Una convenzione, senza sponsor?

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Quando Partito Democratico i leader hanno cominciato a pianificare la 2012 convegno nazionale, hanno promesso di mettere su senza l'aiuto delle imprese, lobbisti e comitati di azione politica che tradizionalmente hanno contribuito a finanziare le stravaganze più giorni, basandosi invece su piccole donazioni a pagare per un “convenzione delle persone.”

Ma il denaro aziendale ha mantenuto una persistente presenza qui questa settimana.

“Grazie a tutti i nostri sponsor,” leggere un grande striscione bianco alla fiera di strada Carolina Fest che ha dato il via alla convenzione.

FOTO: 2012 Democratic National Convention

E 'elencato 16 aziende, tra cui AT&T, Bank of America, Coca-Cola e United Health Group; erano tra coloro che insieme ha dato almeno $11 million to a nonprofit organization called New American City set up by convention organizers to handle the street festival, media welcome party and delegate receptions.

Unlike a separate committee that aimed to raise $37 million for the production of the convention itself, New American City was allowed to accept direct corporate, PAC and lobbyist money.

“We told the [host] comitato, from the beginning, that we wanted to participate in any way that we could,” said Peter Covington, vice chairman of the global law and lobbying firm McGuire Woods, which sponsored both Carolina Fest and a kickoff party for the media held at a sprawling music venue.

“We really did step up to make sure that Charlotte showed well,” ha detto. “It was our commitment to making it succeed, without regard to the political part.”

Il comitato convenzione stessa ha avuto anche il sostegno delle imprese. Anche se le aziende non potevano dare direttamente ad esso, potevano fare contributi in natura - Xerox, per esempio, ha dato la stampa e materiali di consumo per un valore $150,000, secondo il Charlotte Observer.

I funzionari democratici hanno insistito hanno incontrato il loro standard auto-imposto di finanziare la convenzione senza l'aiuto di interessi particolari, sostenendo che le attività organizzate dal New American City erano separati dalla convenzione stessa.

“Anche se era molto impegnativo - ha reso più impegnativo per soddisfare le nostre esigenze di bilancio e ha preso un po 'più a lungo rispetto a qualsiasi di noi erano confortevoli - siamo così orgogliosi che abbiamo fatto in modo che questa era la comunità più aperta e accessibile e inclusiva convenzione orientata nella storia,” Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said as delegates buzzed around her in the Charlotte Convention Center on Wednesday. “People know this is a convention they own, that they have a piece of this campaign.”

Political parties are banned from accepting corporate money for their quadrennial gatherings, a Watergate-era reform instituted after a scandal surrounding the 1972 Convention repubblicana, when the International Telephone and Telegraph Corp. offered $400,000 to help bring the event to San Diego at the same time the company was trying to get the Nixon administration to drop antitrust charges.

Dato che 1976, the two major parties have received public funds to put on the events — this year, $17.7 million each.

But neither sticks to that budget, thanks to a loophole created by the Federal Election Commission in 1977, when it decided that the conventions could be produced in part through unlimited donations to a local host committee.

That’s brought in a gusher of cash for increasingly lavish events. Four years ago, organizations such as corporations and unions gave 86% of the $61 million Democrats raised for their convention in Denver.

“We have gone entirely full circle,” said Craig Holman, legislative representative for the campaign-finance watchdog group Public Citizen.

Holman credited Democratic convention organizers for their “noble efforts” quest'anno, but said new legislation was required to truly keep special interests at bay.

Charlotte leaders did not know about the rules when the city was chosen to host the event. Host committee co-chair Jim Rogers, chief executive of Duke Energy, had already secured commitments of around $11 million from locally based companies to help pay for the convention before the party announced that corporate, lobbyist and PAC money would not be accepted, said Rogers spokesman Tom Williams.

Those companies donated instead to New American City, along with other corporations later recruited by Rogers.

Fonte: LA. Times