Betrayed for Money
This week the US House of Representatives passed the largest tax hike in America’s history. Our Representative in the 2nd Congressional District, Sanford Bishop voted for this bill. An off the record discussion with a staffer, said the phone lines were backed up and calls were 100-1 against this bill. A bill that Bishop never read, there was a 300 page addition at 3 am the morning of the vote just like the stimulus bill he never read and voted for and which still hasn’t delivered the jobs promised. This bill also promises a lot, but even the president says our electric rates are going way up. Others say farmers will see a 23% decrease in revenue in the first full year and a 93% in 3 years, all due to higher energy prices, and then there is the 2 jobs lost for each green job created.
So why would Bishop, again, not listen and fail to represent the very people who put him into office? Money!
According to opensecrets.org, as of March of this year, 56% of Bishops campaign contributions come from out of state; D.C., Virginia and Philadelphia. Of the remaining, only 2 contributions came from within the district he represents, totaling $1000. The rest from Atlanta, the biggest being organized labor.
From now on, I intend to be at every public event he attends that I can, protesting.
-Mike Sabot
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June 29th, 2009 at 10:13 am
I have emailed this article to everyone I know in District 2 & have asked them to send it to everyone they know in the district. I am constantly amazed at the number of people we meet who don’t even know who their Representative is, much less how he votes.
June 29th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Suzanne, I understand your frustration completely. This is why education is so vital to us having a chance of winning elections in 2010. We have our work cutout to get people to take the time to become informed. It always amazes me many people know who all the “American Idol” contestants are but do not know who their elected officials are or how they vote.
June 29th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
To be fair, we should remember that campaign contributions from the D.C. area could be from national groups or lobbyists with direct connections to south Georgia. For example, the National Association of Beekeepers could have an office in Alexandria, V.A. but represent the collective interests of beekeepers across the national including those in south Georgia vital to the pollination of our crops.
P&G, Miller, and Farm Bureau would technically appear as DC, VA or MD firms on financial disclosures. But, I look forward to the day when a candidate could run for office using new media and many public TV debates to reduce the need for fundraising because we have a term for that in Worth County…a term we don’t use in polite company.
Zell Miller was appalled by the constant fundraising on Capitol Hill and he wrote in his book “A National Party No More” that he could not believe that evening votes were called to fit into fundraising schedules.
I wrote a blog post in Feburary about former Rep. William Natcher of Kentucky who served from 1953 to 1994 and never took campaign money. It’s like that old gospel song “Let the Works I Have Done, Speak for Me.” That’s Sunday morning radio on WJIZ with Doc Suttles before church music. If you are a great representative of the people, you should not need to overpower opponents with cash, to say nothing about the same political ads over and over and over.
http://projectlogicga.com/2009/02/09/new-campaign-finance/
I have a few people I would love to see run for congress in Georgia as reform candidates and I always tell them they could revolutionize the game by running with predetermine funding cap so they won’t be beholding to the money boys who seek to control them like puppets. History would remember Sen. McCain well if he pushes campaign finance reform but in the meantime, candidates usually play by the current rules. That was congressman from South Carolina who stated that he would stick to a limit on his terms in the House and he did just that. He later became governor of the Palmetto State…
.-= Slyram´s last blog ..Real Obama Change and Black Professionals =-.
June 29th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Slyram,
To be short and direct I left off the name of those who gave, None but the 2 in the district were from the district, not sure but Boeing might have a local plant but I don’t think it’s in the 2nd district. And I know that the Labor union for Heavy construction operators might have a few members in the district, but not 5k worth.
I did leave off an article thought that showed with out a doubt that Bishop lied, lied to all of us.
The link is: http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Nzc5NzU3ZjcxNjM3MTJhYTk3ZjMwMDYwODEzOWY0ZWY%3D
In the article Bishop is quoted as saying “Rep. Sanford Bishop (D., Ga.) says he’ll vote based on the number of calls he gets for or against. Constituents can nudge him by calling (202) 225-3631.”
Now unless his staffer lied to me, I trust what the staffer said over what Bishop will say. He lied. Enough of this bull from any politician he bowed to the money and to the party leadership.
June 30th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
That’s not the first time Bishop lied. I received a typed snail mail letter answering one I sent him; and in it he states that the “Stimulus Bill” had NO EARMARKS!!! They haven’t passed a bill yet without earmarks, but the stimuless bill was eaten up with them. Since he didn’t read it, I don’t know how he had the gall to tell me it contained no earmarks!!!
June 30th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Actually, in the stimulus, they weren’t called “earmarks” but were called “shovel ready projects”. Hence the difference.
Of course, to the rest of the free world, there isn’t a difference, but we’re not in Congress either.
July 8th, 2009 at 6:53 am
[...] in Washington be in favor of such control over private industry? If you read Mike’s article Betrayed For Money, you already know that Bishop gets a large sum of his campaign contributions from organized labor. [...]