Donations poured in as Brown’s role grew
With vote near, financial sector delivered $140kCampaign contributions to Senator Scott Brown from the financial industry spiked sharply during a critical three-week period last summer as the fate of the Wall Street regulatory overhaul hung in the balance and Brown used the leverage of his swing vote to win key concessions sought by firms.
Senator Brown sought to loosen bank rules
OK’d overhaul, then called for leeway, e-mails showSenator Scott Brown has trumpeted his role in casting the deciding vote in favor of the 2010 Wall Street overhaul, but records show that after he voted for the law, he worked to shield banks and other financial institutions from some of its tough provisions.
E-mails between Brown’s legislative director and US Treasury Department officials show that Brown advocated for a loose interpretation of the law so that banks could more easily engage in high-risk investments.
Wall Street lavishly lined Republican Scott Brown’s campaign coffers to the tune of over $3.3 million, and Brown used his office to do Wall Street’s bidding. Now, the same big money investor class is using its financial clout to fund the bulk of Republican Gabriel Gomez’s Senate campaign. David Bernstein reports:
At least 57 percent of all itemized contributions reported by the Gabriel Gomez campaign before Tuesday’s primary came from people who make their living, as Gomez does, by managing investments.
That includes $309,850 from individuals who list private equity or other investment-related occupations, and another $44,550 from their spouses who listed no occupation of their own.
Close to $60,000 came from employees and their spouses of the last two firms where Gomez has worked, Advent International and Summit Partners. Boston private-equity firm Berkshire Partners accounted for more than $40,000. […]
Gomez, in addition to $900,000 of his own money he loaned the campaign, raised $582,249 through April 10, the end of the pre-primary reporting period. All but $47,000 of it came in increments large enough to require itemizing. Another $86,400 of itemized contributions were included in so-called “48-hour contribution reports” after April 10.
The contribution reports also show that Gomez was funded primarily by large contributions from a relatively small number of people.
Of the $582,249 reported by the campaign in its pre-primary report, $354,350 — just over 60 percent — came from individuals who gave at least the maximum $2600 allowed for the primary campaign.
To start, Republican Gabriel Gomez is, hands down, the Big Money candidate. The majority of his campaign donations appear to come directly from his colleagues in the investor class. Even more plutocratically, it appears that the majority of his campaign funds, aside from the $900,000 in personal checks that he has written to his campaign, come from about 130 or so finance pals all maxing out. Not exactly a grassroots-fueled campaign.
We sent Senator Elizabeth Warren to the U.S. Senate, in part, to rein in the economically dangerous excesses of Wall Street. To that end, she has been kicking butt. Meanwhile, based on his fundraising, Republican Gabriel Gomez is shaping up to be just another tool for Wall Street. I don’t think Massachusetts really wants to send to the U.S. Senate someone who will simply undermine Senator Warren’s impressive leadership in taking on Wall Street.
