phone call in which there was a pause after I said, "Hello."  I wasn't fast enough to hang up before somebody said, "Is this Melvyn?"  I answered, "yes".  The person proceeded with something like, "This is so and so, and I'm calling for the Matt Entenza campaign."  I replied, "We are not interested in someone who spends so much money."  Then I hung up.

For readers not familiar with Minnesota politics, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) race for governor has two non-endorsed candidates, Matt Entenza and Mark Dayton, who are spending a spouse's or their own fortunes on the primary campaign.  The endorsed candidate, Margaret Anderson Kelliher, has spent far less, but still over a million dollars.  I was disappointed that one-fifth of her contributions come from lobbyists and PACs (Star Tribune, 2010-07-26).

I think about leaving the governor race blank on the ballot.  The Republican candidate, Tom Emmer, has serious foot-in-mouth disease.  I like the idea of the Independence Party attempting to be a viable party, but its website's message doesn't resonate with me.

The only candidate that I have any enthusiasm for is Kelliher's running mate, John Gunyou.  He was the Finance Commissioner for the last good Republican governor of Minnesota, Arne Carlson, and he is the city manager of Minnetonka.  Every few months he has submitted an op-ed article on good governance.  I have emailed him from time to time and he has responded graciously.  I once wrote him that I was looking for the Governance Party instead of the Groveling Party and the Grumbling Party.