Monday, March 05, 2012

Scott Brown Received More Than $900,000 From Financial Services Sector After Watering Down Wall Street Reform

By Josh Israel/Think Progress


Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) received more than $880,000 in contributions from large-dollar individual campaign donors in the financial services sector in 2011, according to an Associated Press analysis. The freshman Republican also got at least $60,000 in contributions from corporate political action committees aligned with the financial sector.
Among the PAC contributors to Brown were:
  • American Bankers Association PAC: $2,000
  • American Financial Services Association PAC: $1,000
  • Citigroup Inc. PAC: $2,000
  • Credit Suisse Securities LLC PAC: $6,000
  • USAA PAC: $2,500
  • Wells Fargo and Company PAC: $3,000
  • Why the support? Well, it was Brown who threatened to join a Republican filibuster of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010, using that threat to significantly water down the bill. Among the industry-favored concessions he extracted were removal of a $19 billion bank tax and weakening of the “Volcker rule,” restrictions on risky trades made with dollars backed by the government.
    “Sen. Brown’s politics are tailor made for New York Republicans,” Wayne Berman, a lobbyist for several financial sector companies observed last December. And if the financial sector’s donations are any example, New York Republicans certainly agree.

    No comments: