The Bankers Are Coming for the Senate
The banks are starting to rally their support for the Senate. The American Bankers Association are going to start funding super-PACs anonymously in an effort to help the Republicans take back the Senate and they can rid of the pesky financial regulations holding them back.
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The board of the ABA will vote on whether or not they're going to form a non-profit that will help funnel their money anonymously to super-PACs supporting between six and 12 Republican candidates looking for senate seats, Bloomberg's Robert Schmidt and Phil Mattingly report.
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Though, it's because of campaign finance laws weakening that they're able to fund their little friends. Otherwise, they'd have to list their names on donor sheets, and they don't want that, as Schmidt and Mattingly explain:
The financial industry has so far kept a low profile in the 2012 campaign, in part because banks remain targets for both political parties for their role in the 2008 financial crisis. While Wall Street banks and their employees have given millions to presidential and congressional campaigns, some of the largest banks have stayed away from overt political activities like funding the parties’ conventions.
With their mask of protection, it's off into the night they go. But they know the mask could be ripped off by a new law at any moment. "Today, we’re OK; tomorrow, I don’t know," Dawn Causey, the ABA’s general counsel, said during a conference call. "There is a risk."
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ABA Chief Operating Officer Michael Hunter told a company conference call that if they got minimum donations from all their clients at their desired rates ($10,000 from the big fish; $5,000 from the mediums; $1,000 from the small) then they'll have $6 million to play with. But who are we kidding? This is the financial industry. No one gives the minimum unless they're tipping the girl working the beer cart at the golf course.
