The Sacramento Squeeze: Big campaign donations = big political rewards
Last year, California’s top Democrat managed to sidestep donation limits and got his fellow Democrats to donate $5.8 million to key races. In return, those who donated the most were rewarded with powerful leadership positions on “juice committees” that influence the state’s wealthiest interest groups.
But hey, that’s all legal. Our animated video explains.
Exploiting legal loopholes, Democrats in the California Assembly pumped $5.8 million into key campaigns designated by Speaker John A. Pérez last year, our new data analysis shows. Not only did the infusion of cash help the Democrats win a supermajority in the Capitol, the system also paid off for the speaker’s biggest fundraisers.
According to the data, Pérez gave lawmakers who raised the most money the best assignments in the new Legislature – posts on the speaker’s leadership team and seats on the powerful “juice committees. They control bills affecting the financial bottom line for the Capitol’s wealthiest interest groups: from banks, insurance companies and public utilities to casinos, racetracks and liquor distributors.”
We tell veterans don’t shoot yourself, don’t shoot your wife, just stick with it and we’ll see what we can do while you wait two years for your benefits. The system sucks.
Since Obama took office, the number of veterans waiting more than a year for their disability claims had increased by more than 2,000 percent – from 11,000 in 2009 to 245,000 in December.
Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, called for the head of the agency’s benefits administration to resign.
“When you have a company, any company, that doesn’t perform, you fire the CEO,” Meshad said.
As a candidate, President Obama promised to revamp a “broken VA bureaucracy,” but internal documents show that the agency’s ability to quickly provide service-related benefits to veterans has virtually collapsed under his administration.
The number of veterans waiting more than a year for their benefits grew from 11,000 in 2009, the first year of Obama’s presidency, to 245,000 in December – an increase of more than 2,000 percent. Internal data indicates that veterans filing their first claim, including those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, wait between 316 and 327 days on their claim.
Get the full story from reporter Aaron Glantz.
Graphic by Lauren Rabaino
For more on the outside interests pouring millions into the 2012 election, check out OpenSecrets’ full breakdown of total spending by industry.
Who’s donating to super PACs? Click through and use our new searchable database to see all major donors to nearly 300 super PACs since January 2011.
Dozens of high-tech command centers built or beefed up throughout the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to promote better information sharing and disaster preparation have struggled to do just that.
A decade later, federal auditors found that two networks – one heavily focused on law enforcement and the other on emergency management – are often unaware of what the other is doing and in the process might be missing critical opportunities to improve efficiency.
Investigations after the hijackings revealed that critical information about what the attackers were planning had not been pieced together, in part because local, state and federal agencies frequently failed to communicate with one another. Hurricane Katrina, meanwhile, exposed weaknesses in how those same bureaucracies responded to both manmade and natural catastrophes. Read more.
Photo via fpra/Flickr: An emergency operations center in Florida
Candidly, those who count on quote ‘Hollywood’ for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who’s going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don’t ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don’t pay any attention to me when my job is at stake.
Chris Dodd, former U.S. senator and chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America, to Fox News last week.
As anti-piracy legislation stalled in Congress last week, the movie industry’s top lobbyist, former U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, warned Democrats not to count on Hollywood money if they turn their backs on the industry’s legislative priority. Read more.
Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney is dominating the money race in California, but Texas Gov. Rick Perry also has mined millions out of the Golden State in just a few months, according to new campaign finance data released this week.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Romney has raised $3.9 million from Californians since he began his presidential campaign late last spring. Perry has raised $1.2 million from California donors since he entered the race in August.
A complete breakdown of California totals for each of the Republican candidates is above.
A photo of GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney from back in the day, when he was at private equity firm Bain Capital. (h/t @drgrist)
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