Isn’t it time that we had a representative that serves North Country interests, instead of Wall Street interests?
Throughout her tenure in Congress, Elise Stefanik, the Republican who represents most of New York State’s North Country region, has received $191,132 in campaign contributions from individuals associated with Elliott Management, the Manhattan hedge fund firm founded by “vulture capitalist” Paul Singer, according to data obtained from OpenSecrets.org. Thanks to Elliott Management and Paul Singer, during the 2014 election cycle, when Stefanik ran for the first time, she actually was the second-highest recipient of campaign contributions from hedge funds out of all 435 members of Congress that were elected that year, even topping now-House Speaker Paul Ryan. In 2016, Stefanik ranked third in hedge fund contributions in the House, trailing just Ryan and John Faso from the neighboring 19th Congressional District. Overall, over the past three cycles (2014, 2016, 2018), Stefanik is the second highest recipient of hedge fund contributions in the House, receiving $311,582, behind House Speaker Paul Ryan’s $311,582.
A couple of months ago, the Twitter account, NY21Watchdog, did an outstanding job of researching and compiling each specific donation to Stefanik that was either related to or associated with Singer’s Elliott Management:
NY21Watchdog did a great job of compiling all of the contributions Congresswoman Stefanik received from individuals either employed by or associated with Elliot Management from 2013-2017.
Are Elliott Management and Paul Singer Getting Their Money Worth?
Why should individuals in the North Country and Upstate New York be so concerned about Paul Singer and Elliott Management’s substantial financial backing of Elise Stefanik’s congressional campaign? Perhaps because Singer supports a free-market, globalist economic agenda that is literally the antithesis of what many Upstate conservatives and Upstate progressives believe in and he is using his tremendous wealth to try to dilute and drown out the voices of individuals and political candidates that actually live, work and pay taxes in this area. (Remember, this entire region was a strong bastion of support for both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders during the 2016 presidential primaries, largely because of their isolationist, anti-trade positions.)
And since being elected in 2014, Stefanik has routinely demonstrated that she often places the internationalist agenda of New York City hedge funds, such as Elliott Management, ahead of the isolationist, economically populist views that are held by many North Country residents. It’s basically all “pay-to-play” politics at its worst. For example, in 2015, Stefanik voted in favor of a fairly anti-democratic piece of legislation (HR 1314) that fast tracks trade agreements through Congress, preventing the filibustering or the inclusion of any additional amendments to these agreements. Regardless of what your position is on trade policy, certain Congressmembers shouldn’t try to impede dialogue or try to kill necessary modifications and improvements to these deals.
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The animated graphic above explains why Elise Stefanik doesn’t deserve another term...
