Lawrence Lessig's Mayday PAC (to end all PACs) has come out with its latest crazy Republican endorsement: the incumbent in the race for the NC-03 House seat, Walter Jones.
Never heard of him? Sure you have: Jones drew national attention in 2003 by demanding that the House cafeteria stop serving French toast and french fries, and start offering "Freedom Toast" and "Freedom Fries" instead. And he durn tootin' won that courageous battle, boy-howdy. With solid legislative achievements like this under his belt, his recent endorsement by Lessig's Mayday PAC was pretty much a foregone conclusion.
Below the fold, let's learn more about the man that Mayday PAC is now supporting with your liberal and Democratic dollars (because PACs are bad, so Lessig started a PAC).
According to Ballotpedia, Jones is a career politician currently serving his tenth term in the House.
First, let's get one thing straight: never you mind the fact that Jones is committed to opposing marriage equality, demands President Obama's impeachment, supports legislation to bar the EPA from regulating sources of water pollution, and proudly boasts solid 'A' ratings from both the National Rifle Association and the National Right To Life Committee. As Mayday PAC's Lessig will no doubt tell you, none of that matters because Mayday is only here for campaign finance reform; it will gladly support Satan Himself as long as he says nice things about that, and you should too. And never mind that Jones' victory in November is already a dead-cert lock (his district is rated as one of the most conservative in the country by Cooks Political Digest, and his Democratic opponent, quixotic Marshall Adame, brings a war chest of just $3,000 up against Jones' $538,000 in fundraising even before the Republican primary). Mayday intends its support of Jones to bring it credibility among Republicans (who currently couldn't care less about Mayday), and nothing spells credibility quite like betting on the winning horse, even if it's the only horse on the track.
No, what really matters to Mayday is its goal of supporting candidates who deeply understand the evils of crony capitalism and Big Dark Money in politics. And with his current lucrative seat on the House Armed Services Committee, and his even sweeter seat in 2011-2012 on the House Financial Services Committee (before he lost it by running afoul of House leadership), nobody knows those evils better than does Walter Jones, just a few of whose FEC-reported (and largely out-of-state) mega campaign donors from 2011 through 2014 alone have included:
- Northrop Grumman
- Lockheed
- SAIC
- Textron
- Branch Banking and Trust Company PAC
- American Bankers Association PAC
- Deloitte Federal PAC
- Truliant Federal Credit Union PAC
- Credit Union Legislative Action Council
- First Citizens Bancshares PAC
- Investment Company Institute PAC
- LendingTree PAC
- Coastal Federal Credit Union PAC
- LPL Financial PAC
- American Financial Services Ass'n PAC
- American Association of Certified Public Accountants
- Farm Credit Council PAC
- Independent Insurance Agents of America
- Managed Funds Association PAC
- Suntrust Bank Good Government PAC
After all, who better to opine on the evils of central heating than Satan himself?
Wondering why the heck Lessig and Mayday chose to endorse Walter Jones? You're not alone. You can help bring Mayday to its senses by letting it know that progressives have had enough of its too-clever-by-half strategy of backing loathsome RWNJs who happened to say something nice about campaign finance reform once upon a time: tweet the hashtag #LessigWTF. Or if you don't tweet, give 'em a piece of your mind at https://mayday.us/.... Mayday is watching, to see if any progressives actually care about this. And it has another three endorsements coming soon; let's stop this nonsense and make sure those endorsements are all for solid progressive champions of campaign finance reform. Speak up!