Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Ray Meier Takes Special Interest Payoff Donations

I could count each dollar as a reason to vote for Michael Arcuri, but I won't take the easy way out. Let's count them all as coming together for just one big fat dirty money reason to vote for Mike Arcuri for Congress this November.

$192,343.00.

That's one hundred ninety two thousand, three hundred and forty three dollars of money that Ray Meier took from committees with political agendas, most of them from outside of New York State, not to mention New York's 24th congressional district.

This is money from corporations like General Motors, or the Verizon telephone company, or Valero Energy Corporation - the company with all those new gas stations, or Union Pacific railroad's offices in Washington D.C. And this is just the amount that Ray Meier took in the last three months.

Do you really believe that groups like the National Fuel Gas FEDPAC and COALPAC, the political action committee of the national mining association are in business to give money away for nothing? No way. These are big players, and they expect to get what they pay for... and they're trying to buy Ray Meier a victory.

And where is all this money coming from? From Washington D.C., Virginia, New Jersey, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, California, Florida... wherever powerful organizations want to buy themselves a politician. Boy, is Ray Meier ever up for sale. That's reason number 12 to vote for Michael Arcuri.

11 comments:

24thIndependent said...

Well, yes, in his hunger for victory Michael Arcuri is going over the line in taking contributions from parties that clearly want to influence him legislatively. But, Ray Meier takes the cake... like this morning's donor, Altria - Phillip Morris, tobacco giant. Nasty.

Your plan for undoing corruption is sadly flawed because of one little factor: You count on people caring enough to pay attention and then act. Too many people would rather spend their time being entertained instead of getting involved in the political process, as is their duty as citizens. It's that common apathy and ignorance about politics that corruption truly thrives on.

Anonymous said...

Hilarious that some folks think the Utica O-D is dissing MA because of its conservative bias, whereas others think the AP is playing the liberal card: http://newsbusters.org/node/6348

Maybe both are just spewing back press releases and there's no bias or forethought at all. Just a thought.

Anonymous said...

Still, Meier is almost at $500K total. Where will Arcuri be?

Anonymous said...

It's really amusing that the only thing somebody can harp on is a donation from a candidate's daughter. I bet we can be assured that the candidate's daughter doesn't have an agenda that will mean stealing from the middle class for profit. Why worry about HMOs, Pharmaceuticals, and gas distributers giving money to Ray Meier when we can talk about his daughter's donation. That's REAL dangerous to the welfare of the people isn't it? All of this just plain shows what a taker Ray Meier is and how he is willing to run over his own constituents for that holy donation. Just like Boehlert did. I wonder if Ray Meier benefited from all those freebees from the susquehana railroad over at Walter Rich's place? Can you say TOWERS? Of course none of this is important in comparison to Mike Arcuri's daughter's donation....

Anonymous said...

"Your plan for undoing corruption is sadly flawed because of one little factor"

He has no plan for undoing corruption. He is there to help Ray Meier. Those two things don't go together.

NoMoreArcuri said...

Am I the only on who can tell when a certain Democratic Committee Webmaster posts as "Anonymous?

At least I stick to one name!

Anonymous said...

This is so boring waiting for Michael Angelo Arcuri to have his quarterly committee report filed. Let's start a new game while we wait. Let's start guessing how much money Mike's committee has brought in this quarter.

I'll start, I'll say $150,000 and he's way behind Meier now.

Anonymous said...

$125,000?

You're way off. The Utica OD had a story on this the other day. Arcuri has yet to file his FEC report, but he announced that he's raised over $400,000, just a bit behind Meier. That's great news given that Republicans usually blow away Democrats in funding for open seat races.

http://www.uticaod.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060711/NEWS/607110316/1001

Plus, Arcuri is now included in the DCCC's "Red to Blue" program for its top candidates.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/2006/07/house_dems_extend_red_to_blue.html

I was skeptical at first, but it looks like Arcuri is doing something right.

Anonymous said...

Yes, Red to Blue wouldn't list him if he wasn't pulling in the bucks. Now if he only had a campaign staff, I'd start to breathe easier.

Anonymous said...

the listing is:

http://www.cqpolitics.com/2006/07/
house_dems_extend_red_to_blue.html

Quote on Arcuri and 3 other open seats:

"Among that quartet of contests, the Democrats probably have their best chance in Iowa’s 1st, which backed Kerry in 2004. The other three districts favored Bush."

Anonymous said...

http://www.dccc.org/news/
Second_Wave_Red_to_Blue/

Arcuri is going to need more than a mentor.