The green in this race is GOP greenbacks
Those who read the Nate Report or read Nate's comments on this blog know that he rails against the amounts of money being accepted by candidates from te two major parties. Money is corruption, in Nate's World.
Well, except when a Green candidate raises virtually all of his money from Republicans, who want the Green on the ballot as a spoiler. TPM Muckraker reports:
The Green Party's Senate candidate in Pennsylvania doesn't mind that his candidacy is completely paid for by Republicans. In fact, he says he was the one who approached them for donations.Read Nate's rationale and half-hearted "everybody does it" defense of this scam and see if it rings true to you. (It's the other parties' fault, of course.)
In an interview yesterday, the Green candidate Carl Romenelli didn't flinch when I noted his campaign was funded entirely by GOP money. "It's quite possible," he said. "We received a lot of money from Republicans." Romanelli made the ballot, you'll remember, due to a voter signature drive funded by $66,000 from 20 conservative donors. The private company he hired was able to roust up over 90,000 signatures despite there being fewer than 20,000 registered Greens in Pennsylvania.
But Romanelli disputed the notion that he was being used by supporters of incumbent Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) in order to draw votes away from their Democratic challenger, Bob Casey. He said it showed that there was "enough mutual respect" between himself and his donors to have "a free and open debate."
"I respect the fact that people on the complete opposite side of an issue could respect my point of view," he told me. As Justin wrote yesterday, that respect came from an unlikely pool of GOP lobbyists and extremely wealthy donors.
The money flowed, he said, in response to a funds drive he initiated. He said he made a "public plea" and asked "Democrats and Republicans alike for help."
"It was some of the Republican folks who came forward to provide donors. God bless them for that. Without them I could not have been able to put together the organization necessary to qualify."
posted by xoff @ 12:40 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Let me get this straight: It's the size of the contributions, not the fact that almost every dollar to that Green candidate comes from right-wing Republicans trying to rat-fuck the Democratic candidate? If it all came in small bills would that be OK?
You see no difference between that and Jim Doyle or even Mark Green getting some contributions from Republicans?
I see. And people call me a spinmeister. I think I should pass you the crown.
PS: The last I knew, Kohl didn't have a business, and certainly not one with investors.
Nate, I gotta say that you're wrong on this. When Repubs give money to Kohl, Doyle or any other Democratic candidate, it's not 100% of their campaign funds since they normally also receive money from actual Democrats, too.
In this case, the Green Party candidate is 100% funded by Republicans for the sole purpose of siphoning votes from Casey in the election. Don't call D's demowhores when it's quite clear this Green party candidate is also whoring it up with no regard to where his money is coming from. It doesn't matter if it's large or small donations in other races, this specific race is in question and it's obvious he's willing to avoid responsibility for accepting Republican money by creating a reason for why they might be contributing that rings hollow to Xoff, myself and most people.
I'll accept campaign contributions from Republicans, limited to $1, same as anyone else.
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