On January 19th, Mayor Karen Weaver endorsed Hillary Clinton. This was certainly beneficial to Clinton, because though she lost the state of Michigan to Bernie, she won Genesee County, which includes Flint. Obviously, the Mayor’s endorsement didn’t hurt. So, what did Mayor Weaver receive for the service she rendered?
Answer: $500,000, announced on March 6, 2016, just two days before the Michigan primary was held.
The Flint WaterWorks initiative, a program that will help provide young people with jobs to assist those impacted by the water crisis, was announced on Sunday by Flint mayor Karen Weaver and former first daughter Chelsea Clinton.
A story from the Detroit Free Press revealed that the project was created through a $500,000 donation from J.B. and M.K. Pritzker, who are among the top donors to outside groups that support the former Secretary of State.
So, in essence, Hillary got one of the top donors to her candidacy to come up with the money necessary to pay Mayor Weaver for her timely endorsement. Just out of curiosity, how much money have the Prizkers contributed to a Super Pac that supports Hillary Clinton? Two Million, Eight Hundred Thousand Dollars ($2.8 Million) to Priorities USA Action. The only candidate this Super Pac supports is Hillary Clinton, and the Pritzkers are determined to spend whatever it takes to see her elected President.
Pritzker and his wife, Mary Kathryn (known as M.K.), are among the top five donors to outside spending groups backing Clinton, contributing more than $2.8 million to Priorities USA, a political action committee (PAC) that supports Clinton and can legally take unlimited donations. Pritzker and his wife, who each donated $1 million in January, will contribute more, he says, if necessary. He declined to say exactly how much he’s willing to spend, but the 51-year-old Chicagoan, who is worth an estimated $3.3 billion, is calling this election “one of the most important of my life.”
I can’t imagine why a billionaire might consider Hillary Clinton a better candidate as the Democratic nominee than Bernie Sanders, can you? Well, maybe Sanders’ proposal to raise taxes on the upper 1% and corporations didn’t sit well with him. Maybe that has something to do with it.
It should be noted that this Pritzker foundation’s $500,000 grant was not contributed directly to the City of Flint but to an organization controlled by Mayor Weaver and Chelsea Clinton:
According to Weaver, the Flint WaterWorks initiative was developed in partnership with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, whose team helped the mayor establish the public-private partnership program.
The initiative is being started with a $500,000 contribution from J.B. and M.K. Pritzker to the Community Foundation of Greater Flint.
“For my mother and for me, this is not political,” Chelsea Clinton said at a news conference. “It is deeply personal and I think it should be personal to every American. … (We want) to see the children of Flint as our children and to see the youth in Flint, as the mayor says, as being a promising youth for Flint and really our country.”
Of course it is not political! Just because Hillary was publicly asking her supporters to contribute to the Community Foundation of Greater Flint back in February, a group with which Mayor Weaver has long had close ties did not make it not political. And the fact that this Clinton/Weaver Flint Waterworks Initiative was announced two days prior to the primary election in Michigan, one where Hillary hoped her victory would knock Bernie Sanders out of the race, could not possibly be political. No sirree bob!
I absolutely believe Chelsea Clinton when she said this was a very personal matter for her and her mother. After all, what could be more personal than doing whatever it takes to ensure Hillary wins the Presidential election in November? And if that means getting her good friend, “The other Mayor of Chicago,” to dig into his deep pockets to pay for it, so what? I’m sure it was personal to him, as well.
