The Host Committee for this year’s Democratic National Convention includes Finance Chair Daniel Hilferty, a health insurance industry lobbyist on the board of America’s Health Insurance Plan (which lead the FUD campaign against Obamacare and is backing the GOP’s anti-Obamacare bills), who has donated thousands to PACs supporting GOP candidates like Orin Hatch, Pat Toomey, and Tim Scott. He also donated to the presidential campaigns of Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, and Hillary Clinton.
His colleagues on the committee include co-chair Allyson Schwartz, head of the anti-Obamacare lobbying group Better Medicare Alliance, financed by funds laundered by PR giant APCO; special advisor and Comcast EVP David Cohen, who lobbies ferociously against Net Neutrality and raised over $100,000 for the Hillary Clinton campaign; and chairman Ed Rendell, a politician turned hedge fundie who lobbies for his fracking industry clients, and belongs to the anti-Social Security group Fix The Debt.
Rendell is currently a special counsel at the law and lobbying firm Ballard Spahr; earlier this year, the firm launched a new election law group, advising clients on campaign finance and lobbying strategy.
“The Democratic Party, especially the DNC, have never liked Obama’s policies to disengage lobbyists from campaign fundraising,” says Craig Holman, an expert on ethics and campaign finance with Public Citizen. “The party only went along with the restrictions because Obama was the party leader. As soon as Obama could no longer be viewed as the leader of the party, the DNC quietly repealed the lobbyist restrictions. The public learned about it only weeks later.”
“Party bosses have always preferred a Wild West when it comes to fundraising,” he adds. “If party bosses had their way, we would have no restrictions on campaign contributions to the parties and return to the days of Tammany Hall.”
Democratic Convention Hosted by Republican Donors, Anti-Obamacare Lobbyists
[Lee Fang & Zaid Jilani/The Intercept]