Normally I don’t re-post DailyKos’s articles–which themselves are usually comments on news items. I.e., something I do here.
But occasionally the DailyKos reports most fully, with proper links to the news items (very important if you’re reading any journalism with a declared political lean, like DailyKos [which I love but hey I know its lean]: you must verify that the story upon which the comments are delivered is genuine).
And here it does. Commenting on a story published by the International Business Times--it looks like a fairly non-partisan publication focusing on, logically, business stories backed with data)–DailyKos’s headline sort of whacked me on the head: Jeb Bush Funneled Almost $2 Billion in FL Pension Funds to Brother’s ‘Pioneer’ Donors.
And the story thoroughly backed up the head. I kept reading it and thinking, “This is naked corruption, naked quid pro quo purchase of a political candidate (the “quid” is the money paid, the “pro quo” is Jeb Bush and his control of Florida’s pension monies).
And the article did even better. It published a list of the corporations donating to Bush (quid) and what they got in state business for it (pro quo). See if it doesn’t stun you, too.
The list begins with an explanation from the IB Times. [Apology: my formatting function messed up the indentations but the quotes are accurate.] What follows is the list of corporations that donated to George Bush’s campaign, and what they received from Florida’s pension systems in return:
While Jeb Bush was governor of Florida, state pension officials committed at least $1.7 billion to financial firms whose executives were “Pioneer” fundraisers for his brother’s presidential campaigns. To achieve Pioneer status, the fundraisers had to amass at least $100,000 worth of bundled contributions to one of George W. Bush’s campaigns.
An International Business Times analysis of Florida government documents and a list of George W. Bush’s bundlers compiled by Public Citizen found that 11 firms that received new Florida pension investments under Jeb Bush were Pioneers. IBTimes also analyzed data from the Florida Division of Elections and Political Moneyline to determine how much money executives from those firms donated directly to Jeb Bush’s campaigns, George W. Bush’s campaigns, the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Florida between 1998 and 2006.
Blackstone Group: Donated $99,000, received $150 million
Carlyle Group: Donated $69,000, received $275 million
Deutsche Bank: Donated $200,000, received $450 million
Freeman Spogli: Donated $743,000, received $50 million
Goldman Sachs: Donated $1.5 million, received $150 million
Hicks Muse: Donated $189,000, received $25 million
J.P. Morgan Chase: Donated $64,000, received $100 million
Lehman Brothers: Donated $499,000, received $175 million
Morgan Stanley: Donated $1.1 million, received $150 million
Prudential Financial: Donated $406,000, received $100 million
UBS: Donated $147,000, received $100 million
As DailyKos then comments, “Dang – talk about return on investment.”