As an
example:
Steve
Stivers, our congressman is not the first nor will he be the last
politician of
either party
to fall into the money trap. As long as dollars are considered more
important than individual votes our system is prone to favor the
special interests over the common interest.
COLUMBUS
-- "Sometimes political puzzles are easy to solve: In Ohio
Congressional District 15, 1,689 potential voters have sent messages
to candidate Steve Stivers asking him to tell them his position on
mountaintop removal coal mining. Stivers has replied to none of them
and won't even acknowledge receiving them. Why? When a public
official's actions don't seem to make sense, we look at campaign
finance reports. We expected to find the top of the contributor list
crowded with financial sector firms, given Sen. Stivers' years as a
Bank One lobbyist. We were wrong. According to the Federal Elections
Commission, by far the biggest contributor to Steve Stivers' 2008
campaign thus far has been American Electric Power," Catherine
Turcer, Director,Money
in Politics Project,
Ohio
Citizen Action. 40KB
doc.
From
Mr. Stivers: “As you know, H.R. 3826, the "Electricity
Security and Affordability Act", was introduced by Rep. Ed
Whitfield (R-KY) on January 9, 2014. This legislation restricts the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from issuing or enforcing rules
that establish performance standards for greenhouse gas emissions
unless those rules rely on commercially available technology. The
House passed this legislation in a bipartisan vote of 229-183 on
March 6, 2014. It now moves to the Senate for further consideration.”
As
mentioned in the
Money in Politics
article above, Mr.Stivers
was
a bank lobbyist for several years.
As a lobbyist for
Bank One, Stivers lobbied successfully for a 2002 Ohio bill that
blocked Ohio cities from enacting local ordinances intended to stop
predatory mortgage lending.
As a state senator,
Stivers was one of four lawmakers to oppose a 2006 bill that gave
consumer protections against mortgage lenders.
AEP
may have been his largest individual financial contributor at
$33.000, but the finance/Insurance/Real estate sector contributed
$439,059 to his $1,326,150 total raised for the 2014 cycle to
according to
VoteSmart
Paul Hunter
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