Representative Markey Sells Vote Cheap!

admin Posted 18 July 2009 Colorado Politics

Congress Woman Besty Markey sold her vote on the Cap and Trade bill for a mere $2,000. The number of small businesses and individuals this bill will destroy is has no price tag! Her Constituents in 4th District should be outraged!

Democrats who voted yes on the climate change bill received more money overall from Democratic leaders before the June 30th fundraising deadline.

From the Politcio

Three House Democratic leaders who were whipping members on the climate change bill gave tens of thousands in campaign cash to party moderates around the time of the 219-212 vote on June 26, according to Federal Election Commission records.

It’s impossible to tell if that torrent of cash was an attempt to schmear wavering Democrats — or just part of the usual cash dump made by leaders on the eve of the June 30 quarterly fundraising deadline.

Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) doled out $28,000 to reps who eventually voted yes on June 24, two days before the big vote — on a day when House leaders were doing some heavy-duty arm-twisting.

Clyburn recipients who voted for the bill included a who’s-who of battleground district Dems: Steve Driehaus, D-OH ($2,000); Martin Heinrich, D-NM ($2,000); Suzanne Kosmas, D-Fla. ($4,000); Betsy Markey, D-Colo. ($2,000); Carol Shea-Porter, D-NH ($2,000), Baron Hill, D-Ind. ($2,000); Alan Grayson, D-Fla. ($2,000); Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa ($2,000); Jim Himes, D-Conn. ($2,000); Mary Jo Kilroy, D-OH ($2,000); Kurt Schrader, D-Ore. ($2,000); Jerry McNerney, D-Calif. ($2,000) and Tom Perriello, D-Va. ($2,000).

Ken Spain, communications director of the National Republican Congressional Committee emails this response:

“If this was a concerted effort by the Democratic leadership to purchase votes for Nancy Pelosi’s national energy tax at the eleventh hour, then it is unconscionable at best and corrupt at worst. The sad fact for those Democrats who were seemingly bought and paid for, is that it will take a lot more money than they received to defend such an atrocious vote.”

Democrats always seem to have amazing timing when it comes to financial matters. Nevertheless the real issue isn’t how many Dems voted for the bill but the eight Republicans who crossed party lines in the mistaken belief that’s what their constituents wanted.

Maybe she used the money to buy the ad, produced by the Environmental Defense Action Fund, it is the third in the past two weeks thanking Markey for her vote on the ACES legislation, commonly called the cap-and-trade bill.

Wise man once said follow the money.