CAPITOL Gillibrand raising lots of cash Democrat gets ready to defend 20th Congressional District seat BY BOB CONNER Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Bob Conner at 462-2499 or bconner@dailygazette.net.
U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, the Columbia County Democrat who defeated incumbent Republican John Sweeney last year, is continuing to raise a large amount of money to defend her seat in 2008. During the second quarter of this year, Gillibrand reported to the Federal Election Commission that she raised $712,058. For this election cycle, she has raised a total of $1,470,597, and has $1,129,508 in campaign “cash on hand,” with zero in debt. Some of Gillibrand’s fundraising has been in Europe, which has drawn Republican criticism. Her spokeswoman did not return a call for comment Monday. Although Democratic candidates have been doing well upstate in recent years, Republicans have a 192,553 to 113,048 enrollment advantage over Democrats in the 20th Congressional District, which lies north, south and east of Albany, including Saratoga and Rensselaer counties. GOP leaders are hopeful that they can win the seat back. The two best-funded Republicans who have declared an interest in running are Alexander “Sandy” Treadwell, who has raised $340,017, all in the second quarter from April through June, and Richard Wager, who has raised $179,779, also all in the second quarter. Treadwell has $282,304 cash in hand, and Wager $168,501. Sweeney’s committee reported $24,124 cash in hand and $230,148 in debt. The former congressman did not report any contributions in the second quarter, and has not said he is planning to run again. Gillibrand may be the top fundraiser among New York members of Congress, and is far outstripping those members who hold safer seats, such as Rep. Michael McNulty, D-Green Island. McNulty raised only $6,200 in the second quarter, and has $191,344 cash in hand. According to the Web site opensecrets.org, the most expensive congressional race last year, with a total of more than $11.12 million spent, was in Florida. The most expensive New York race was $7.66 million in another upstate district, the 26th, where incumbent Republican Rep. Thomas Reynolds won re-election. Mary Boyle, press secretary for Common Cause, said the average winner of a House campaign in 2006 spent $1.3 million, and “newly elected members of Congress are under a lot of pressure to raise money.” Democratic leaders told House incumbents perceived as vulnerable that they needed to raise at least $630,000 by the middle of this year, Boyle said. Common Cause favors public financing of campaigns to fi x what is a broken system, she said. Boyle said Gillibrand “has probably had to spend the bulk of her time raising dollars.”
I must be politically ignorant....cause I would have bet the farm that it was illegal to receive campaign contributions from foreign countries. That should clearly be illegal for a foreign country to contribute to an American policital campaing.
Now it has me wondering how much American money is contributed to foreign political campaigns! I don't like it!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
I must be politically ignorant....cause I would have bet the farm that it was illegal to receive campaign contributions from foreign countries. That should clearly be illegal for a foreign country to contribute to an American policital campaing.
Now it has me wondering how much American money is contributed to foreign political campaigns! I don't like it!
That would be the "foreign aid" that we send to people like Hugo Chavez.
I remember many years ago that money was taken from a Chinese dignitary to help fund someones campaign and then later the Chinese Government was given detailed plans of some of our missile guidance systems that were deemed classified. Gee why wasn't that illegal?
Cash and Kerry The gift: He rails against big donors, but he knows the drill. Just ask Johnny Chung Raking it in: Kerry has few qualms about working big donors Charles Ommanney / Contact for Newsweek
By Michael Isikoff Newsweek Feb. 9 , 2004 issue - John Kerry needed cash, and soon. In July 1996 the Massachusetts senator was locked in a tough re-election fight, so he was more than happy to help when he heard that a generous potential contributor wanted to visit his Capitol Hill office. The donor was Johnny Chung, a glad-handing Taiwanese-American entrepreneur. Chung brought along some friends, including a Hong Kong businesswoman named Liu Chaoying.
Told that Liu was interested in getting one of her companies listed on the U.S. Stock Exchange, Kerry's aides immediately faxed over a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The next day, Liu and Chung were ushered into a private briefing with a senior SEC official. Within weeks, Chung returned the favor: On Sept. 9 he threw Kerry a fund-raiser at a Beverly Hills hotel, raking in $10,000 for the senator's re-election campaign.
In a 30-year career untainted by scandal, Kerry's encounter with Chung and Liu would turn into a political embarrassment. Federal investigators later discovered that Liu was in fact a lieutenant colonel in China's People's Liberation Army and vice president of a Chinese-government-owned aerospace firm. And Chung, who visited the Clinton White House 49 times, went on to become a central figure in the foreign-money scandals of 1996. Chung eventually pleaded guilty to funneling $28,000 in illegal contributions to the campaigns of Bill Clinton and Kerry. According to bank records and Chung's congressional testimony, the contributions came out of $300,000 in overseas wire transfers sent on orders from the chief of Chinese military intelligence—and routed through a Hong Kong bank account controlled by Liu.
There was never any suggestion that Kerry knew about the dubious origins of Chung's largesse. Still, the appearance that the senator had played a cynical cash-for-favors game forced him to play damage control. In January 1998 he told the Boston Herald that the timing of the SEC meeting and the subsequent fund-raiser was "totally coincidental" and "entirely staff driven." He said the Beverly Hills event had been set up by a professional fund-raiser, and that he had never even met Chung until the night of the event. But congressional documents obtained by NEWSWEEK seem to tell a different story. "Dear Johnny, It was a great pleasure to have met you last week," Kerry told Chung in a handwritten note dated July 31, 1996. "Barbara [a Kerry fund-raiser] told me of your willingness to help me with my campaign... It means a lot to have someone like you on my team as I face the toughest race of my career." That same day the Kerry fund-raiser faxed a memo to Chung that read, in part: "The following are two ways in which you can be helpful to John." No. 1 was "Host an event in L.A. on Saturday, Sept. 9th." (A Kerry spokesman acknowledged that the senator may have met with Chung prior to the fund-raiser, but not in his Senate office.)
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Whatever country gives money to a politicians campaign expects to receive some benefits from said politician in the future, some legal and some maybe not so legal.
I wonder how much the Saudi's give and get? They must be in this whole 'oil mix' somewhere!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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