[promoted by BooMan]

The following is a post co-signed by a bunch of folks working on the Chuck Pennacchio campaign, but I also wanted to share it with the Booman community as well as we all want more transparency and better candidates…

Last week Bob Casey’s campaign asked, “Who owns Rick Santorum?” The answer is, the same people who own Bob Casey. Have a look at this.

These PACs have given a lot of money to Bob Casey: Cozen and O’Connor PAC, Delaware Valley PAC, Genesis Healthcare Corporation PAC, Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham LLP PAC, PH&S Federal PAC, Reed Smith PAC and the Tercenary Fund.

The same PACs bankroll Rick Santorum. But wait, there’s more!
Bob Casey takes money from JazzPAC. Sounds like Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins formed a political action committee, doesn’t it? Actually, it’s Exelon, Northrop Grumman, SmithKline Beecham, Koch Industries, General Electric, and a bunch of others. Casey also took money from Narragansett Bay PAC. Must be environmental. Sure looks like a J. Crew ad. Nah, it’s General Dynamics, SmithKline Beecham, Ernst & Young, Raytheon, General Electric, Bank of America; is this starting to sound familiar? And then, there’s Ameripac. Can’t you just smell the apple pie cooling? Well hold your nose; it’s Harrah’s, Tropicana, Bacardi, MGM Mirage, Time Warner, the New York Stock Exchange, General Dynamics, Bell South, Clear Channel; the list goes on. And that shadowy 527 group that Casey “exposed,” Americans for Job Security? Their biggest donor is the American Insurance Association, which gave money to CHRISPAC, which gave money to Casey. And this is just the tip of a nearly half-million dollar iceberg.

Santorum or Casey: take your pick. Either way, you get the same people and the same lame excuses for prolonging the war, blocking universal health care, and undermining our fundamental rights. Either way, it’s bridges to nowhere, pay raises for legislators, and defense contractors plundering what’s left of the US Treasury. Either way, Pennsylvanians lose.

Supporters sometimes criticize Chuck for refusing PAC money. If PACs only offered endorsements, we wouldn’t mind. But would they ever endorse both opponents in the same race? Of course not. This isn’t about free speech; it’s about buying influence. And if you think the Democrats are better than the Republicans, have a look at this. Casey and Santorum take hundreds of thousands of dollars from dozens and dozens of PACs that promote the same special interests over and over. Those special interests expect value for money, and they get it.

The Courts won’t stop this. Legislatures won’t stop it. And George W. Bush certainly won’t stop it. But we can stop it. We outnumber them, and we stop this legalized graft by supporting campaigns and candidates who fight for our interests and don’t take PAC money. Legalized graft will end when campaigns like ours take down campaigns like theirs.

On May 16th 2006: Choose Change; Choose Chuck. Please share this information with your friends using our forwarding feature. Their email addresses will not be collected.

We’ll have more next week.

Best wishes,

Julian, Stephanie, Sabra, Dan, Liz, Albert, Danie, and Dave