As Washington Addresses Economic Meltdown, Campaign Money Appears to Have Driven Sen. McConnell's Record

Washington, D.C. - Today Campaign Money Watch, a nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog group, criticized Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for a long record of putting the needs of wealthy Wall Street and securities industry donors ahead of Kentucky voters, and for opposing common sense campaign finance reforms that would curb the political influence of big moneyed interests who were given a green light by Washington.

A Campaign Money Watch analysis of campaign finance data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics found that Sen. McConnell has received $3,679,725 in political contributions from the banking, insurance and financial services industries since 1989. Part of that sum includes $691,880 from commercial banks, $1,112,732 from the insurance industry and $1,484,912 from the securities and investments industry.

Sen. McConnell has consistently favored a wish list for these industries, including cosponsoring legislation to set a moratorium on all new regulations, and granting more power to energy speculators. McConnell has also supported privatization of Social Security, which would have been a boon for the financial services industry, but would have subjected Americans' retirement security to a volatile stock market. He voted in favor of the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, removing the firewall between insurance companies, banks, and investment firms. Many observers point to that Congressional action in 1999 as the key deregulatory vote that set the stage for the current economic crisis.
"Sen. McConnell's long history of carrying water for his Wall Street donors raises serious concerns about whether he'd look out for Kentuckians and their investments, houses, and retirement funds," said David Donnelly, director of Campaign Money Watch. "He's has continued to defend the reckless, corrupt pay-to-play politics in Washington which lets Wall Street lobbyists craft the policies that have contributed to recent economic woes.

"Kentucky voters are already struggling with the state's highest unemployment rate in over 15 years and skyrocketing foreclosures," Donnelly continued. "There's little evidence that Sen. McConnell would support policies that would help them when they need it the most, but ample evidence he'd help his donors."

Campaign Money Watch is a project of the nonpartisan Public Campaign Action Fund. The organization works to hold politicians who are against comprehensive campaign finance reform accountable for where they get their political donations.