Jack Reed’s campaigns and leadership PAC have taken $362,400 from four defense contractors that have sold 90% of the American weapons bought by Saudi Arabia. Now he has a key role in negotiations around banning the companies’ Saudi sales.
Sludge
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
DSCC Raked In Cash From Health Care and Fossil Fuel Lobbyists Before Endorsing Hickenlooper
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is intervening in Colorado’s crowded Senate primary to boost a candidate who opposes Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
As It Cultivates a Socially Responsible Image, Juul Sends Lobbyist to ALEC’s Annual Meeting
Juul says it wants to “make a meaningful, positive impact on our communities,” but by participating in the influential right-wing state legislative lobby it is working with a group that helps corporations violate the public interest.
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Congressional Black Caucus Institute Takes CoreCivic Cash, Boosts Policies That Help Private Prisons
As it benefits from the corporate coffers of private prison giant CoreCivic, the institute advocates privatized reentry programs from which the company profits.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Wealthy, White, and Over 50: The Demographics of the Democrats’ Biggest Presidential Donors
Sludge and Data for Progress analyzed the Democratic presidential candidates’ donors by income, race, gender, age, and ideology.
Posted inCivil Rights in America
ICE Contracts Are Booming. See Which Vendors Are in Your State.
Companies and other entities that make money from Immigration and Customs Enforcement contracts are flush in 2019, thanks to President Trump’s harsh immigration operation.
Posted inAmerica and the World
As Charles Koch Cultivates Anti-War Image, Koch Industries Profits from Defense Contracts
The right-wing billionaire has teamed up with unlikely ally George Soros on “military restraint,” but Koch Industries subsidiaries make millions by supplying the Navy with circuitry.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Democratic Leaders Rake In Corporate Cash as “the Squad” Sticks With Small Donors
A Sludge analysis of new second-quarter campaign finance reports has found that the Democratic leaders in the House combined to take in nearly $1.2 million in contributions from corporate and trade association PACs.
Posted inEnergy and the Environment
National Grid Asks Customers to Help it Lobby for a New Fracked Gas Pipeline
The utility company implemented a moratorium on new service in the NYC area after a billion-dollar fracked-gas pipeline project was rejected by New York and New Jersey governments, and is now pressing its customers in a last-ditch lobbying effort.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Representative Gottheimer Asks Regulators to Deregulate Banks He’s Invested In
At the behest of a big-bank trade group, Gottheimer rallied 16 of his fellow Democrats to join him in urging financial regulators to gut a provision of Dodd-Frank that protects insured depository institutions from risky trading.
