Corporate Outside Cash Flooding in for Governor Scott Walker

Last updated on May 3rd, 2012 at 11:49 am

Governor Scott Walker is winning the money race in the recall against him. Almost ¾ of it is coming from out of state, which is why he keeps accusing his opponents of being from out of state (this is what Republicans do; project and distract).

PolitiFact recently corrected Walker’s claim that his kid was being attacked on Facebook by out of state protesters:

To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.

“Walker said his sons were “targeted” on Facebook “by out-of-state protesters.” A protester posted two critical messages on Facebook, one directed at Matt Walker and one at Alex Walker, but the protester is from Wisconsin.”

Those Facebook messages simply said that his father was “the most hated dad in Wisconsin”, which is nothing like “targeting” someone by putting crosshairs on their district or showing a gun pointed at them. The message didn’t contain any implied or indirect threat whatsoever. It was an opinion devoid of menace or threat. It might not be a nice thing to say about someone’s father, but then political opinions rarely are. At least the attack wasn’t personal, like Rush Limbaugh implying that Chelsea Clinton was the White House dog or Amy Carter “the most unattractive presidential daughter in the history of the country.”

Turns out there are plenty of people in the state who don’t like Walker. His political opponents (also known pre-Corporatism as “constituents”) don’t need to bus in proxies for a corporate agenda, because they are real, honest-to-goodness human beings and citizens. But they must not be rich (how could they be after Walker killed all of the jobs, killed the fair pay act, and bent over with taxpayer money for the Kochs), because Walker is leading his Dem challengers by a wide margin in money.

Walker has raised more than $13 million dollars in the pre-primary. He must know the Koch wallet is open to him, because he spent most of that money already, but he’s hanging on to $4.8 million, which far exceeds what the Dems have raised all together. Democratic challenger Kathleen Falk raised $977,060 and Democrat Tom Barrett raised $831,508.

It pays to be a tool of the Corporation.

Want to know who (who is now a relative term also referring to corporations since they are now allegedly “people”) is supporting Walker’s job killing agenda?

Wisc Politics reported:

Walker pulled in eight individual contributions of $100,000 or more during the period, according to a search of the Government Accountability Board’s campaign finance database.

That was led in this reporting period by $500,000 from Diane Hendricks of ABC Supply Co. in Beloit. NBA Orlando Magic owner Richard DeVos of Florida, co-founder of Amway (now part of Alticor), donated $250,000, as did Sheldon Adelson, head the Las Vegas Sands casino.

A search of the GAB site turned up 77,999 out-of-state donations to Walker out of 105,319 listed at the site, almost three-fourths of his itemized donations. Walker’s report showed $389,935 in unitemized donations, and his campaign said yesterday he received nearly 126,000 contributions with more than 96,000 of them of $50 or less.

ABC Supply has 500 plus stores nationwide and they sell you roofing materials, windows, siding and gutters. Their headquarters are in Wisconsin and they donated a lot of cash to the job killer.

Richard DeVos, the owner of the NBA Orlando Magic basketball team and Amway now known as Alticor after “restructuring”, who is the 79th wealthiest person in the United States and who published a book ironically titled “Compassionate Conservatism” is also a big donor. I say ironically because donating to Walker’s cruel, Capitalism-killing agenda is the equivalent of “let them eat cake.” I suppose we need to just get on with replacing “conservatism” with “corporatism” and not let them hijack Capitalism any longer.

DeVos was also the President of the CNP, the very secretive Center for National Policy – a social conservative group compiled of the most powerful conservatives in the country. They meet behind closed doors and in undisclosed locations, but sure, whatever they’re talking about must be good for America.

The CNP was founded by Tim LeHaye as a way for “Christians” to infiltrate the government. Nothing to see here, but darn those Muslims are trying to take over America. The CNP is ALEC for the elite of the elite, basically. If you think this brand of conservatism (“Corporate Christianity” — corporatism being sold under the guise of Christianity) is ruining democracy, then think of the CNP as their headquarters.

Their membership is so top secret that it is now “strictly confidential.” You’ll love this one: They enjoy a tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3), even though they are clearly up to no public good. They take a lot of money from “Reverend Moon” of the Washington Times (you know, the guy who says he comes before Christ) and they happily promote legislation put forth by Scientologists. I’m just saying we deserve to know what they’re up to. They were supposed to start educating the public as part of their tax exempt status, but they’ve failed to do so. Perhaps it’s best that they don’t “educate” the public, but then, the spoiled, petulant rich boys need to start paying some taxes.

Mitt Romney spoke at a conference the CNP held in 2007 in search of a “conservative” candidate. Yes, they loved Bush in 2000.

Tom De Lay’s friend Sheldon Adelson of The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Vegas is another major Walker donor. He also opened Sands Macao in the People’s Republic of China, among other similar ventures. He’s been sued and is being sued by several middlemen who claim he reneged on an agreement to pay them for their help in getting him contracts.

Adelson is reported to have said, “old Democrats were with the union and he wanted to break the back of the union, consequently he had to break the back of the Democrats”.

Sheldon is the 8th richest person in America. A former Democrat until his wealth grew, he dropped out of the City College of New York. He founded the 2008 “Freedom’s Watch” group, which spent nearly $30 million on the 2008 campaign, mostly donated directly from his pocket. He’s also supported George W Bush and Newt Gingrich. In 2008 the Smithsonian awarded Sheldon and his wife for Corporate Citizenship.

Be careful where you spend your money, because you are probably funding policies and campaigns meant to slash your wages, take away your child’s education, steal liberty from women, and give police the right to stop any brown person they see.

It has come to this. Scott Walker, the Official Projector in Chief of Wisconsin, who oversaw the most job losses in the nation and then blamed protesters for his own bad policies, is now being funded by some of the richest, most activist and agenda-driven Christian Corporatists in the nation. By Christian, I don’t mean real Christians. I mean these political Christians running around funding Newt Gingrich for all of his ethical, Christ-like standard bearing.

Republicans will continue to project onto “evil” unions all of their own bad behavior, including pretending that unions have so much money and power that poor conservatives are out-numbered and out-gunned. The truth is that while Walker has awoken the sleeping giant of the labor movement, unions have decreased in power over the years starting with Regan’s attacks on them (he himself was a union member). The people of Wisconsin worked hard to make this recall happen; we can’t let corporate cash stop democracy in action.

If you want your power and your voice back, mind your money. What happens in Vegas does not stay in Vegas anymore.

Sarah Jones

Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.

Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.

Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Connect with Sarah on Post,  Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.