Ed Perlmutter likes to paint himself as the man of the people, while his campaign and allies hypocritically rip on Joe Coors Jr for belonging to the same country club that Perlmutter did (at least until his wife won the membership in their divorce). Now the Perlmutter "man of the people" image is coming under scrutiny.
The most recent Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing for Perlmutter's fundraising in the first quarter of 2012 shows nearly $24,000 spent on multiple swanky trips to Vail, including over $9,000 spent just at the Four Seasons.
Those are just the kind of trips that the hard working citizens of Jefferson County take all the time. Who in JeffCo isn't a preferred guest at the Four Seasons in Vail?
Digging into Coors's and Perlmutter's fundraising reports is illuminating.
Liberals are crying about Coors donating to himself, though you won't hear a peep about that when Jared Polis does it. Which is shocking considering Coors donated about $200k to his campaign, whereas Polis wrote himself checks totaling over $7 million.
Yet when you actually look at where the donations come from it begins to develop a narrative Democrats in Colorado aren't going to like.
From individuals, Coors raised $230,730. Perlmutter raised only $161,788. So where did Perlmutter get all of his money?
Special interest PACs.
Perlmutter got $202,000 from PACs. Coors got $1,000.
In fact, this cycle Perlmutter has raised more money from PACs ($714,793) than he has individuals ($531,618)!
Normally incumbents draw more from PACs than challengers, but in Colorado all Democrat Congressional candidates rely on special interest money.
Take Sal Pace. In his first fundraising quarter, PACs represented 23% of his total. For Brandon Shaffer, it was 22%. Joe Miklosi took the prize with 36% of his funds coming from PACs.
When those three Democrats' opponents were challengers themselves what they raised from PACs represented less than 0.5% (Tipton), 3% (Gardner) and 0.8% (Coffman).
The question worth asking is why do Perlmutter and Democrats rely so heavily on special interest money?
Its rather sad, actually, that running for a local office is priced beyond the typical American's wallet. Office holders are increasingly self-funding, at least in the first run at office, and although I have no problem with wealth, or spending one's wealth, it concerns me that serving one's constituents — and they should SERVE — isn't feasible for, well, me!
Having said that, the last thing we'd want is some silly public financing of campaigns which never works, as AZ and Maine are discovering. We need, however, a more vigilent reporting mechanism, online and available to all. We need to enforce our sunshine laws. I was disgusted when Obama had donations made to his web address which bypassed ordinary reporting laws. Let anyone give as much as they want, but make sure we all know who's giving and how much. No hiding.
At least this would give your typical citizen a fighting chance to raise money from like-minded wealthy people who have given to political campaigns in the past.
It not surprising that PACs primarily fund Democrats as Dems have such a tenuous understanding of the values and dreams of small-business and middle-class Coloradoans. Dems are increasingly composed of the uber wealthy and government dependents, including those in academe. It is a badge of honor that Republicans get most of their contributions from local, ordinary people. Lets hope it stays this way.
paging ari. Doesn’t having 202 times more donations from PACs from his opponent look bad for Fast Eddy? He’s the slimiest politician in CO by far.
In the world of Citizens United, anything and everything is okay.
Why do ‘pubs hate centrist Dems, who are less threatening to the ‘pub worldview, than progressive Dems?
I’m still waiting on you to answer my question about who “real Americans” are. I believe you are avoiding answering that.