At Netroots Nation, I got a chance to talk to Kevin Powellrunning against Ed Towns in New York's 10th Congressional District Primary on September 9. I would not say meet because I met Kevin about 13 years ago in Little Rock Arkansas at National Youth Council Against Violence Conference. I have a signed copy of his poetry book somewhere in my boxes of books.
Before about two weeks ago, I knew very little about Ed Towns other than I thought he was a good Democrat and that Kevin Powell did not have an Act Blue Page. Well, that being said, I've learned about Ed Towns and why Kevin Powell would be a "Better Democrat".
Let's say that it didn't take long when reviewing this race that I decided to put Kevin Powellon Two for Tuesdays Act Blue Page. We get fairly in-depth into Towns expenditures and find some pretty remarkable stuff. You have got to read this.
The First Place I start when reading up on an elected official or candidate is Wiki. I can get some easy to read biographical information as well as an idea of where to go next. So we go first to Ed Towns Wiki page and learn that he has been in Congress for 25 years and represents Brooklyn. A little work history, family stuff, yada yada.
I checked and yes he did vote against FISA.Roll Call
Some of his transgressions as a Democrat in a +41 D district are working against Net Neutrality and being to the right of his district on other votes like the Bankruptcy Reform Bill. Read a good article Matt Stoller at Open Left
I had an idea that we might want to go to his FEC reports based on this information as well also hearing about JC Watts hosting a fundraiser for him. Well that certainly was a good idea. J.C. Watts has already donated $2,000 to him this cycle. Now, I don't know much about Watts lobbying clients but he's still a Republican Partisan.
He's also gotten money from several other donors listed as lobbyists.
I have a couple of more observations about his expenditures
- Almost 600k in PAC Money - Including money fro Pfizer and National Cable and TeleCommunications PAC, and all the usual suspect Telecom Providers. Open Secrets notes that $405 k of that money was given from Business Pacs at the end of the 1st Quarter. Analytics are not yet available from 2nd quarter.
- What really gets me is money from Advance America Cash Advance Centers.
- I looked at the expenditures and noticed an abnormally high cost of catering. There was well over 100k in catering cost and 24k in printing for holiday and christmas cards. 27k spent at a golf course for a fundraiser. A little excessive if you ask me. I've been involved in many campaigns and to have over 100k in catering costs is crazy. I found a 2,700 parking fee for a caterer also. Granted this is New York, but that reeks of something wrong. I think more investigaton of these expenditures should be warranted. The amount on travel (20k) is also very suspicious.
I don't know how much was raised at these events, but I've never in all my years in politics seen this amount of catering and travel costs. There should be more accountability in all of this.
Kevin Powell signed the Change Congress Pledge. This is an important step in reforming Congress. Another important step would be reforming Congress by getting rid of Ed Towns.
Again please click on this link and donate to Kevin Powell. We can do what we did in Maryland in this race. Let's work toward better Democrats in a District that is going to remain Democrat in name regardless.