TOMS RIVER, N.J. – The American business community doesn’t have a home in the Democrat Party these days, but it’s increasingly clear that many Democrats who bash corporations aren’t living what they preach.
Cory Booker (D-Twitter) might take the cake in this regard, spewing anti-capitalist rhetoric and recently pledging to eschew corporation donations after years of fattening his coffers with boat loads of pharmaceutical cash.
Democrat House challenger Andy Kim (D, NJ-03) is another prime example of the new “progressive” hypocrisy.
“I pledge not to accept a dime from corporate PACs because I believe in a government that focuses on people not corporations. It’s not surprising that my opponent Tom MacArthur raises more money from corporations and special interests than from people,” Kim declares on his website.
In reality? The former Obama Administration official who aims to defeat incumbent Tom MacArthur this cycle has apparently accepted a significant number of contributions from PACs and campaign committees which, on their own, have accepted large sums of corporate PAC cash:
AMERIPAC -> $5,000
Steny Hoyer for Congress -> $2,000
CA LUV PAC -> $1,000
Fair Shot PAC -> $1,000
Future Forum Pac -> $1,000
JOE PAC -> $1,000
Mark Takano for Congress -> $1,000
Federal Election Commission filings reveal that the PACs listed above have, combined, raked in approximately nearly $2 million from corporate PACs thus far in 2018; donors to these entities include major “big pharma” and oil and gas companies.
Is Kim’s reliance on corporate cash any less hypocritical because there’s an intermediary?
His Republican opponent clearly doesn’t think so.
“For someone who claims they aren’t a politician, Andy Kim’s brazen hypocrisy and serial dishonesty about his fundraising tactics would put the most entrenched career politician to shame,” said MacArthur campaign strategist and spokesman Chris Russell. “Here are the facts: Andy Kim claims he’s not taking corporate PAC money, while simultaneously wheeling thousands of corporate dollars into his account through third parties. Now he’s compounding that lie by attacking his own fundraising tactics as ‘morally repugnant’ and saying they should be illegal, but with no indication he plans to change his own behavior.”
“If Andy Kim truly believes what he says, then he will return the $12,000 and counting in corporate PAC money he’s already wheeled into his campaign account, and he will pledge unequivocally to refuse any future contributions from corporate PACs either directly, or through third parties like Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC),” added Russell. “It’s time for Andy Kim to literally put his money where his mouth is or just admit that he’s misleading people in a most cynical way. Will he return the money and refuse future DCCC funds, or will he admit he’s lying to his own supporters and the press?”
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