[EL] corporate spending

[Rick Hasen]

If anyone continues this thread please use this or another descriptive 
subject heading

On 11/6/14, 6:58 AM, Sean Parnell wrote:
>
> I, at least, don’t recall saying corporations would never directly get 
> involved in a race, only that it would be a rare occurrence and that 
> it would likely involve some deeply parochial interest – GM in 
> Detroit, Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis, something along those lines 
> where the corporation isn’t seen as an ‘outsider’ but is a part of the 
> community. Which does seem to describe the Chevron situation.
>
> Don’t know if anyone else said it would never happen, though.
>
> For those wondering why Chevron might be so interested in a city 
> council race, I don’t know the details and don’t want to opine on 
> who’s in the right or wrong, but they apparently want to upgrade their 
> local refinery (a $1 billion investment) and have already promised 
> about $90 million in ‘community investments,’ to Richmond, but it 
> looks to me (on 5 minutes worth of research, so I could be wrong) that 
> some on the city council want more, particularly to fund a community 
> hospital – I’ve seen the number $27 million floated, which would be on 
> top of the $90 million. So spending $3 million on a city council race 
> might seem a good investment.
>
> Sean Parnell
>
> President
>
> Impact Policy Management, LLC
>
> 6411 Caleb Court
>
> Alexandria, VA  22315
>
> 571-289-1374 (c)
>
> sean at impactpolicymanagement.com
>
> *From:*law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu 
> [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] *On Behalf Of 
> *Lorraine Minnite
> *Sent:* Thursday, November 06, 2014 1:06 AM
> *To:* Rick Hasen
> *Cc:* law-election at UCI.edu
> *Subject:* Re: [EL] ELB News and Commentary 11/6/14
>
> What does this example demonstrate about corporations openly 
> sponsoring candidates in elections (other than the obvious point that 
> money does not always determine the winner)?  As I recall much of the 
> debate on this list in the aftermath of the Citizens' United decision, 
> especially, opponents of campaign finance regulations argued that 
> corporations would not do what Chevron has done here because direct 
> sponsorship was too risky, it could damage the corporate brand.  Were 
> they thinking that a city council race was too far under the radar for 
> detection (or relevance)?  Call me naive but I am astonished at the 
> fact that a huge, multi-international would feel so threatened by a 
> city council race in an economically depressed city they'd throw $3 
> million at it.
>
> Lori Minnite
>
> Posted in election administration 
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, pedagogy 
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=23>
>
>
>         “Chevron Spends Big, And Loses Big, In A City Council Race”
>         <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=68079>
>
>     Posted on November 5, 2014 8:33 pm
>     <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=68079> by *Rick Hasen*
>     <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>
>     NPR
>     <http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/11/05/361875792/chevron-spends-big-and-loses-big-in-a-city-council-race?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=politics&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews>:
>
>         /Early returns indicated the progressives’ grass roots
>         strategy would be successful. By the end of election night,
>         Butt had captured the mayor’s race with more than 51 percent
>         of the votes cast, and the Chevron-backed candidate, City
>         Councilman Nat Bates, garnered just over 35 percent./
>
>         /As a distraught Bates told the Richmond Confidential
>         <http://richmondconfidential.org/2014/11/05/progressives-capture-city-hall-and-council-fending-off-chevron-money/>,
>         “It’s a bloodbath, obviously. I think the citizens will suffer.”/
>
>         /Butt, who had accused Chevron of trying to buy the Richmond
>         Council election
>         <http://www.tombutt.com/forum/2014/14-11-02a.html>, was
>         ecstatic over his David versus Goliath victory./
>
>         /“To take on a campaign that’s funded with $3 million and our
>         modest campaign budget was about $50,000,” he said, “but we
>         had a lot of grassroots help and we pulled it off.”/
>

-- 
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
949.824.3072 - office
949.824.0495 - fax
rhasen at law.uci.edu
http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org

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