Joe Bodell has an exhaustive post chronicling the contrast between Ashwin Madia’s energy plan and Erik Paulsen’s plan to cozy up to big oil. Paulsen, who has accepted money from Exxon Mobile, is trying to camouflage his big oil agenda in the language of renewable energy, but Joe saw through his act…
Paulsen’s platform positions on encouragement of green energy production are inoffensive enough. However, these positions conflict with his voting record on energy issues in the State House: earlier this year, Paulsen voted against Minnesota’s participation in a regional greenhouse gas reduction program. He has opposed requiring that 20 percent of the state’s energy be produced from renewable sources by 2020, and also voted against requiring that renewable energy make up at least a minimum share of the electricity that utilities sell in Minnesota.
Actions speak louder than words. Paulsen has had many opportunities to take a lead in promoting renewable energy, and he has failed to do so. Now he wants voters to ignore his record and believe his rhetoric.
Ashwin Madia, on the other hand, has a concrete plan to promote renewable energy. And unlike Erik Paulsen, Madia has not accepted a dime from big oil (or any other corporate PAC for that matter).
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Madia has not accepted money from a corporate PAC, but has indeed accepted money (and lots of it) from Union interests as well as Partnerships like Robbins Kaplan — a very very fine line between that and a corporate PAC.
I wouldn’t make such a big deal of not accepting money from corporate PACs. The question is are they accepting money from special interests? In this case, the answer is yes for both Madia and Paulsen.
But Ashwin is accepting corporate PAC money, its just funneled through other Dems!
YEp, ACO. It is all semantics, and Madia’s campaign has the party faithful echoing that “no corporate PAC money” talking point all day long.
Not as single Minnesota Democrat is on that donor list from Exxon Mobile. But Erik is listed with Bachmann, Kline,and Coleman.
Why don’t we discuss the fact that Paulsen voted against renewable energy? Multiple times?!
Just one more reason to support Ashwin Madia.
You can’t actually attack Madia on the no-corporate-PAC point, so your next-best move is to draw a “He does it too” parallel? Weak sauce. With that argument, ACO, you should be the first to argue that Norm Coleman should immediately return every corrupt dollar he’s received from disgraced Senator Ted Stevens’ leadership PAC — it, after all, was the recipient of oodles of corrupt money from corporate interests, especially in the oil industry. Right? Coleman is accepting corporate PAC money, and it’s filtered through other Republicans! OMG!
Get real. Madia’s stand on corporate PAC money is a courageous one. There are plenty of candidates on both sides of the aisle who accept money from such PACs. The problem area for many Democrats in particular is the telecom industry — companies like Verizon and Comcast have plenty of congresscritters of all stripes in their pockets, and it shows on votes like the recent FISA travesty.
Then you have Madia, who doesn’t accept their money and lo and behold! He opposes terrible legislation like that which provided retroactive immunity to those interests before any investigation of their actions. He’s doing well fundraising without their help, and he’ll make a great Congressman come January 2009.
Oh, and thanks for the hat-tip Zack.
“Madia’s stand on corporate PAC money is a courageous one.”
I’m sorry, but I don’t see what about that is courageous. You say that you’re not taking money from corporate PACs, but you can still accept from their executives directly, the labor unions who staff those industries, the “partnership” PACs which are company PACs, and other PACs which can collect money from corporationas and their employees, it just isn’t called corporate.
Saying you don’t accept money from corporate PACs, when you are the endorsed Democrat, just ain’t that courageous. Like I said before, if Madia wasn’t accepting money from special interests, I’d sit up and really listen. But low and behold, Madia is collecting plenty of funds from special interests across the nation.
Joe - what if I said that Erik Paulsen doesn’t accept money from Union PACs. Would that be courageous of him? Or would you say that Erik Paulsen probably wasn’t going to rely union Union PAC money anyway, and that members of those Unions could still give the max to Erik if they felt strongly about his views? Same deal.
I think the fact that Paulsen takes money from big oil and then votes repeatedly against renewable energy legislation is concerning. It proves that he is beholding to big oil and won’t vote for what is best for Minnesota or America.
We need a good energy policy in this country today, and it isn’t going to happen if we send politicians to Washington who are already beholding to big oil. We already know how they will vote. And we all lose.
So who is beholden to whom? Here are two random examples to illustrate my point, taken from http://www.opensecrets.org. It took about 4 minutes to pull this info.
1) Madia has received $5,000 from Steny Hoyer’s powerful Leadership PAC, “AmericPAC”. This is not a corporate PAC, but rather an “ideologial” PAC. So Madia can safely claim he has not accepted money from a “corporate” PAC. But who has given to AmeriPAC? A quick scan shows that a DC Lobbyist gave $5,000, an Oklahoma Oil and Gas Investor gave $5,000, a Maryland Govt Contractor Gave $5,000, Lawyers have given at least $50,000…..
2) Madia has received $4,600 from individuals employed at a Northern Virginia firm called Beekman, which from a 20-second Google Search looks like it is a HUD contractor, advisor, and broker of major real estate deals. That $4,600 may not have come from a corporate PAC, but you think those fellas from Northern Virginia are giving out of the goodness of their hearts?
My point is not that Madia is accepting money he shouldn’t — he is playing the game by everyone else. But’s lets not pretend that one candidate is saying “no” to special interests while the other one is not.
The post started with Big Oil contributions and connections..both which Eric Paulsen is part of and supports. Madia from day 1 of his campaign has stated we need to eliminate the tax breaks to Big Oil, but Paulsen says that allowing these tax breaks to expire would harm our economy…who’s out of touch with the average person on the street and in the 3rd CD? If you want more of the same old policies that are bankrupting our country, vote for Paulsen. If you want a new direction with some fiscal discipline and NO sweetheart deals with Big Oil, vote for Madia! The decision is clear and Madia wins hands down!
Sounds like none of the money Madia has received comes from an energy industry making record profits at our expense.
And your argument certainly does not explain why your candidate has voted numerous times AGAINST RENEWABLE ENERGY.
How does not voting to support renewable energy legislation help Minnesotans, and why would I want to send someone to Washington who is going to be in big oil’s back pocket?!
Paulsen has to live with his voting record, and that record is certainly not helping my family pay the bills.
So government is supposed to pay your family’s bills? huh?
dtm…southwestdem di not say anything about government paying their bills. Paulsen’s record of supporting Big Oil and their tax breaks has done Nothing to bring done the cost of energy for the voters in our district or around the company…unless of course you are in the top 1-2 % top earners. Paulsen thinks we should extend more breaks to Big Oil and allow them additional leases off shore to go with the thousands they already have and don’t drill on. If Paulsen and his friends in the GOP get their way, all the potential drilling sites will be tied up for years with nothing happening but corporate profits continuing to rise. By the way, he takes no stance to protect the environment in his drill everywhere approach and still seems to think there were no oil spills due to Katrina and zero environmental damage….at least he’s consistent on this part of his plan….the voters will never have to figure out who he’s beholding to…..Big Oil!