In the Supreme Court’s recent landmark “McCutcheon” campaign contribution decision, Justice Steven Breyer quoted former Sen. Alan Simpson to bolster his dissenting opinion. Sen.Simpson was selected by President Obama to co-chair the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, a fine choice by the president. Sen. Simpson is quoted: “Too often, members’ (of Congress) first thought is not what is right or wrong or what they believe, but how will it affect fund raising. Who, after all, can seriously contend that a $100,000 donation does not alter the way one thinks about, and quite possibly votes on, an issue?”
Congressman Jim Himes is no exception to this situation. Himes is a former vice president of Goldman Sachs and a close friend of convicted Wall Street insider trader Rajat Gupta of Westport, who has contributed $188,000 to Himes over the 2008 to 2010 election cycles. Some of this contribution was accepted by Himes even after Gupta was indicted, and he regularly takes money from many of those he is charged with regulating. As the 4th District congressman and a member of the Congressional Financial Services Committee with jurisdiction over banking, securities and insurance, Himes continues to amass a war chest for the 2014 campaign from his Wall Street cronies that is equaled by few in the House and Senate. So much so, that the Democratic National Committee named Himes national finance chair of the 2014 Congressional Campaign Committee. In campaign donor reports from 2008 up to March 2013 Himes is listed as collecting $10,497,448, which is roughly $3,500,000 per year. However, the April 2014 reporting lists almost $1,500,000 for three months. Clearly, Himes is on a record pace for his campaign fund raising as well as that of the DNCC.
One might ask, how can an elected official, charged with overseeing the banking, insurance and wall street industries maintain an unbiased approach to legislation. As Sen. Simpson clearly said, “Large donors of both hard and soft money receive special treatment. No matter how busy a politician may be during the day, he or she will always make time to see donors who gave large amounts of money.” Clearly this excludes most of us and most of his electorate. Even President Obama took aim at “fat-cat bankers” who, like Himes, take advantage of the trust given him by the citizens of this country. On April 2, 2014, Jim Himes is quoted as saying “We need less money in our politics, not more… Today’s ruling (Supreme Court-McCutchen) threatens to unleash an additional torrent of money into our political system at a time when large donors already have far too much influence.” Himes must now be a very busy man. He says one thing about finance reform and does another hoping no one will realize he sits on the torrent of money he claims he’d like to eliminate. Please visit ridgefieldctgop.org.
This column is supplied by the Ridgefield Repbulcian Town Committee.