…But it is not the kind shared by many working-class Americans.
The new start-up
“CrowdPac” is seeking to provide easy to digest information to voters, the kind usually only available to political insiders and hardcore political junkies. One of their focuses is money in politics, believing that shining a light on where candidates get the money to run their campaigns tells the story of whom they are beholden if elected.
Steve Hilton, CEO and co-founder of CrowdPac wishes to blunt the influence of big money donors on our elected officials and has already been “shocked” by what he has found.
[…] The rich, the powerful, the special interests -- they don't just vote. They're intimately involved in the whole political process. They pay advisors to identify, fund, and train the candidates that most agree with them. They influence elections all over the country. They hire hefty teams in Washington to sway legislation and votes in Congress. They conspire to gerrymander districts so that favored incumbents stay in office. And recent Supreme Court decisions have given the big donors another leg up.
All this means that more and more politicians are beholden to a tiny number of rich donors, instead of being accountable to their constituents. I was shocked to discover, for example, that [Democrat] Ro Khanna, running for Congress in California's 17th District and who presents himself as a modern, tech-savvy, new kind of candidate, is actually No.2 on Crowdpac's 'Fat Cats' list. Of the 1200 or so candidates running for Congress, Khanna raises more of his money from big donors than nearly every other candidate.
But most of those watching Ro Khanna’s efforts to unseat the popular Democratic congressman, Mike Honda, are not as shocked to learn Khanna is number 2 in the country with the
“Fat Cat” donors giving over $2,500. Khanna, realizing early in the campaign that he was not going to be able to fund his campaign with the support of small donors and labor groups, devised a plan. In an effort to not only stifle the voice of working-class Americans, but also cut into Honda’s support, Khanna challenged Honda to pledge “to pay a penalty of 50 percent the cost of any TV, radio, or Internet advertising by an outside group.” Which sounds great on the surface, but that is because Khanna knew that Honda’s middle and lower middle-class supporters could never afford to give the maximum donation of $2,600 or $5,200 per married couple that Khanna was receiving. The Honda campaign saw through the ploy and offered to
take the challenge a step further, which of course was ignored by the Khanna campaign.
In the true spirit of keeping undue influence out of this election, we propose limiting contributions to all candidates in this race to an amount that puts millionaires on a level playing field with ordinary folks: $570. This is the same limit as local elections in the city of Fremont, in our district.
We propose that all campaigns refund contributions to any donors who have already given more than this limit of $570. Your campaign can start by refunding the $11,000 in contributions from the five donors who have already requested a refund because Ro misled them. He had asked for their max-out contributions to run for an open seat, then used their money to run in a different district -- against Mike.
Then your campaign can continue by refunding contributions to Marc Leder (gave $5,200 to Ro) who hosted Mitt Romney for the fundraiser where he made his 47% remark, and Peter Thiel (gave $2,500 to Ro) who has given millions to the Club for Growth in order to elect far-right conservatives like Ted Cruz.
We look forward to your response.
Doug Greven
Campaign Manager
Mike Honda for Congress
It should be noted that money didn’t win this election, although Honda was outspent 3 to 1, he still won the primary with a 20-point margin over Khanna.
After complaining incessantly during the primaries about Honda’s support by labor groups and local trade associations, it appears Khanna has had a change of heart. Not only is he “happy” and “honored” to have the support of conservative PACs such as the Tea Party Express and the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, he now has a Super PAC dedicated to supporting his campaign. Former Goldman Sachs employee, Ash Chopra filed the necessary paper work with the FEC to create the “Californians for Innovation” Super PAC. According to the August 4th filing, the Super PAC was founded to support only one candidate, Ro Khanna. Chopra, along with his wife had each already donated the maximum $5,200 allowed per election cycle in 2013, so the only way to funnel money into the campaign was to create his own Super PAC.
We can only hope, that with tools such as those provided by organizations like CrowdPac and an electorate already familiar with Rep. Honda’s dedication to his working-class constituents, big moneyed fat cats will not be able to buy California’s 17th district.
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