This and That
What about those political contributions?
By THOMAS MICHALSKI
| Article published on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009 |
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Politics is a dirty business. Just the word, politics, generates visions of corruption, pork barrel spending and underhandedness because so many past and present elected officials contributed to making it just that.
The politicians that make the headlines are the ones soiling the reputation of all elected officials, including the honest ones. Many Floridians question if decisions and votes cast by lawmakers are tarnished by personal and business contributions to campaign war chests.
Political donations are doled out in many ways. One method is through outright cash gifts to political campaigns. Another is to bestow upon candidates such perks as free or reduced-rate billboard advertising. A third method is contributing to so-called political action committees.
Politics is all about special interest groups who help finance campaigns for municipal elections, state legislative races and beyond. Here in Florida our lawmakers shamelessly collect handouts from the insurance, medical, land development, utilities, and other industries.
Florida Power & Light and TECO of Tampa have been granted millions in past rate increases. Does the fact that the two companies are among the largest donors to political campaigns have anything to do with those rate hikes? FPL, which is seeking increases for 2010, doled out $329,000 in political donations during last July-to-September while TECO kicked in $213,000.
Even the Walt Disney conglomerate paid out $194,000 during the same period. Blue Cross & Blue Shield contributed $179,000. The list goes on.
President Obama was hailed as the savior of our nation. The bottom line is that he’s still a politician who owes his soul to big business and labor unions. His honeymoon in Washington is over and now he must pay back the special interest groups that helped finance his presidential campaign. The unions combined reportedly doled out millions of dollars. Payback will not be cheap. There are reasons why Obama has already backtracked on some of his campaign promises.
His diehard supporters dispute the fact that our economy is worse than ever. We are sending more troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. The war there has become another Vietnam, a winless battle that very well could topple the Obama or a future administration.
Back home, the Florida Division of Elections provides some interesting data about where state legislators get their money to run campaigns.
One Pinellas County state representative, for example, received a total of $45,463 in contributions. Most of the cash came from local individuals and businesses, but other contributions resulted from such major hitters as Bright House Networks, the Committee of Florida (Insurance) Agents, the Florida Bankers Association, Nationwiders for a Better Florida, and TECO Energy.
Another state lawmaker, who also represents parts of Pinellas County, hit paydirt with contributions from insurance companies, utilities and scores of others that helped fill his coffers with $24,474.
Check it out yourself at election.dos.state.fl.us and click on Campaign Finance to search for candidate and committee finance records.
So, when it’s all said and done, who really runs this state and country? Is it our elected officials, or the big moneybags that paid for their election campaigns?
Until next time ...
Thomas Michalski is the editor of the Pinellas Park Beacon.
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Article published on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009
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