DAVID MOORE, david at readsludge.com, @
Moore is founder of Sludge, which focuses on investigative journalism on corruption and money in politics.
He said today: The DNC does not make public which of its 447 voting members serve on standing or Convention committees, which are at-large members, which are currently or have been registered as corporate lobbyists, and which are affiliated with firms that have major corporate clients or do business with Democratic party groups. Sludge is producing a reporting series on DNC members whose votes raise a potential conflict of interest due to financial interests in presidential campaigns or with heavy-lobbying companies: on the 47 Executive Committee members and DNC officers, Sludge found that 17 have backgrounds in promoting corporate interests, including at least three at-large members; of the 32-member DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee, 20 members have backgrounds in promoting corporate interests, including at least ten at-large members.
“For specific background on individuals and their corporate ties, see Moore’s recent pieces: “Top DNC Committee is Packed With Corporate Lobbyists” and “Corporate Lobbyists Control the Rules at the DNC.”
For example:”James Roosevelt III — at-large DNC member and DNC Executive Committee member:
“The standing Rules and Bylaws Committee has been co-chaired since 1995 by attorney James Roosevelt III, a former board member of the health insurance company trade association America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) who currently chairs AHIP’s Policy and Regulatory Committee. At the beginning of the Obamacare health care reform debate, Roosevelt — then a board member of AHIP — defended the group’s alternative proposal that sought to subsidize the existing employer-based healthcare system and opposed a Medicare-like public option. AHIP, which represents insurers including Kaiser Permanente, Anthem, and Humana, is a founding member of the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, a health care industry coalition and ‘dark money’ non-profit created last year to defeat single-payer Medicare for All. AHIP spent $9.5 million on lobbying the federal government last year.”
Earlier this year, Sludge published the pieces “MSNBC’s Owners Shower Biden With Campaign Cash” and “Co-Chair of Conservative Blue Dogs Hosts Fundraiser for Joe Biden.”
