A Peek Behind The Curtain: Who Really Governs Our Decayed Democracy-- A Look At House Ways And Means Committee Chair Richard Neal

Congressional Committee Chairs tend to be paragons of corruption. They are charged with raising immense sums of money from the special interests their committees oversee. It's a system that should be illegal; instead it creates power for the worst crooks.

At a time when Democratic voters have been insisting that special interest money that corrupts politicians be banned, Pelosi's congressional Democratic establishment has double down. On Tuesday, two top journalists for the Daily Beast, Jackie Kucinich and Lachlan Markay, reported on how the DCCC has gobbled up all the sewer money Democratic candidates are rejecting. They're "raking in money from corporate political groups and registered lobbyists," wrote Kucinich and Markay, "even as the party’s left flank increasingly tries to distance itself from those traditional sources of financial muscle... [including] from 143 corporate political action committees in the first quarter of 2019... up substantially from the past two election cycles."

Lobbyist fundraisers are also ponying up for the DCCC. In the first three months of the year, eight registered federal lobbyists “bundled” more than $1.2 million in contributions for the committee. That’s nearly double the total during the same period last cycle, and nearly 40 times the DCCC’s lobbyist bundling haul during the entire first half of 2015.

The huge influx of corporate and lobbying donations cash underscores a truism about Washington D.C.: money follows power. Democrats hadn’t held the House majority since 2010. And now that they have control of that chamber, donors are showering them with support.

But plugged-in Democrats attribute the money boom to another factor: the increasing wariness among prominent progressives of political contributions by corporations and their K Street representatives. With a number of Democrats, both in Congress and among the party’s large field of presidential candidates, swearing off such contributions, donors have sought other outlets for their sizable political donation budgets. Party committees such as the DCCC are one logical alternative.

“That money is going to go somewhere,” said a former Democratic staffer familiar with the process. “It’s not evaporating, the committees are a natural place.”

...One senior Democratic lobbyist said Democratic members who choose not to take corporate PAC money “are just hurting themselves” since the cash would find its way into the political process anyways.

“I talk to a lot of members all the time; they are afraid of the left,” the lobbyist said, adding that the policy of forgoing such donations makes even less sense, “when you look at how the money is being spent, the $2,500 check that I write, versus the million some billionaire can put into a [super PAC].”

..."Corporate PACs give money to members of Congress to try to buy access and influence policy to benefit the corporation's bottom line,” said Patrick Burgwinkle, who formerly worked for the DCCC but is now the communications director for End Citizens United, a political action committee which has pushed campaign finance reform. “Democratic party committees exist to protect and expand Democratic majorities. Corporate PACs don’t decide on which races party committees spend, and the party committees make their decisions based on their determination of which races are the best to win elections."

That last paragraph calls for a tiny bit of explanation. End Citizens United has nothing really to do with ending Citizens United. It's a money-vacuuming operation started by DCCC and DSCC staffers. It's a scam operation the DCCC uses to sucker grassroots progressive-oriented small donors to give money that can be used for anti-progressive right-wing Democrats (basically Blue Dogs and New Dems) who small donors would otherwise not contribute to. When Burgwinkle claims that the DCCC and DSCC "make their decisions based on their determination of which races are the best to win elections," he's spitting out the party line that the DCCC and DSCC use to deceive the party grassroots and disguise the fact that both party committees are anti-progressive and overwhelmingly recruit and support conservative Democrats, while working hard to kill progressive candidates in the cradle.

Pelosi, Neal, Hoyer-- Time for Democrats to say goodbye to institutional corruption and to the party leaders who thrive on it

That said, early in April, we looked at one of Pelosi's very powerful and very corrupt party chairs, Richard Neal. He isn't very well-known outside of the Beltway and I was delighted this week when the Boston Globe blew the whistle on Neal-- a career of corruption Democrat. David Daley, author of Ratfucked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count, gave The Globe the exclusive exposé, largely based on Neal's newly released FEC fund-raising reports. "His three-month fund-raising haul of more than $520,000," wrote Daley, "offers a powerful reminder of who really governs our decayed democracy, and a discouraging example of the way politicians like Neal immediately rush to auction their positions to the nation’s business elite."

Perhaps it’s little surprise. After all, we’ve come to expect this debased system as politics as usual. Naturally, the largest corporations and industry lobby groups-- big banks, insurers, and health care interests, alongside General Electric, Deloitte, Eastman Chemical, and Prudential-- lined up with $5,000 checks for the man with significant power over the federal tax code.

It’s important to maintain a healthy sense of outrage over pay-to-play politics. But if that seems like merely petty corruption in today’s Washington, Neal’s latest report provides another frightful look behind the curtain-- at the high life members of Congress lead while they raise that money, and how they turn around and spend it on their own high-class travel, dining, and entertainment.

While Neal raised more than a half-million last quarter, and still sits 20 months away from facing voters again, he nevertheless spent over $467,000 from his campaign account during the first three months of 2019. (According to FEC records, he raised, and spent, more money during the quarter than any other member of the Massachusetts delegation; he also spent more money during the 2018 cycle than his colleagues, despite facing no GOP challenger as well as dispatching a first-time candidate in a September primary.) Much of his campaign money went to big-dollar fund-raising events at five-star restaurants, private boxes at sporting events, stays at luxury hotels, premium travel, and more.

In other words: Between January and March 2019, Neal spent hundreds of thousands of dollars wining and dining lobbyists at his fund-raisers. In return, he pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars of contributions-- many from elite donors with valuable interests before his committee. (One of his first-quarter donors was HR Block. Neal subsequently provided the tax-prep giant with its longtime legislative dream: a prohibition on an IRS free-file system that would undercut their profits.)

Neal rents the private box at the stadium or the table at the gourmet restaurant. Lobbyists buy access to his ear for the evening. Everyone enjoys the game, and the wine flows for free.

In January alone, days after taking the Ways and Means gavel, Neal moved to capitalize on the influential job. He paid the firm Washington Suite Life, which specializes in linking politicos with private boxes at concerts and ball games, $5,937 for an undisclosed event. Neal has previously worked with the Suite Life on boxes for Boston Celtics and Bruins games, as well as a James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt concert. He also spent $5,613.35 at Sixth Engine, a bar close to the Capitol. While we don’t have the invite to this reception, this bar is a Neal favorite. In February 2017, according to the invitation posted on the site Politicalpartytime.org, several well-heeled D.C. lawyers and lobbyists hosted a whiskey tasting there to benefit Neal. The price to enter: $2,500 to host, $1,000 to attend and taste. (C&G Associates, a murky D.C. firm with almost zero Internet presence gets $9,000 a month as Neal’s fund-raising consultants.)

Also in January: Neal hosted parties at the Dubliner pub in Washington ($4,950.30), Taste in Virginia ($4,686.05), Del Frisco’s Double Eagle steak house ($4,478.36), The Salt Line on the Washington waterfront ($3,259.66), and Charlie Palmer Steak ($1.301.40). There was also a $14,000 bash at the Red Lion Inn in the Berkshires, as well as several thousand dollars in travel, lodging, food, and beverage costs billed at Omni Hotels and Resorts in Texas and a Fairmont Hotel in California. In Manhattan, Neal’s campaign picked up just under $1,000 for a night at 11 Howard, a hotel that describes itself as “ultra-modern” “casual luxury” “in the heart of SoHo,” “where Danish minimalism meets New York realism.”

That’s just one month. In February, Neal spent over $5,000 on food and drink for an event run by Capitol Host, as well as thousands more at the trendy restaurants Garrison and Lucky Strike, to name just two. March looked like an even wilder cash-collecting orgy. Neal spent $6,630.05 for food, drinks, and lodging at a Florida Ritz-Carlton. It appears to be Fort Lauderdale, because while he was there, Neal’s campaign spent hundreds more on smaller meals at Terra Mare, Ocean Prime 57, and the Louie Bossis Ristorant. The man rarely eats a Big Mac.

But the Ritz-Carlton wasn’t even the fanciest hotel that hosted Neal in March. There’s a charge for $4,183.28 at the Hay Adams hotel across from the White House, where a one-bedroom suite with a view of 1600 Pennsylvania can go for $2,000 a night. Neal picked up additional four-figure tabs in March at a Library of Congress cafe, Charlie Palmer Steak, and at Bistro Bis across from the Capitol, where Neal has previously held $2,500 breakfast receptions allowing him to collect tens of thousands in campaign contributions over his morning coffee.

Voters sent Neal to Washington to do the people’s business. We didn’t elect him king of Manhattan boutique hotels or to a never-ending circuit of steak houses, let alone legendary, annual “Boston weekend” fund-raisers, or $5,000 summer gatherings on Cape Cod. If constituents want to talk to him? Sorry, your representative is at a fund-raiser at the Ritz-Carlton or a private box at a James Taylor concert. If constituents want his ear on policy? Wealthy folks pay $2,500 for that. And if constituents want to hold him accountable for putting special interests before the public interest? The money helps protect him from a challenge back home.

This is our seat. Richard Neal’s living the high life, on someone else’s dime. We all pay the cost.

Pelosi, Rangel, Neal-- the joke has always been on us-- trying to believe that the Democratic establishment is somehow less corrupt than the Republican establishment

Neal's district (MA-01), covers the entire western part of the state, along the New York border, from the border with Vermont to the border with Connecticut. Springfield, Great Barrington, South Hadley and Pittsfield are the main population centers. The district is safely blue, with a D+12 PVI. Trump did better than most Republicans (36.5%)-- primarily because the Dems fielded such a weak candidate-- but the GOP didn't even bother running a candidate against Neal. The last time the GOP bothered running anyone was 2010, when he beat Republican Tom Wesley 57.3% to 42.7%. Aside from that the GOP fielded candidate in 1996 (21.9%), 1994 (36.3%), 1992 (31.1%) and 1988 (19.7%). Neal was unopposed in 11 re-election campaigns. That tends to make a member of Congress forget who they work for.

When Charlie Rangel's blatant corruption finally got him kicked out of his House Ways and Means Committee chair, Neal rose in power. If he learned anything from Rangel's behavior and disgraceful end, it was to be less blatant about taking bribes. It appears that Neal may have a real challenge this cycle with a primary from Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, a 30 year old, openly gay progressive, who defeated the incumbent mayor when he was just 22. No one knows if he's going to run or not, but progressive groups in Massachusetts and across the country are trying to persuade him that if he beats Neal, his work in Congress would still be helping folks in Holyoke, who he seems very committed to.

Can Alex beat Pelosi's powerful Ways and Means Chair? Will he try?