SF: Lets Have A Debate Nancy! Nancy's Idea Of Democracy?

Lets Have A Debate Nancy! Press Conference At Noon
by How About A Debate
Nancy Pelosi, the likely new head of Congress has refused to debate her election opponents
in San Francisco. Her idea of "democracy" is that no debates are needed since she has
the support of the corporate media.
A press conference of all the other candidates will be held on Thursday to challenge her.
Endorsements Pelosi
In The News
The Latest
PRESS CONFERENCE
Eighth congressional district candidates Krissy Keefer (Green Party), Philip Berg (Libertarian Party), and Mike DeNunzio (Republican Party), hold a joint press conference announcing Nancy Pelosi's response to a debate challenge. Thursday, October 19, 12 noon, in front of the Federal Building on Golden Gate Avenue.

Krissy Keefer brings light to the Fog City Journal.
Check out Luke Thomas's coverage of Krissy's editorial board interview with the San Francisco Chronicle at http://www.fogcityjournal.com.


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/11/MNGEJLMT8E1.DTL&hw=pelosi&sn=001&sc=1000

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Business hedges bets by donating to Pelosi
Firms open wallets in case Democrats take back House

- Edward Epstein, Kimberly Geiger, Chronicle Washington Bureau
<mailto:eepstein [at] sfchronicle.com>
Wednesday, October 11, 2006

(10-11) 04:00 PDT Washington -- Traditionally Republican big business
interests are hedging their electoral bets this year by increasing their
campaign contributions to Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi of San
Francisco, whose party is given a healthy shot at taking House control
in the Nov. 7 elections.

Business is still overwhelmingly Republican in its donations, accounting
in part for the big financial advantage that Republicans have in the
home stretch as they try to maintain control of the House and the
Senate. But though the business community disagrees with many of the
positions Pelosi plans to push if she becomes speaker in January --
raising the minimum wage, rolling back tax breaks for oil and gas
companies, and allowing Medicare to negotiate price reductions on
prescription drugs -- corporate America doesn't want to be shut out.

"They probably sense Democrats are doing well," said Rep. Mike Thompson,
D-St. Helena. "I hope they're giving for more than their selfish
interests. I think they recognize they have to deal with Democrats."

Pelosi's main campaign committee reported raising more than $1.2
million, including $730,025 from political action committees, for the
2006 election through June 30, according to the most recent campaign
filing reports compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

The financial information shows that 54.2 percent of the PAC money --
more than $400,000 -- given to Pelosi in the first six months of 2006
came from businesses. That's up from $366,000 for the entire 2003-04
election cycle, her first as House minority leader, and $207,750 in
2001-02, according to data from the center.

The increase is even more pronounced for the Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee, the body that raises and dispenses millions of
dollars for candidates in key House races. The committee received about
$20.6 million from business interests in the first half of 2006. That's
up from $19.5 million for all of the 2004 cycle and represents almost 50
percent of the group's total fundraising.

For the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the increase was even
bigger, up 15.8 percent to $31.5 million, a figure that represented 76.8
percent of the committee's fundraising total.

Pelosi has a second fundraising vehicle: her long-standing PAC to the
Future, whose treasurer is former Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy of San
Francisco. Through Oct. 2, it reported raising $460,105 so far this
year, $40,000 of that coming in $1,000 contributions from 40 agents of
American Income Life Insurance Co., a Waco, Texas-based company
specializing in insuring union members.

Pelosi uses virtually all of that money to help finance her effort to
win majority control of the House and become the nation's first female
speaker. Records show that PAC to the Future has contributed $433,500 to
61 Democratic House members and candidates during the current election
cycle.

Business interests still contribute overwhelmingly to Republicans,
figures show. In the first half of 2006, the GOP Senate campaign
committee generated 78.5 percent of its donations from business
interests, while the House campaign committee received 70.6 percent of
its money from business.

Embattled House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois, Pelosi's counterpart
in the Republican ranks, received 93 percent of his 2006 PAC donations
from business interests.

The trend toward more business donations going to Pelosi and other
Democrats doesn't surprise Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista (San Diego
County), who made a fortune selling car alarms and is one of the House's
richest members.

"Business tends to follow good votes by members but also tends to follow
perceptions of where the power is going to be," Issa said. "And the
popular wisdom is that at best we're going to have a closely divided
Congress." The Democrats need a net gain of 15 seats to take control of
the House and six seats to take back the Senate.

"Business will always hedge its bets," Issa said.

The increase in businesses giving to Pelosi includes some who have not
given her money before, at least in the last few election cycles.

Businesses aren't allowed to make political donations directly, but
contributions can be made by political action committees and employees
associated with businesses. Among first-time donors this year to Pelosi
of $200 or more are the PAC and employees of Los Angeles-based
Occidental Petroleum, which has given her $17,000; insurer Aflac, which
contributed $5,000; Blue Shield of California, $3,500; broadcaster Clear
Channel, $5,000; cable TV giant Comcast, $10,000; online stock brokerage
E-Trade, $2,000; South Bay Internet giant eBay, $1,000; insurance giant
Liberty Mutual, $5,000; employees of phone company MCI, $5,000; the
National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, $10,000; and cell
phone company T-Mobile, $2,500.

PACs can contribute a maximum of $5,000 per election to individual
candidates, while individuals can give $2,100 to candidates and $5,000 to a


PAC.

Corporate PACs that gave Pelosi more included those from San Francisco
international engineering giant Bechtel. Donations from the company,
which is located in Pelosi's district, went from $2,000 in the 2003-04
election cycle to $5,000 this year.

AT&T's donation went from $5,500 to $12,500 and Microsoft's from $6,000
to $10,000.

Employees of the Menlo Park-based venture capital giant Kleiner Perkins
Caufield & Byers have given Pelosi $10,500 so far this year, up from
$1,000 in 2004.

Brokerage UBS gave $10,000 to Pelosi's committees in 2003-04 and doubled
the donation to $20,000 this year.

The brokerage firm's political action committee shows exactly how
business can be a bipartisan giver: Of the almost $1.5 million it has
contributed thus far during the current election cycle, 48 percent has
gone to Democrats and 49 percent to Republicans, data from the Center
for Responsive Politics shows.

Thompson, former head of the business council of the Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee, has worked for years to dispel the
notion that the Democrats are anti-business.

"You can be Democrat and understand business. We're working with them,"
he said.

Some independent analysts say the increase in business money flowing to
Democrats as their electoral prospects increase makes some in the party
uneasy and raises questions.

Liberal blogger and former Capitol Hill aide David Sirota, who calls
corporate campaign contributions "legalized bribery," said, "The
troubling question is -- what do these contributions buy?

"Clearly, the Democrats are far more interested in representing ordinary
citizens' interests rather than special interests. But it is an open
question as to what a massive influx of corporate cash will do to a
Democratic majority," he said.

Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21, a nonprofit group pushing for campaign
finance reform, said: "This is investment money, and this is a time when
people who are out to influence Congress start hedging their bets."

Wertheimer said that if the Democrats take the House, Pelosi will face
an early test of whether business money is influencing her legislative
priorities. At issue will be whether she pushes a House Democratic
majority to make changes in how business lobbies Congress, changes that
languished under Republican control despite the scandal involving
lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

In her election manifesto, "A New Direction for America," Pelosi
outlines several steps she says will be a top priority if she becomes
speaker. These include a ban on lobbyist-paid gifts and travel, tougher
rules on former House members and their aides going to work for lobbying
firms, new disclosure rules for lobbyists' contacts with Congress and an
end to operations such as the K Street Project, in which Republicans
pressured lobbying firms to hire GOP-affiliated employees.

"What we know is that the Democrats have raised the issue of corruption
in Congress throughout the last two years, and if they take control, it
will be their responsibility to do something about it," Wertheimer said.

Pelosi spokeswoman Jennifer Crider said that the lobbying changes remain
a top priority and that Pelosi will push her economic proposals as well.

"Democratic core values will not change," Crider said.

But Crider said Pelosi has shown she is willing to work with business
leaders without regard to their politics. The Democrats devised an
"Innovation Agenda" after town hall meetings across the country that
included business leaders.

The agenda includes making the research and development tax credit
permanent, boosting domestic energy production, developing
nanotechnology and reining in health care costs.

Thompson said fears that Democrats will sell out to corporate interests,
after 12 years in the House minority, are "ridiculous."

"Business knows we're not going to be a rubber stamp. We'll be first and
foremost for the American people and for transparency in government," he
said.

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E-mail the writers at eepstein [at] sfchronicle.com
<mailto:eepstein [at] sfchronicle.com> and kgeiger [at] sfchronicle.com
<mailto:kgeiger [at] sfchronicle.com>.

Hedging their bets

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi
of San Francisco has received more money from business interests in the first
six months of 2006 than ever before as it appears Democrats may win majority
control of the House in the Nov. 7 midterm congressional election. Here are
some of the companies that have donated with their political action committees,
or individual employees, to Pelosi's campaign committee or leadership political
action committee and the amount they have given to Republican interests during
the 2005-2006 election cycle. The figures, compiled by The Chronicle with data
from the Center for Responsive Politics, cover the most recent reporting period
though June 30 for Pelosi's individual committee and through Oct. 2 for her
political action committee.

To all
Donor To Pelosi Republicans
Aflac $5,000 $620,890
American Income Life
Insurance Co. agents 40,000 0
AT&T 12,500 1.58 million
Bechtel 5,000 124,800
Blue Shield of California 3,500 17,101
Clear Channel 5,000 233,730
Comcast 10,000 435,680
E-Trade 2,000 57,750
EBay 1,000 59,722
Kleiner Perkins
Caufield & Byers* 10,500 67,700
Liberty Mutual 5,000 235,520
MCI employees 5,000 17,050
Microsoft 10,000 334,730
National Association of
Real Estate Investment Trusts 10,000 333,510
Occidental Petroleum 17,000 279,530
T&T-Mobile 2,500 76,700
UBS* 20,000 726,270

* Kleiner Perkins has contributed the bulk of its $341,795 in donations to
Democratic candidates and committees; UBS contributed just over $726,270
overall to Democratic candidates and party committees.
Sources: Center for Responsive Politics; Chronicle staff
The Chronicle