No shock here, but it turns out that the Congresspeople most likely to have voted for telecom immunity were those who got the most dough from the telecoms. On average, the representatives who supported immunity got twice as much money from telecom PACs as did those who did not support immunity.
I saw the headline at TPM, which linked to a story in The Hill, which links to the original report at maplight.org (a policy organization/data group based in Berkeley, that uses data to show how money affects politics).
More after the jump...
Telecom dollars seem to have some effect in causing more than 80 Dems to switch from opposing immunity to supporting immunity -- the ones who switched received (on average) $3,400 more than those who didn't switch their votes.
What's especially galling is that the amounts between the flip-floppers and the stallwarts is so trivial. And the difference between consistent supporters of immunity and those who consistently opposed immunity is likewise not that much. These amounts can be made up in small donations from district constituents.
Now, the data does not have telecom PAC contributions from after March 2008, so there's nothing to prove causation for the switch, but there is a high degree of correlation between dollars and votes. It will be very interesting to see if the Dems who switched got an even higher amount of telecom PAC money after the March vote than did the Dems who didn't switch.
And wow, who would have guessed? Number two in total PAC contributions from telecoms from January 2005 to March 2008? Our pal Steny Hoyer, who got $29,000. Rahm Emmanuel is right behind him, at $28,000.
As maplight's Executive Director Daniel Newman asked (in the press release):
"Why did these ninety-four House members have a change of heart?" {...} "Their constituents deserve answers."
Read the maplight press release and see if your Representative is on the list. If so, call and ask why they sold the rule of law and our civil liberties for a measly few thousand dollars, and remind them of the ActBlue campaign being spearheaded by Glenn Greenwald and FDL among others. Real money (more than $300,000 so far) can and is being raised to call to account those representatives who are willing to shred the Constitution for chump change.
**Update - Looks like digby beat me to it by 20 minutes or so. Even used the same "chump change" phrase. Great minds, yadda yadda. :)