Washington, D.C. – Mark Kelly has routinely touted his “No Corporate PAC” pledge, criticized the influence of corporations, and said Arizonans deserve someone not beholden to corporate PACs.
It’s about time Mark Kelly looked in a mirror. According to a new report from the Washington Free Beacon, Kelly has used a special loophole to accept “$55,500 in contributions last quarter from the PACs of corporate trade groups and the Senate leadership committees of many of his fellow Democrats.” Those Q4 contributions are on top of the $243,500 he took from the same groups during the rest of 2021 as well as nearly $900,000 from corporate executives and corporate lobbyists.
Mark Kelly’s constant hypocrisy proves he cares more about pleasing his D.C. special interest group donors than he does working to improve the lives of all Arizonans.
Washington Free Beacon: How Mark Kelly Gets Around This Self-Imposed Ban
Sen. Mark Kelly (D., Ariz.) swore off corporate PAC contributions, but money from corporations is still finding a way into his campaign coffers.
Kelly, who has called corporate money “one of the biggest problems in our politics today,” received $55,500 in contributions last quarter from the PACs of corporate trade groups and the Senate leadership committees of many of his fellow Democrats. The leadership committees have received tens of thousands of dollars from the sort of corporate PACs that Kelly decries. Trade associations like the National Football League and Internet & Television Association also contributed to Kelly’s campaign, according to his latest FEC disclosures […]
But while Kelly has not taken cash directly from corporate PACs, he has still benefited from their political contributions. Eleven Democratic senators have given $40,000 to Kelly’s campaign through their leadership PACs. A review of FEC records shows all of the committees took thousands of dollars in corporate PAC money.
Fund for the Majority PAC, the committee for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.), took $23,500 in contributions from Intel, Visa, and other corporations, while giving $5,000 to Kelly’s campaign. Sen. Robert Menendez’s (D., N.J.) New Millennium PAC took $92,500 from a variety of corporate PACs and trade groups and passed $2,500 to Kelly. Kelly also received funds from the corporate-backed PACs of Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.), Tammy Duckworth (D., Ill.), Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.), Jack Reed (D., R.I.), and other Democrats.
Kelly also received contributions from three trade associations serving corporate interests. The Internet & Television Association’s PAC gave $5,000 to Kelly’s campaign. It is funded by the executives of Comcast, Cox Communications, and Charter Communications, three of the biggest cable and broadband companies in the country.
CLICK HERE to read the full report.
###