- reverse pyromania
- Posts
- And I Get Down on My Knees and I Pray
Yesterday there were a few comments around the question of how we won’t be fooled by another Fetterman or Sinema. I have two thoughts on this.
First, borrowing from Josh Marshall’s excellent post yesterday, anyone I’m going to vote for in a Senate primary is going to be:
Against the filibuster
For Supreme Court reform
For statehood for DC and Puerto Rico
For significant federal statuatory reform to rein in Presidential power
Against extreme gerrymandering
For Marshall, (1) and (2) are absolute requirements. I think all of them are great indicators of whether a candidate is inclined to fight or quit.
Second, there’s no ironclad way to test whether a candidate is going to tell a bunch of sweet little lies and go back on their promises once they’re in office, but following the money can at least help. For example, Scott sent me a piece on Colorado Senator Michael Bennett’s backers as he runs for Governor.
A state-level super PAC supporting Democrat Michael Bennet’s gubernatorial campaign has raised nearly $950,000, much of it from pro-charter school groups and a nonprofit created earlier this year that doesn’t have to disclose its donors.
Rocky Mountain Way formed in April, a few days after Bennet, a U.S. senator, entered the race, and is being managed by MBA Consulting Group, which is based in Washington, D.C.
Its single biggest donor, at $300,000, has been Brighter Future for Colorado, a nonprofit that organized in February and whose address is a UPS Store in Denver’s Cherry Creek neighborhood. Its registered agent is Tierney Lawrence Stiles, Colorado’s top Democratic law firm.
As a nonprofit, Brighter Future for Colorado doesn’t have to report its donors and is what The Colorado Sun refers to as a dark money group.
The PAC also received $100,000 from Colorado League of Charter Schools Action and got infusions from the pro-charter nonprofits Denver Families for Public Schools, at $40,000; Portland, Oregon-based Stand for Children, at $25,000; and the Washington, D.C.-based 50CAN Action Fund, at $20,000.
In fairness to Bennett, this is a PAC that technically can’t coordinate expenditures with the Bennett campaign, but it’s pretty obvious that some people with terrible opinions think he’s their huckleberry. To me, that’s disqualifying. If you say all the right things, but the people feeding you money don’t agree with what you’re saying, we can all guess at how things will turn out. Suffice it to say that I won’t be voting for Bennett in the primary.
So, those are to ways to evaluate candidates. There may be many others that I haven’t considered, but it’s at least a start.
Reply