Matt
Brown issues plan to separate ‘big money and democracy’
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| Where does the money come from that funds all of Gina's negative ads? |
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Matt Brown accused incumbent
Governor Gina Raimondo of taking
“full advantage of the Supreme
Court‘s 2010 Citizens United decision
that allows unlimited corporate donations and dark money in elections.”
“She’s earned corporate campaign contributions
from the same companies that she offered or awarded corporate handouts to,
supported a fracked gas plant despite public outcry, and has been bank-rolled
by an opioid manufacturer and people behind anti-LGBTQ Islamaphobic
propaganda,” said Brown.
“We cannot allow someone like this to steal our
democracy. We must end corruption in our government so that Rhode Islanders
come before corporate donors and Wall Street.”
In supporting research Brown
says corroborates his claims:
§ Raimondo has received nearly $500,000 in
campaign contributions from fossil fuel companies or lobbyists representing
fossil fuel companies.
§ It has been widely reported that Invenergy’s
Chicago-based chief executive Michael Polsky has given $2,000 to Raimondo’s
re-election campaign since announcing the planned fracked gas plant. But
Invenergy’s lobbyists and law firm have given far more.
§ Adler Pollock & Sheehan, a law firm
representing Invenergy, gave Raimondo $98,785 since the company proposed the
fracked gas plant. Invenergy’s outside law firm, Nixon Peabody, gave $50,573 to
Raimondo’s re-election campaign. In all Invenergy’s executives, lawyers and
lobbyists have given the Governor more than $150,000 while the state considered
whether to permit the company to build the plant.
§ Stacy Schusterman, CEO of offshore drilling
giant Samson Energy Company and charter school backer, who used a Super PAC to
funnel $250,000 into ads supporting Governor Raimondo’s reelection campaign. In
all, Schusterman and her family have given at least $311,000 to Governor
Raimondo and her PAC.
§ Over Raimondo’s political career, firms
registered to lobby in Rhode Island on behalf of the tobacco industry have
given her $45,000.
§ Jonathan Sackler of the billionaire Sackler
family that created Oxycontin and fueled the opioid crisis has donated $7,000
to Raimondo and her PAC.
§ Board members of the Manhattan Institute, a
conservative, Koch-funded think tank that advocates for anti-union policy and
slashing pensions for public workers, have donated more than $20,000 to Gina
Raimondo. The donors from the institute have also given to anti-LGBTQ groups;
funded Islamophobic think tanks that have helped shape Donald Trump’s
anti-Muslim policies; and have penned editorials denying climate change.
§ Raimondo has also taken at least $2,350 from NRA
lobbyist William Murphy of the 2nd Amendment Coalition.
Brown’s plan to “Take Back Rhode Island”
has five goals:
1. 1. Ban campaign contributions from senior
executives, board members or lobbyists representing companies that receive
state contracts, receive corporate tax incentives through state boards or
agencies and/or have regulatory matters pending before the state. Violators
will be disqualified from receiving state contracts or tax incentives for two
years.
2. Ban campaign contributions from individuals
registered to lobby in Rhode Island during the past two years.
3. Require that candidates supported by an
independent expenditure sign an affidavit within three days of learning of the
expenditure pledging their was no coordination.
4. Ensure that the Rhode
Island Board of Elections has the resources and staff it needs to
enforce laws on the books.
5. Link state databases that track contracts and
Commerce Corporation tax breaks to the state’s campaign finance database and
redesign the Board of Elections website so that Rhode Islanders can more easily
search for campaign contributions by name, employer, city and address.
Over at the Providence Journal,
Raimondo campaign spokesperson Emily
Samsel did not seem to recognize the irony of saying, “…Brown knows
Governor Raimondo follows every rule and law that governs campaigns. If Brown
were sincere about wanting to clean up the system, he would never have used a
loophole in the law during his last campaign, by raising money into the Hawaii,
Maine and Massachusetts Democratic parties to enable his max-out donors to give
his campaign more money than the law intends. The FEC may have concluded Brown
didn’t break the law. But that doesn’t make it right and it was an
embarrassment to our state.”