With the Brown-Coakley race entering its last phase, Wall Street is rallying to Brown. Think Progress has the details:
Brown’s defense of the financial industry has not been ignored by Wall Street. Wall Street’s two largest political enforcers are also out fighting to elect him:
– The Wall Street front group FreedomWorks is mobilizing get out the vote efforts for Brown this weekend. FreedomWorks organized the very first tea party protests, and has used its extensive staff and resources to mobilize rallies and advocacy campaigns on behalf of corporate interests. Dick Armey, who as a corporate lobbyist represented AIG, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch during the bailouit, is the leader of FreedomWorks. FreedomWorks is also funded and chaired by Steve Forbes and Frank Sands of Sands Capital Management.
– The Wall Street front group Club for Growth is strongly “boosting” Brown and is expected to run ads in support for him. According to recent disclosures, the Club for Growth is funded by a $1.4 million dollar donation from investor Stephen Jacksons of Stephens Groups Inc, a $1.4 million dollar donation from broker Richard Gilder, and $210,000-$630,000 donations from at least 10 other investors and financial industry professionals. The Club is also supporting a slate of candidates to repeal health reform, while its other endorsed candidates have opposed a financial truth commission.
The Club For Growth is particularly interesting. The President of that group is Thomas L Rhodes. I will give you one guess where he made his money.
If you answered anything but Goldman Sachs, shame on you. Rhodes was a partner at Goldman for years.
There has been a lot of late Wall Street money for Brown: over $106,000 in the last week. In one 48 hour period between January 6th and January 8th, I counted over $17,000 in contributions from financial interests. This is almost certainly understated, as some disclose their occupations vaguely. I would, however, like to know about the hairdresser who gave Brown $1,000.
Win or lose, and I hope Chris Bowers is right, and Coakley wins, a good deal of thought is going to have to be done on how to expose the Wall Street connection to the Tea Baggers. I don't think this message got out in time to help in Massachusetts, but we are going to need to research these linkages and make the argument that the Teabaggers are unknowingly doing Wall Street's bidding.
The President's call for a tax on the biggest banks will help draw distinctions between Democrats and Republicans. While the Financial Reform Bill is too weak, highlighting the fact that every Republican will vote against it will help. Exposing the connections of the Republican Members of the Financial Inquiry Commission will help as well. (The head Republican on the Commission, Bill Thomas, raised over 1.8 Million from Finance Interests while a Congressman).
We will need to sustain the effort though, because the Massachusetts race teaches that a Wall Street funded anti-Wall Street Politician is a formidable foe.
Update
ARG is out with a new poll on this race, and it is ugly. Brown leads by 3, 48-45 with 5% undecided. Brown leads among independents 58-37. Brown leads among who say they have voted 58-42.
Anyone who has followed the New Hampshire primary knows, and distrusts ARG. They have always struggled to get their Likely Voter Screen right,and in the last two cycles their reputation was so bad their numbers were excluded from some polling averages. In fact, three of the worst pollsters in the business - UNH, Suffolk and ARG - are polling this race.
But I don't like the trend. It has to be emphasized how awful it is for a Democrat to be at 45 in Massachusetts.