10 min ago from WSJ:
Wall Street has many friends in Washington, but House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was a well-placed one who understood how the industry worked and was not afraid to help the financial-services sector, even when he had to take on other members of his own party.
Mr. Cantor’s loss in Tuesday’s Republican primary puts a big hole in Wall Street’s Washington Rolodex.
Since he was first elected to Congress, Mr. Cantor, a Virginia Republican, has been Wall Street’s go-to guy on issues big and small. His first committee assignment was on Financial Services Committee where he became steeped in policy matters that affected the industry.
Given his position in DC, Eric Cantor had a huge role to play for Goldman Sachs, and other private institutional Wall Street firms:
His wife once worked for Goldman Sachs Group Inc, he was a top recipient of Wall Street donations and he regularly stood up for the banks, securities firms and insurance companies.
His defeat will create new uncertainty for pending legislation backed by Wall Street. Mr. Cantor in the past had bypassed conservative Republicans and worked with Democrats to approve a bill to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank.
In this case, the business press gives a stark warning that excessive Wall Street campaign funds will actually be a
liability in the upcoming political campaigns of both Republicans and Democrats:
So far this election cycle, Mr. Cantor had raised $1.4 million from the financial-services industry, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Only four other lawmakers have raised more, including House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
It appears that Mr. Cantor’s fundraising strength on Wall Street contributed to his downfall. And that could serve as a cautionary tale for other candidates in both political parties, including Hillary Clinton.
Campaign funds from Wall Street can help a candidate fund political advertisements, buy fancy election-targeting software and hire top-notch campaign aides. But it also makes it easy for political opponents to charge that the candidate has become a part of the Washington Establishment.
The top three sources of campaign money this year were the private equity firm Blackstone Group ($66,500 in total donations), the hedge fund Scoggin Capital Management ($40,400) and Goldman Sachs ($26,600).
Hometown company Altria Group Inc. , based in Richmond, Va., ranked fourth on the list of his top sources of money.