Wall Street Showers Patrick Murphy With Bribes In Gratitude For His Service To Them On The Financial Services Committee

Ahoy, Matey-- Patrick's gold-trimmed pirate hat courtesy of Bergdorf Goodman

So how does this upbringing and this lifestyle manifest itself in the day to day life of a startlingly unqualified congressman who bought a House seat and now, with the help of a thoroughly corrupted and rotted out Democratic Establishment, thinks he is entitled to buy himself a Senate seat? Yes, Patrick Murphy is getting quite a bit of help from Wall Street's most predatory banksters and some very interested parties in Saudi Arabia but, in the end, it's still daddy who's paying for a good part of the campaign for his incapable, under-achieving son.

We have often stated that Murphy is getting more in overt bribes from the Finance Sector-- whose interests he has slavishly championed on the House Financial Services Committee-- than any other non-incumbent-- from either party-- running for Senate this year. As of the latest FEC reports, the Finance Sector has doled out $177,282,161 to candidates to Congress so far this cycle, $106,022,031 to Republicans and $70,969,461 to Democrats. Although Marco Rubio has taken the most in bribes from the banksters (and Cruz, who isn't up for reelection this year, the second most, most of their money was specifically for their presidential campaigns. Leaving Cruz out of the equation entirely and keeping in mind Rubio's special circumstance, These are the dozen crooked politicians running for Senate seats who the banksters have invested in most heavily so far this cycle:

• Marco Rubio (R-FL)- $6,247,905
• Chuck Schumer (D-NY)- $4,176,481
• Rob Portman (R-OH)- $2,551,940
• Pat Toomey (R-PA)- $2,193,187
• Michael Bennet (D-CO)- $1,940,723
• Kelly Ayotte (R-NH)- $1,825,066
• Richard Shelby (R-AL)- $1,796,946
• Ron Wyden (D-OR)- $1,536,770
• Patrick Murphy (D-FL)- $1,413,950
• Ron Johnson (R-WI)- $1,360,536
• Mark Kirk (R-IL)- $1,231,085
• Richard Burr (R-NC)- $1,210,100

The defeat of all 12 of these self-serving miscreants would go a long way towards freeing America of the iron grip of the greed-driven and unaccountable Wall Street banksters. And it's feasible that 7 or, with luck, even 8 of the 12 could be defeated in November-- Marco Rubio, Rob Portman, Pat Toomey, Kelly Ayotte, Patrick Murphy, Ron Johnson, Mark Kirk and, the longshot, Richard Burr. The real tragedy, willfully covered up by a lazy or complicit media, though, is that most of them would be replaced by other bankster-friendly legislators-- the two exceptions being Alan Grayson if he beats first Murphy and then Rubio and Russ Feingold if he takes down the execrable Ron Johnson in Wisconsin, something that looks exceedingly likely at this point. If you'd like to help Alan Grayson and Russ Feingold, they are among the very few candidates for the U.S. Senate endorsed by Blue America this cycle and the thermometer on the right leads to the ActBlue page with our Senate endorsed candidates. Please dig as deep as you comfortably can.

Meanwhile, for those who like doing a little investigative digging around, here's the proof that Florida bankster shill Patrick Murphy is the House Democrat who's taken the most bribes this cycle from the Republican-friendly Hedge Fund world . And from the Republican-friendly Mortgage Bankers & Brokers universe. And let's not forget that Patrick Murphy is the House Dem who's taken the most bribes this cycle from the Securities & Investment Industry and from the Commercial Banks and from the Finance & Credit companies. #1... and that doesn't even go into industries where he's only the second most corrupt Democrat in Congress, like the lovely payday lenders, where Patrick's criminally-minded ally, Alcee Hastings, gobbled up $41,450 from the payday lenders so far this cycle beating Patrick out, who look "only" $40,900, by less than a grand. Is it worth wondering how the worst criminals in corporate America have all found themselves extraordinarily attracted to one exceedingly unaccomplished and non-influential backbencher from Florida? Payday lenders? Can you go much lower than that?

UPDATE: PolitiFact Finds Murphy Guilty

Murphy and his allies are uncomfortable when his symbiotic relationship with the Wall Street banksters is brought up. The grotesquely corrupt senators who back him, particularly Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid, are also big recipients of massive bribes from Wall Street. In fact, Schumer has taken more cash from Wall Street than any other member of Congress in history with the exception of a few senators who ran for president. Schumer's $25,548,058 haul from the Finance Sector since 1990 dwarves the bribery scooped up by even the most corrupt Republicans like Mitch McConnell ($11,754,976), John Boehner ($12,193,298), Rob Portman ($8,499,386), John Cornyn ($8,175,066) and Paul Ryan ($6,936,437). This year, though, the banksters have a new darling-- and with Schumer's blessing-- Florida nincompoop Patrick Murphy, a bankster-zombie they expect to use to "balance out" the influence of crusading senators like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Murphy has taken more in bribes from the banksters this cycle than anyone running for the U.S. Senate who isn't already in the Senate:

And the third most after Ryan and McCarthy than anyone else in the House:

PolitiFact decided to examine Grayson's claim that Murphy is a crook.

"Guess who has taken more money than any Democrat from Wall Street?" Grayson said, adding that the person was a "certain second-term congressman from Florida who serves in the financial services committee and has no standing in the committee other than the simple right to vote."

He continued: "His name is Patrick Murphy, and he's taken more money from Wall Street than any other member of Congress other than the speaker and the majority leader."

Murphy, of Jupiter, has only been in Congress since 2013, after he switched his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat. We wondered if it was really possible that Murphy received so much money from Wall Street, and why.

For this fact-check we’re only looking at direct contributions made to Murphy’s campaign committee, not super PACs or other organizations that can accept unlimited contributions on his behalf.

2016 contributions check out

When looking at just the House, Grayson’s point checks out.

...Grayson was referencing a study by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group that analyzes campaign donations, that showed Murphy received $1.41 million from the "finance, insurance and real estate" sector in the 2016 election cycle.

That amount placed Murphy third among all members of the House, with Speaker Paul Ryan at No. 1 with nearly $2 million, and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., at No. 2 with $1.58 million.

For similar fact-checks, the Center for Responsive Politics has said the best method to find how much money is being donated by Wall Street workers is to look at a subset of this category, called the "securities and investment" sector. This subcategory captures the greatest number of companies associated with Wall Street, without the other fields under the "finance, insurance and real estate" umbrella.

Even if you look at it this way, Murphy still places third for those kind of contributions among members of the House. Murphy received $352,500 from the securities and investment sector, according to a 2016 analysis from the Center for Responsive Politics. Ahead of Murphy is Ryan with $831,272 and McCarthy with $497,850.

Murphy’s money from Wall Street-related industries amounts to about 4.5 percent of the $7.71 million he’s received so far.

Why all the love?

So why does Wall Street support Murphy so much? A couple of reasons.

As Grayson said, Murphy is a member of the House Committee on Financial Services. Even though he is not a ranking member, he is on two subcommittees that deal with laws related to capital markets and another on monetary policy and trade.

These industries want to be on Murphy’s "good side," Mann said.

The bigger reason probably has more to do with Murphy’s goal and its location: The U.S. Senate, representing Florida. Florida is an "expensive state" for political races, Mann said, and Murphy is going to the industries he knows.

Murphy has raised more money from three other sectors than Wall Street in his 2015-16 campaign. Murphy raised $721,969 from employees of law firms and lawyers, $595,238 from retirees, and $474,600 from the real estate industry...

Our ruling

Grayson said Murphy has "taken more money from Wall Street than any other member of Congress other than the speaker and the majority leader."

Grayson is right that in the 2015-16 cycle, Murphy raised more money from employees of Wall Street-related fields than any other House member after the House speaker and majority leader. Murphy did not raise as much in his previous two congressional bids, but in context it is clear that Grayson was talking about their current race for the Senate.

We rate this statement Mostly True.