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Beto has taken more donations from oil and gas companies than any other Democrat. The only politician who's taken more is Republican Ted Cruz. His vagueness on

Beto has taken more donations from oil and gas companies than any other Democrat. The only politician who's taken more is Republican Ted Cruz. His vagueness on many issues is partly due to how beholden he is to his donors.

hanniabu 8y ago
This is very important to note.
foolfoolz 8y ago
hes from texas, oil and gas represent a large amount of jobs and they pay well. a good chunk of the american economy runs on oil and gas jobs. why is this a bad thing?
VectorLock 8y ago
>Beto has taken more donations from oil and gas companies than any other Democrat. I wonder how much of that is an artifact of running in Texas.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > I wonder how much of that is an artifact of running in Texas. It's unlikely to matter in a Democratic presidential primary campaign, especially one where a number of candidates are going to try to use environmental issues as a key differentiator.
BookmarkSaver 8y ago
He was almost a victorious Senate candidate in Texas, and it's no coincidence that the other person with the most was his opponent. Context matters.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > He was almost a victorious Senate candidate in Texas “He needed the fossil fuel money in order to almost (but still not) win his one campaign for statewide office” is probably not a defense the O'Rourke camp would be well served by when the issue, inevitably, arises.
  - allemagne 8y ago
    To be clear, we are talking about donations from employees of the fossil fuel industry, who are just as much citizens and constituents as anyone else. When I donate to political campaigns as a private citizen who happens to be employed by a software company it does not suddenly make the campaign I donated to a shill for tech companies.
    - dragonwriter 8y ago
      > To be clear, we are talking about donations from employees of the fossil fuel industry, who are just as much citizens and constituents as anyone else. The usual approach to reporting political donations by firm/industry uses only PAC funds from corporate PACs controlled by firms in the industry, but OpenSecrets aggregates PAC and individual employee donations, which it justifies on the basis that “[o]ur research over more than 20 years shows a correlation between individuals' contributions and their employers' political interests and we have also observed that the donors we know about, and especially those who contribute at the maximum levels, are more commonly top executives in their companies, not lower-level employees.” [0] In any case, I've been commenting on the political impact, not the merits, of the donations wet his candidacy. [0] https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/methodology.php https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/methodology.php
  - BookmarkSaver 8y ago
    He accepted donations from one of the most important and legitimate interest groups (or rather, just people that work for them) in his state, against an opponent that was also freely accepting them. I'm almost as environmentally radical as they come, and turning away all money associated with oil in a Texas Senate race is simply idiotic and honestly unprincipled.
philwelch 8y ago
Corporations don't directly give money to candidates. Beto has taken donations from employees of oil and gas companies.

hanniabu 8y ago

This is very important to note.

foolfoolz 8y ago

hes from texas, oil and gas represent a large amount of jobs and they pay well. a good chunk of the american economy runs on oil and gas jobs. why is this a bad thing?

VectorLock 8y ago

>Beto has taken more donations from oil and gas companies than any other Democrat. I wonder how much of that is an artifact of running in Texas.

dragonwriter 8y ago
> I wonder how much of that is an artifact of running in Texas. It's unlikely to matter in a Democratic presidential primary campaign, especially one where a number of candidates are going to try to use environmental issues as a key differentiator.

BookmarkSaver 8y ago

He was almost a victorious Senate candidate in Texas, and it's no coincidence that the other person with the most was his opponent. Context matters.

dragonwriter 8y ago
> He was almost a victorious Senate candidate in Texas “He needed the fossil fuel money in order to almost (but still not) win his one campaign for statewide office” is probably not a defense the O'Rourke camp would be well served by when the issue, inevitably, arises.
- allemagne 8y ago
  To be clear, we are talking about donations from employees of the fossil fuel industry, who are just as much citizens and constituents as anyone else. When I donate to political campaigns as a private citizen who happens to be employed by a software company it does not suddenly make the campaign I donated to a shill for tech companies.
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    > To be clear, we are talking about donations from employees of the fossil fuel industry, who are just as much citizens and constituents as anyone else. The usual approach to reporting political donations by firm/industry uses only PAC funds from corporate PACs controlled by firms in the industry, but OpenSecrets aggregates PAC and individual employee donations, which it justifies on the basis that “[o]ur research over more than 20 years shows a correlation between individuals' contributions and their employers' political interests and we have also observed that the donors we know about, and especially those who contribute at the maximum levels, are more commonly top executives in their companies, not lower-level employees.” [0] In any case, I've been commenting on the political impact, not the merits, of the donations wet his candidacy. [0] https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/methodology.php https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/methodology.php
- BookmarkSaver 8y ago
  He accepted donations from one of the most important and legitimate interest groups (or rather, just people that work for them) in his state, against an opponent that was also freely accepting them. I'm almost as environmentally radical as they come, and turning away all money associated with oil in a Texas Senate race is simply idiotic and honestly unprincipled.

philwelch 8y ago

Corporations don't directly give money to candidates. Beto has taken donations from employees of oil and gas companies.