Tim Johnson, Wall Street’s 2nd favorite candidate. And on other lists of favorites.

Wow….so now PP, JD and the SDGOP are running against Wall Sreeet?
Somebody please check to see how many snowballs are stocked up in hell.
We all really appreciate your new-found populism.
Careful-the shrink-wrap just came off and you don’t want to scratch it.
We appreciate it just as much as we appreciated JD’s ability to select Press Release B when TJ voted AGAINST the bailout. Then shredded Press Release A.
C’mon people-you know he had two of them ready.

Fact is, whoever we-or any other state for that matter-sends to Washington, soon becomes a slave to the rhythm inside the Beltway.
Here in South Dakota, they’ve already had some conditioning.
The price of political success in South Dakota is obeisance to a welfare industry called ethanol. An industry that operates with one hand continuously stretched out toward Washington while the other picks out corporate jets to add to the fleet.
Seriously, who would have expected that when socialism came to Washington, it would come from…a Republican Administration?
And TJ’s vote—well that came after some careful counting to ensure that the necessary votes were available to pass the bill-and then he was free to do the safe thing to keep his seat intact.

My operative thesis here is that Washington no longer represents the country. It represents whoever has set up shop on K Street. 50 Congressional delegations are in thrall to whoever wrote the last donation check.
And as long as we continue to blindly follow the bouncing D’s and R’s after a candidate’s name, and not the actions of the candidate, we’ll find ourselves the victims.

I think the point is that Johnson gets almost half his money from PACs…when he is supposed to be so popular. Where is the money from the regular folks?

It’s interesting that PP only listed the top five of the incumbents receiving the largest percentage of total from the of PAC money by the financial sector. Six of the top 10 recipients are Republicans.

Jack Reed (D) Rhode Island $1,240,655 31.3%
Tim Johnson (D) South Dakota $1,330,004 30.6%
John E. Sununu (R) New Hampshire $2,060,274 30.4%
Mike Enzi (R) Wyoming $483,200 25.1%
Frank R. Lautenberg (D) New Jersey $1,536,819 22.4%
Max Baucus (D) Montana $2,269,800 22.1%
Norm Coleman (R) Minnesota $2,749,996 20.2%
Mitch McConnell (R) Kentucky $2,733,492 19.1%
Elizabeth Dole (R) North Carolina $1,466,037 19.0%
Gordon H. Smith (R) Oregon $1,626,917 18.8%

How about some letters to the editor about these statistics? How about some major newspaper stories on these statistics? How does this info get out?

No wonder Tim can’t be allowed to retire and enjoy his family. He still has too many favors that he owes in return for the campaign $$$,$$$,$$$.

Johnson has always taken a lot of money from PACs in dollar amounts but always has had a lot of small donations from SD, so the number of donors weighs in favor of SD while the amount of money is from PACs.

No one cares about PAC money in the abstract but it is troubling when a specific industry, like banking, seems to have purchased favorable treatment that has hurt the country.

It is amazing how the media keeps this out of the papers in South Dakota. Why won’t they print this stuff? Print the facts, where is Mr. Kranz? Too busy Dave, covering up for Dems and looking for anything remotely negative against Reps?

ACTUALLY, 6:21…MY point is that whether you have a D or an R behind your name, you get to Washington, you hang out an “Open for Business” sign on the door.
TJ is on the BANKING Committee. So how diligent is he going to be when it comes to regulating the boys giving him all that $$$$? And they do need regulating. When Glass-Steagall was repealed, it opened the door and led us directly to where we are now.
And so far, all we have seen that either party is eminently open to being corrupted by money.
This is the “democracy” promoted so heavily by the Limbaughs of the world. Promoting these kinds of “campaign contributions” as free speech is a perversion and a joke.
Money buys power and access. And it makes integrity a disposable commodity.
In a bipartisan manner, as the more complete list from 7:22 demonstrates.

Republican blogs need to start talkin’ about us mavericks. When are you going to talk about the Alaska report that found that I’m the most ethical governor in Alaska history and that I’d be a candidate for sainthood if I was Catholic instead of Pentecostal/Witch Doctor religion? You should also be askin’ who’s the real Barack Obama.

Looks like Feasant is putting on his tinfoil hat and joining Sibby at the top secret conspiracy clubhouse.

Their motto: the truth is out there; if only the Argus Leader would report it.

Perhaps he should tie this all together by bringing up Area 51.

Why won’t the media investigate how much of the taxpayer written-off loan to SD Ag Producer Ventures that Dykstra took as salary as he was lying to the board of directors while he served in the legislature?

Maybe if you take this information and get a candidate who can self fund, build some name id, and run a campaign you will have a chance 6 years from now.

It doesn’t make a lot of sense to use percentages in this instance since every small state is going to be out of whack compared to the larger states. Of course in our little state a higher percentage of the money is going to be coming from PAC’s than in states with larger populations.

Campaigns need to be seriously changed nation-wide. Make campaigns shorter, LIMIT the amount of money that each candidate can spend, limit the amount of time they can be on TV/radio with ads, eliminate PAC’s, etc etc. Let the people get back in the game of politics and serving. Right now they are for the most part eliminated unless they can raise inordinate amounts of money, which leads to corruption.

Hey PP How many PAC’s do you belong to? Are all PAC’s evil?

I contribute to 3 PAC’s. 2 industry and one issue based. All three do good work and represent my interests.

I don’t have 750K to wash through a pac so I have to pool my money with other like minded folks.

Dave Kranz, why don’t you report this on your good buddy? Too busy hanging with Beck?

Tired of Tim!

Kranz sucks. The Argus Misleader will not release him or admonish him for any reason. The guy rarely attacks the left or even poses legitimate mind tinting issues. Why would they give him a pink slip, no public outcry other than blogs. One option is to either start up a more conservative paper or force the Argus Misleader to hire a conservative counterpoint to Kranz’s dribble and drool. It will be interesting to see how the Argus Misleader handles the demise of the US if Hussein gets in and is backed by a demo congress. I wonder how much it would cost to move to Australia???