Tagged: Big Oil

Posted: August 6, 2012 at 12:09 pm

New Ad: Why is Rehberg trying to tip the scales even more for big corporations and the richest 2 percent?

Americans United for Change and AFSCME have a new ad on the air to hold Congressman Rehberg to account for his recent irresponsible votes to preserve the Bush tax cuts for the richest 2%.  The ad running heavily on the local broadcast stations in Billings, Butte, and Missoula on August 6 and 7.

 Tom McMahon, Executive Director,  of Americans United for Change had some strong words for Rehberg:

“Congressman Rehberg is clearly willing to protect tax breaks for the richest 2% and big oil companies at any cost, even if means hiking taxes on Montana families.  If tax cuts for the rich were really the key to economic growth, how does Rep. Rehberg explain why President Bush’s millionaire tax breaks resulted in the worst presidential jobs record in recorded history? While the Bush tax cuts for the rich certainly failed to create jobs, they were all too successful at running up the national debt. For Rep. Rehberg to insist on doing the same irresponsible thing and handing millionaires another $150,000 check they don’t need and we can’t afford and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.  It is past time to end the Bush tax cuts for the richest 2%, so that the rich start to pay their fair share.  If we don’t, we won’t be able to protect middle-class priorities like education and Medicare from deep cutbacks. Of course, Congressman Rehberg already tried to go down that road, voting to for the so-called “cut, cap, and balance” plan that would mean severe cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits for Montana seniors.  The Congressman need to get his priorities straightened out.”

 

Here’s the ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqWoKXb7dB8

 

Here’s the script:

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Posted: May 21, 2012 at 8:56 pm

Statewide Candidates Reveal Finances

The statewide candidates turned in their fundraising numbers today.   Here are a few items of interest:

The Governor’s race:

Steve Bullock raised twice as much as Rick Hill during the latest reporting period ($100,000 for Bullock to $54,000 for Hill).  Bullock also has a war chest of more than double the unspent funds still in the bank.  Hill used to bring in amounts much closer to what Bullock has been raising, but Hill’s financial support continues to weaken as the word about his past continues to circulate.

Neil Livingstone also brought in $90,000–although the entire amount came from a donation Livingstone made to himself. In an email to supporters, Livingstone said he has used the money to put up “the largest statewide media buy, both radio, and TV” of any of the candidates.

Livingstone says openly what many are privately thinking.

“Rick cannot beat Attorney General Steve Bullock in the general election.”

He then proceeds to go negative on all of this opponents.  I’ve pasted the entire email from “Neil and Ryan” asking that voters “join the revolution” below the fold.

 

Attorney General primary:

The AG race continues to be tight.  While Jesse Laslovich reported raising $7,000 more than Pam Bucy for this period, the money appears to be “bundled” oil industry donations from out of state.  ”Bundling” occurs when an industry collects donations from its management, employees, and their relatives and sends them in a lump “bundle” so the candidate knows exactly who’s paying the bills.

Laslovich’s report today includes $7870 (a third of the money he raised this quarter) from out of state donors–all affiliated with the oil industry–primarily from Texas, Connecticut and Maine.

The Texas contributors look like employees (and their relatives) of a company that makes chemicals used in oil drilling. The corporation is called DX Chemicals. Guy Mossman and William Hixon, VPs of DX Chemicals, gave.  The Connecticut contributors are affiliated with a venture capital corporation called American Bailey–a private investment firm specializing in fuel and energy development.  (J. William Drake, VP of American Bailey, and Douglas Bailey, President, are contributors).  Other Texas money comes from Charles Kerr and Corbin Robertson, VPs of Quintana Minerals Corporation, a private oil and gas exploration development company.

Also of note, all of this money came in on May 16, the last day to collect money for today’s report. The contributions were all for $320 (weird number to contribute since the limit is $310). There is also an expenditure for a wire transfer to a bank, so I’m guessing this all came in last minute.

Certainly the oil industry would like greater influence over the land board. The corporate executives may also be concerned because Citizens United is going to be a key issue for the next AG.  Bucy raised $20,000 over the most recent reporting cycle.

 

Superintendent of Public Instruction:

Republican Sandy Welch is lagging further and further behind current Superintendent Denise Juneau, a Democrat.   Welch raised about half what Juneau did for the most recent reporting period–$6,300.  However, she has only $19k in the bank to Denise Juneau’s $89k.  This, combined with Juneau’s recent staggering earned media streak, probably means the GOP has already given up on taking Juneau’s seat.

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Posted: November 8, 2011 at 7:44 pm

Location, Location, Location

Besides Ken Miller and a few Republican staffers, Congressman Rehberg had a pretty sparse turnout for his recent “Liberate Main Street” astroturf tour.  What gives?

After decades as a politician, perhaps Congressman Rehberg knows more big shots in Washington D.C. than actual Main Street Montanans. Maybe if he had held his rally inside the Beltway, Rehberg could have found someone to stand up for his effort to stand up for Wall Street CEOs.

Here are some guesses on who would have attended Rehberg’s rallies if he had held them in D.C.:

 

Posted: September 2, 2011 at 7:01 am

Inside the Bad Idea Factory

The bad ideas and nutty legislation proposed in the Montana legislature certainly did not come from Montana constituents, and  did not even (always) originate in the muddled minds of TEA Party Republicans. Instead, many of the bad bills came from an out-of-state hard right strategy group known as the American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC.

Much research has already been done into the connections between ALEC and its corporate backers from Big Tobacco, PHARMA, and Big Oil, and there are several good sources of information out there about these connections. But that’s not the whole story.

This summer, Center for Media and Democracy posted some 800 ALEC “model” bills and resolutions on a new website, ALECexposed.org.     Now, internet savvy Montanans have an intriguing and largely untapped resource to compare ALEC bills to proposals in the Montana legislature and to see how and where they overlap. It would be interesting if people who find things post them  in the comments. Then we could all see what patterns emerge, if there are certain legislators who were the worst offenders, or if certain policy areas appear to dominate the list.

Even the briefest look at the ALEC documents shows that its goals appear to be much broader than enacting pro-corporate policy.

In some instances, the model legislation is designed to advance the agenda of far-right religious fundamentalists to steer public funds to religious/private schools. Here’s the model ALEC bill on special education vouchers–a type of “gateway” proposal to lead the way to full private/religious school vouchers later–and here is the Montana legislative version, for comparison.

In many cases however, the greater goals appear to be electoral.  Take the voter suppression proposal, a bill that (if it wasn’t vetoed) would have helped Republicans keep more young Montanans, seniors, and low-income people living in isolated areas from voting.  Here’s the model ALEC Model bill to require a current photo ID to vote, and  here’s the Montana legislative bill.

The other way ALEC advances the GOP electoral strategy is by forcing dems to take tough votes on issues that the republicans will then use to campaign against them.  Take for example, the ALEC bill to opt out of health care reform.  Here is the model ALEC bill for a constitutional amendment to allow states to opt-out and here’s the Montana legislative version.

Republicans don’t like to talk about how they are using the legislative process for partisan electioneering with assistance from out-of-state groups.  Instead, they claim that ALEC is no more than a non partisan source of policy materials and even bragged about their attempts to pass ALEC legislation.

Here is a list of current legislators with ALEC task force positions (below the fold).  Like the TEA Party, the ALEC crew appears to be concentrated in the House with a few notable exceptions, like State Senator and Gubernatorial run considerer Jeff Essmann.   The list also seems heavy on Republicans from the Flathead area.

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Posted: May 21, 2011 at 8:44 am

The Montana GOP Hypocrite of the Week Award Goes to…

Please, Congressman Rehberg is the GOP Hypocrite of the decade.…Montana’s Millionaire Congressman Dennis Rehberg, who just before voting against ending giveaways to Big Oil CEOs, tried to revive old debates on ‘welfare reform’.

In classic hypocritical fashion, Congressman Rehberg thinks job-creating Pell Grants are ‘welfare’ and wants to gut them. He’s already tried to deny Montana $15 million (with an ‘m’) in Pell Grants.

But when it comes to  billions in unnecessary subsidies for Big Oil CEOs, it is definitely NOT ‘welfare’, and Rehberg wants to keep them in place. Ending the subsidies would have saved $20 billion(with a ‘b’).

Citizens watchdog groups organized a protest of the subsidies in front of Rehberg’s office this week.

Why does Congressman Rehberg hold Big Oil CEOs to a different standard than Montana students?

Because his ‘longtime friends’ in Big Oil have given him nearly $300,000 over the course of his long career in Washington DC., and because that’s what hypocrites do.  For these reasons, Congressman Rehberg is being honored as the Montana Cowgirl Blog’s GOP hypocrite of the week. Go ahead and toast your award Congressman.  We suggest cheap industrial cooking whisky.  You deserve it.