Sen. McSally cashed $215,000 from corporate PACs
Mark Kelly rejects corporate PAC money
Just a few months into the Arizona Senate race and it’s already shaping up to be a battle between the grassroots and corporate special interests. In Q1 of 2019, Senator Martha McSally raked in $215,000 from corporate PACs––the second largest haul of corporate PAC money in her career of doing the bidding of special interests. Her largest corporate PAC haul came in Q4 of 2017 when she cashed in $263,000 from her corporate backers, as she was gearing up to announce her bid for Senate.
Meanwhile, End Citizens United-endorsed candidate Mark Kelly is running a grassroots-powered campaign and he’s doing it without a dime of corporate PAC money. In Q1 of 2019, Kelly raised $4 million with $0 from corporate PACs and more than doubled McSally’s overall contribution total. Kelly also raised over 99% of his contributions from individuals and raised more than twice as much from small-dollar donors than McSally.
Whether it’s voting to remove protections for Arizonans with preexisting conditions, supporting a healthcare bill that would raise Arizonans’ premiums, supporting a tax bill that will blow a hole in the deficit, or jeopardizing Medicare and Social Security––McSally has chosen the interests of her big money donors over the wellbeing and security of Arizona families time and again.
During the 2018 election cycle, ECU led the movement among candidates to reject corporate PAC money in their campaigns. Fifty-five members of the 116th Congress are refusing to take corporate PAC money, including 36 freshmen members. The “no corporate PAC” pledge elevated the issue of money-in-politics as a top priority in the 2018 election and helped create the momentum to make a comprehensive reform bill the very first bill the new Democratic House took up as H.R. 1.
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