Pay For Play The Steve Shannon Way
In the first quarter filing for 2009, Democratic nominee for Attorney General Steve Shannon reported receiving $272,644 in cash and in-kind contributions from 248 individuals, organizations and businesses, more than double the $105,205 raised by the top Republican AG nominee, John Brownlee. Admittedly that is an awful lot of money, but is it representative of Shannon’s connection to Virginia or to moneyed interests?
A look at Steve Shannon’s filing shows 207 contributions over $100 for $269,500, well over $1000 per donor on average. But much of that money came from himself, out of state litigators, unions, PACs, and interests that don’t have the best interests of Virginians’ at heart.
$29,475 Friends of Steve Shannon
Himself.
$25,000 Barroway Topaz Kessler Meltzer & Check LLP
Based in Pennsylvania and California, BTKM&C LLP’s chief practice areas is Securities Class Action, Antitrust and Consumer Fraud litigation.
$12,500 Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP
Based in New York, New Jersey, California, and Illinois, Kaplan Fox practices antitrust, securities, and general litigation.
$10,000 Consumer Litigation Associates P.C
Actually based in Virginia, CLA PC is, well, a group of litigators.
$5,000 Virginia AFL-CIO
Union.
$5,000 Law Office of Philip R. Hochberg
Sports lobbyist
$5,000 Vradenburg Mr. George III
AOL
$2,500 AOL
$2,500 Freedom Bail Bonding Co Inc.
Fairfax based bail bonding company.
$1,000 ConsumerAffairs.com Inc.
Consumer advocacy organization based in California, specializing in information on class action and small claims suits.
$1,000 FPH Consulting
Which lists as one of its clients the Democratic Attorney General’s Association.
$1,000 Kay Management
A Silver Spring, Maryland building management company.
$1,000 United Transportation Union
Union
$1,000 PSI PAC
The lobbying arm of Psychiatric Solutions, Inc (http://www.psysolutions.com/), a private mental hospital company recently in the news for the poor management of a Chicago area facility.
Hospital thwarts police inquiries; violence festered in silence
Riveredge failed to keep patients safe, UIC study finds
$101,975 from himself, corporate, outsider, union, and litigation contributions of $1000 or more. Not counting the car dealerships funding his campaign. Or the under $1000 PACs, unions, and interests that show the kind of campaign Shannon’s looking to run – one shaped by moneyed interests who invest in an Attorney General who will represet their interests more than Virginia’s.
You have to shave off an awful lot of Steve Shannon’s money before you start to see how widespread his support in Virginia really is. Or isn’t.
I always find it interesting to see where the money comes from. Do any of the groups based outside of Virginia have a large presence here? Just because their corporate office is outside of the state does not mean that the company does not have a large presence inside the state. Having successful businesses will mean more revenue for the state and more jobs. Which is especially important now. Of course, it does not mean they do either. But they’d have to have some reason to be investing in a Virginia State political race.
I would like to see a comparison between this and Brownlee’s numbers for donations over $1000. Are they comparable? Or does Brownlee have a lot more individual donors?
Matt, you can see Brownlee’s numbers here:
http://www.vpap.org/committees/profile/money_in_raw/2432?filter_schedule=A
The largest out of state corporate contribution is $2,500 from SAIC based in California. Otherwise, it’s local industry and individuals.
Investing in the Attorney General means you have their ear should a case come up, leading one to wonder whether or not the AG will be representing the people of Virginia or the interests that paid his way into the office.
Cool, thanks!
I never realized SAIC is based in California. They’re one of the big contractors though, so I guess it doesn’t really matter where they are based.
Like some of the commentors said at Bearing Drift, I think that’s just one of the rules of politics now. You can’t get elected without money, and grass roots campaigning can certainly be helpful, more often than not it is those big corporate donors and “special interests” that will give any campaign the good initial boost.
Interestingly enough, just looking at the number of donors, in 2008 Brownlee had more than twice the number of cash donors over $100 (249 to 115) than Shannon, and twenty times the number of donors less than $100 (158 to 8). Seems he’s reaching a lot of people, just not a lot of people with money. A difference in campaigning strategy perhaps?