Darn That Big (Republican) Money!

I spent some time last night listening to Terry Gross, her brow audibly furrowed, interviewing Jane Mayer of The New Yorker for the better part of an hour over “The Red Map Project” – a GOP project to target and win state legislatures in swing states.  Mayer focused on the contributions of one Art Pope to the GOP Legislative races in North Carolina:

“He and his family members have basically poured money into the state’s politics; $40 million is about what they’ve spent through their foundations,” says Mayer. “About $35 million of that has gone towards pushing a far-right political agenda in North Carolina. In the 2010 state races, where people don’t spend much money, he and the groups that he helped found — that were supposedly independent groups — spent $2.2 million. It doesn’t sound like a lot nationally, but it can make all the difference in the context of one state. So basically what you’re looking at is one very wealthy corporate captain who, when motivated enough, can exert enormous influence in a state.”

The influence Pope wields in North Carolina can be seen in the results of the 2010 legislative election. Republicans won 18 of the 22 races Pope or his organizations targeted. Roughly 75 percent of spending by independent groups during North Carolina’s state races came from accounts linked to Pope.

Sounds pretty serious – a rich guy deciding to do of his own free will, out in the open, what George Soros and Paul Allen and Alida Messinger and do of their own free wills with their own money.  Or what the AFL/CIO, Teamsters, SEIU and NEA and other groups do with their members’ money (whether the members approve or not – 42% of union members voted GOP in 2010, while their unions gave more than double that share to the Democrats), frequently laundered through layers of 527s and other front groups. .

But let’s take this at face value; “Fresh Air” and the New Yorker have blown the lid off of an out-in-the-open “GOP plot” to use freely-donated money in its capacity as free speech to try to win elections.  It’s what “journalists” do, after all – focus attention on campaign spending by Republicans.

But I had to check; has Terry Gross, or the New Yorker, spent any time on, say, George Soros’ “Secretary of State Project“, his well-funded attempt to put Democrats in charge of state election systems?

NPR?  Nope.  I guess they don’t rant or slant – against Democrats.

The New Yorker?  Any guesses?  If you don’t take that bet, you win!

The war against Republican/Conservative money in the electoral process continues apace!

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