According to John Hinderaker, the “$43,000 that the Koch Industries PAC contributed to Walker’s campaign represents one-tenth of 1 percent of the money that was spent on Wisconsin’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign.” (Via Instapundit.)
It seems that that one-tenth of one percent applies to the total amount spent on the 2010 campaign; the actual percentage of Walker’s total take is actually a bit higher. According to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, “Republican Governor Scott Walker and running mate Rebecca Kleefisch . . spent a combined $11.34 million” on their campaign.” That means the Koch contribution of $43,000 was approximately 0.38% of their spending.
The 14 Wisconsin Democratic senators who fled to Illinois share more than just political sympathy with the public employees and unions targeted by Gov. Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill.
The Senate Democrats count on those in the public sector as a key funding source for their campaigns.
In fact, nearly one out of every five dollars raised by those Democratic senators in the past two election cycles came from public employees, such as teachers and firefighters, and their unions, a Journal Sentinel analysis of campaign records shows. . . .
According to records compiled by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, the 14 Senate Democrats have raised a total of $1.9 million in campaign dollars since the start of 2007. Out of that sum, public-employee unions and individual government workers contributed at least $344,000.
In truth, the figure may be even higher, but candidates don’t have to identify the occupations of those giving $100 or less.
The public-employee unions gave more money to the Democratic state senators than the Koch brothers gave to the Republican governor. Wonder if the New York Times has any plans to run an article on these unions’ influence.
Let’s round that 0.38% up to 0.4%. And to be fair, I did the math myself on the numbers provided above and found that public employee unions’ donations made up only 18% of the total Democratic state senators received, or proportionally 45 times as much as the Koch Brothers gave to Governor Walker.
Oh, and, just wondering, are those public employee unions chipping in for the Wisconsin Democrats’ Illinois expenses?
Top Ten Political Donors in the USA..
ActBlue (Democrat/Union front group): $51 million
AT&T: $46 million
AFSCME (Public Employee Union Goons): $43 million
National Association of Realtors: $38 million
Goldman Sachs (Democrats for Obama): $33 million
American Association for Justice (Trial Lawyers): $33 million
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (Union Goons): $33 million
National Education Association (Public Employees Union): $32 million
Laborers Union (Goons): $30 million
Teamsters Union (Thugs): $30 million
The Democrats are showing their true colors: Purple for the SEIU & other unions. They are trying in vain to protect their money laundering scheme from total collapse. The Wisconsin voters should realize the 14 truant Democrats could care less about them; it’s all about the unions.
So… the Fleebaggers are bought and paid for by unions, to whom the Fleebaggers give no-bid deals on WI employee health insurance, paying nearly four times the market rate: http://hotair.com/archives/2011/02/26/one-reason-why-wisconsin-needed-union-reform-captive-benefits/
How is it possible? Can anyone doubt that if the Fleebaggers were Republicans (and never mind if the unions receiving such taxpayer largesse were, say, insurance companies), the New York Times would simply not permit it? That EJ Dionne and the rest would be writing outraged columns about it? That our leftie trolls would be pasting their talking points here?
What does it say about our real social and political structure, that one party and one cluster of corrupt special interests enjoys such protection from scrutiny and gets away with so much?
And, if the Koch brothers aren’t the good guy here, they sure know how to play one. Charles Koch’s opinion piece today nails the real cause of America’s economic troubles:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704288304576170974226083178.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
I might have to read his book.
This is the stuff of a several months-long TV/Radio/Internet/Twitter/FaceBook ad campaign.
Does the GOP leadership have the testicular fortitude to make use of this during the election?
Powerline eviscerates the kooky, ignorant Koch critics over at Think Progress:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/03/028496.php
As always, PowerLine’s analysis is careful and detailed, in order to justify the ending flourish:
Think Progress sounds like a place where Levi gets his daily talking points. But anyway, with Powerline the gold is in the details, so RTWT.