Millions of dollars influenced finance reform fiasco

July 20, 2010 07:11


Contributions from the financial sector account for roughly 30 percent of all money collected by the campaign committee and leadership PAC of Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), the bill’s chief sponsor in the Senate, the Center found — the most among all senators. Dodd’s home state of Connecticut is also home to many financial industry companies and workers.

By Michael Beckel at OpenSecrets.org


After Democrats crafted 2,300 pages of legislation to tackle financial regulatory issues in the aftermath of the economic collapse that brought behemoths like AIG and Lehman Brothers to their knees, they were met with resistance from one of their own.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) spoke out against the bill championed by President Barack Obama because he thought it wasn’t strong enough to prevent another economic meltdown. And on Thursday, Feingold became the lone Democrat to vote against it.

Feingold was in a position to stand up to Wall Street like few other senators.

Contributions from the finance, insurance and real estate sector account for just 3.75 percent of Feingold’s overall contributions over his career, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics. Just two other senators elected to their seats have relied less on money from the financial sector: a wealthy self-funder and the Senate’s only self-identified socialist.

“Campaign contributions are very effective at slowing down reforms that need to be done from a public-interest perspective,” Lawrence Baxter, a law professor at Duke University, told OpenSecrets Blog as part of our “Crossing Wall Street” series last year.

Wall Street interests lobbied ferociously to limit the legislation’s effect on them, and they have invested in powerful members of both parties over the years. Long-standing relationships build rapport among these interests and legislators — legislators who may therefore be inclined to lend a sympathetic ear.

Contributions from the financial sector account for roughly 30 percent of all money collected by the campaign committee and leadership PAC of Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), the bill’s chief sponsor in the Senate, the Center found — the most among all senators. Dodd’s home state of Connecticut is also home to many financial industry companies and workers.

On average, 12 percent of all campaign contributions and donations to leadership PACs since 1989 have come from the finance, insurance and real estate sector for senators who supported the Wall Street reform legislation, the Center found.

FULL STORY



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