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Published On: Wed, Feb 17th, 2016

New report links Bernie Sanders to Super PAC, Lobbyist and Washington money

Despite the fact he has been in Washington for over 20 years, Bernie Sanders has found success in claiming to be “an outsider” attacking rival Hillary Clinton for accepting millions of dollars from big banks, special interests, and super PACs.

Only problem is…Bernie has accepted money from many of the same people.

Wall Street Journal report details how the “…the Vermont senator has benefited from at least $1.5 million in backing from super PACs and from political groups that don’t have to fully disclose their donors, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.”

Sanders enjoys retreats with Wall Street lobbyists and other donors, and as a candidate for the Senate, he benefited from money that indirectly came from them.

photo/ donkeyhotey

photo/ donkeyhotey

FEC filings in 2015 revealed that Sanders directly accepted about $55,000 in Wall Street contributions for his Democratic presidential campaign. Sanders also enjoys the support and financial help from National Nurses United for Patient Protection, a super PAC that gets its money from the nation’s largest nurses’ union, with nearly 185,000 members.

While the union doesn’t have to disclose its donors, but a spokesman said the super PAC money comes exclusively from members’ dues. Representatives from the union have frequently joined the senator at events and this week launched a bus tour across South Carolina ahead of the state’s Feb. 27 primary.

Sanders has also regularly attended the DSCC’s retreats, either during the winter in Florida or during summer on Martha’s Vineyard, including one as recently as July. Guests at the retreats are donors who have donated the maximum amount to the party, or raised more than $100,000. Many attendees are lobbyists, lawyers and members of the financial industry.

“Several donors who have attended the retreats said Mr. Sanders fully participated in the events, including socializing, and didn’t take the opportunity to tell Wall Street lobbyists that, as he says on the stump, their industry’s business model is fraud,” the WSJ report stated.

Sanders has also been on the other side with his own PAC: A PAC affiliated with the Sanders has made numerous donations to mainstream and conservative Democrats, as well as one national party group, according to an International Business Times review of campaign finance data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

 “Sanders’ committee, a so-called leadership PAC named Progressive Voters of America, has been primarily funded by labor unions and liberal ideological groups. The PAC has given $338,000 to Democratic candidates and groups since 2007. In recent years, its contributions have ticked up and shifted toward the more moderate wing of the Democratic Party. That trend began during the 2012 election cycle, shortly before Sanders became chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.”

Since 2012, Sanders’ leadership PAC has donated to moderate Democrats such as Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana ($5,000) and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota ($5,000), as well as former Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana ($12,500) and Mark Pryor of Arkansas ($5,000), all of whom ran in Republican-leaning states that were vital to preserving the Democratic Party’s former majority in the Senate. Landrieu, who lost a re-election bid in 2014, has since joined a Washington lobbying firm as a policy adviser.

In 2014, Sanders’ PAC contributed $30,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the largest check it’s given the national party organization. Sanders is under scrutiny by rival Hillary Clinton over his ties to that group, which receives substantial funding from Wall Street and corporations, as the former secretary of state’s campaign has sought to divert attention away from the donations and speaking fees she has received from the financial industry.

photo/ donkeyhotey

photo/ donkeyhotey

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About the Author

- Writer and Co-Founder of The Global Dispatch, Brandon has been covering news, offering commentary for years, beginning professionally in 2003 on Crazed Fanboy before expanding into other blogs and sites. Appearing on several radio shows, Brandon has hosted Dispatch Radio, written his first novel (The Rise of the Templar) and completed the three years Global University program in Ministerial Studies to be a pastor. To Contact Brandon email [email protected] ATTN: BRANDON

Displaying 3 Comments
Have Your Say
  1. Darrin says:

    What? A socialist who says “Do what I say and not as I do?” Whoever heard of such a thing?

  2. Enuffiz E. Nuff says:

    This article is a disgrace, and a patently transparent Clinton campaign-placed hack job. Bernie Sanders is a champion of the working poor, and the knives are out for Senator Sanders, the bogey of the status quo. Shame on this author and publication!

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