Can Melissa Bean buy your vote with PAC and foreign donations?

[Bruce Donnelly]

Melissa Bean has been attacking Joe Walsh on TV recently and by direct mail, trying to portray him as an extremist whose views are out of touch with the people of this district.

How would she know? She has repeatedly avoided meeting with voters of this district. In any case, Joe Walsh has replied via YouTube to her attacks.

Follow the various links in this story if you want to know more about how she is trying to buy your vote. Does she think we're stupid? That's certainly how she treated us soon after the primary, and ever since.

Some frustrated voters even challenged Melissa Bean to debate them recently since she had repeatedly refused to debate Joe Walsh in public, as he asked her to do for months. He had repeatedly challenged her to focus on the issues, rather than personal attacks as a distraction from the real issues.

Your friends and neighbors need to know this. They are not hearing about this through the local media. In fact, when voters tried to ask her questions during her few public appearances during the August recess, they were ignored or intimidated and treated as though they were crazy. Her arrogance has become insufferable.

Here's something else voters need to know. Her attack ads are funded by special interest lobbying groups (PACs - political action committees) and other "foreign" donors to her campaign - meaning individuals who do not even live in the 8th Congressional district.

Have a look at the facts as summarized in this document: BeanDonors093010.pdf

Specifically, 61% of her campaign donations came from PACs. In the third quarter, it was 77% of her total. That means that now $3 out of every $4 dollars she is spending to try to attack Joe Walsh to save her political career is coming from lobbyists.

Only 2 of the top 10 zip codes from which she has received donations are actually located in the 8th Congressional District - Barrington and Palatine. Out of $1.945 million she has raised for this campaign, these two towns account for $67,440, or only 3.5%. Is it any wonder that she no longer feels any obligation to even listen to the voters of this area?

Records show (OpenSecrets.org) that she has spent $1.06 million on fundraising activities over the last three elections, of which $241,700 was reported already for this campaign. While she may not have any time or inclination to even meet with voters (other than her known supporters and donors), that means she has spent roughly a quarter million dollars during this campaign just to raise more money to defend her political career, such as by running attack ads now against Joe Walsh.

If you're fed up with the corrupting influence of money in politics, have a look at this video which explains the role of Melissa Bean on the Financial Services Committee. It describes how she was put on that committee by Rahm Emanuel to "shake down Wall Street" for the Democratic Party. The full video from Bill Moyers Journal can be found here if you want to see this video clip in the full context.

The bottom line is that you need to ask your friends and neighbors whether their vote can be bought by special interest groups and individuals who don't even live in this district. Do they want a Representative who will actually listen to them, or one who believes that she and her friends always know what is best for everyone?