Thread: NT - Republican Candidate for House is Obama Donor

Republican Candidate for House is Obama Donor

Andrew Heaney maxed out to Obama’s 2008 campaign

Andrew Heaney / Facebook

BY: Elizabeth Harrington
October 19, 2015 5:00 am

A Republican candidate for New York’s 19th congressional district is an Obama donor, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

Andrew Heaney, a heating oil executive, maxed out to President Obama’s first campaign, donating $2,300 in 2007.

Heaney is running against John Faso, a former New York state gubernatorial candidate, in the Republican primary for the seat held by Rep. Chris Gibson, who is not running for reelection.

The primary heated up this week when Faso questioned the legality of a Super PAC funded by Heaney, the New York Jobs Council, a group based in Washington, D.C., that shares the same consultants as the campaign.

Heaney donated all of the $60,000 the New York Jobs Council received through June, the Poughkeepsie Journal reported earlier this month. The group’s efforts thus far have been concentrated exclusively on attacking Faso on Twitter as an “insider lobbyist.”

The New York Jobs Council’s only expenditures were to a consulting firm and an opposition research company run by former Rudy Giuliani staffers. The PAC paid In the Field, the consulting firm, $18,000, and the Jackson-Alvarez Group $7,500.

In the Field is run by Rob Cole and Jake Menges, former George Pataki and Giuliani staffers. Cole is also acting as the executive director of the New York Jobs Council.

Cole and Menges previously worked for George Demos, a Republican candidate with major ties to Democratic donors who ultimately lost to Rep. Lee Zeldin in the primary for New York’s first district.

Gary Maloney, another former consultant for Giuliani, owns the Jackson-Alvarez Group.

Heaney’s campaign is also paying some of the same consultants. According to his October quarterly filing with the FEC, the campaign paid Menges $5,000 for consulting fees, and the Jackson-Alvarez Group $3,000 for research.

Faso said Heaney needs to “come clean” about the New York Jobs Council, questioning whether the PAC is coordinating with Heaney’s campaign.

“It’s hard to believe what Mr. Heaney is trying to sell to his new neighbors in the 19th congressional district,” said Bill O’Reilly, a spokesman for the Faso campaign. “Does he really expect people to believe that a PAC entirely funded by Heaney family companies, and which has done nothing but attack a primary opponent, wasn’t set up to help his candidacy?

This not only fails to pass the laugh test, it’s treads on serious legal ground.”

“Mr. Heaney and his Washington Super PAC are making a mockery of federal campaign finance laws and he needs to address it,” he said.

Requests for comment from the New York Jobs Council were not returned.

David Catalfamo, a campaign spokesperson, said that it is “patently false” that there is any coordination between the campaign and the Super PAC, and emphasized Heaney’s donations to Republican candidates.

“Andrew Heaney has donated and raised thousands of dollars for Republican candidates including maxing out to Senator McCain’s presidential campaign and $5000 to the McCain PAC, Straight Talk,” Catalfamo said. “During that same cycle, when John Faso’s PAC was contributing heavily to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, some Clinton operatives were running a quietly racist campaign which Andrew found simply disgusting.”

“It’s sad that John Faso, in a race that’s barely started, is going so negative,” he said.

Catalfamo also dismissed the notion that Menges was paid by the campaign.

“Jake is not a partner or owner of In the Field consulting,” Catalfamo said. “That In the Field shows up on the Super PAC filings—that I have not looked at, honestly—that Jake worked for the campaign and was paid by the campaign, the answer is yes. But that doesn’t mean anything because In the Field is a separate entity that is not owned by Jake.”

“I have not seen a race dive to this level this quick, where [there are accusations that] people are running illegal PACs,” he added. “That’s a pretty big charge to be making. John Faso has run numerous PACs, if he had any evidence that there was something wrong here then he should present it. But just throwing out false accusations is just sad.”

Heaney had only contributed to Republicans before donating to Obama. He also gave $2,300 to John McCain in 2007 and $500 to Mitt Romney in 2011.

“I’ve traveled the district talking with a lot of families and small business owners and have yet to hear one person supportive of President Obama or his policies like Obamacare, this Iran Deal and the continuing economic stagnation,” Faso said. “It’s hard to imagine how Andrew Heaney can explain away supporting Obama and now running in our Republican primary.”

http://freebeacon.com/politics/repub...s-obama-donor/

The Koch Brothers Give to Democrats Too

Heather Ginsberg | Mar 22, 2014



Many know the Koch brothers as the Republicans’ biggest ally. But it wasn’t too long ago that the Kochs were actually donating to the Democrats.

Yes, the Koch brothers have given millions of dollars to both conservative and libertarian causes, but their PAC, privately held by Koch Industries, also gave to Democratic candidates and causes. The money is being spent on trying to influence the list of lawmakers which includes Chuck Schumer, Mary Landrieu and Mark Pryor.

The KochPAC gave almost $200,000 to Democratic candidates and committees, including just most recently in 2010. This included a $30,000 donation to the DSCC.

But isn’t it funny how top Democrats like Harry Reid harp on how the Kochs are ruining politics and complain about their partisan allegiances? Since 2000 KochPAC has given more than $1.4 million to Democratic candidates, leadership PACs and committees. Who’s partisan now?

Now, this is not to say that the Kochs haven’t been a huge part of funding Republican ideas, but it must be awfully frustrating for them to have people constantly criticizing them. The whole point of funding political interests is to support those ideas and people that you like. Clearly, the Democrats that were receiving help from the KochPAC had something of interest to the brothers.

What many of the Democrats don’t want you to know is that this is typical behavior for big corporations. They love to demonize the Kochs, but then praise businesses for pursuing what’s best for their companies. The hypocrites love to have a target for their bashing. Too bad this one just fell through.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/heather...s-too-n1812629

Obama, Biden, Schumer, and Hillary Clinton Took Koch Brothers Money

Dianne Feinstein, Carl Levin, Mary Landrieu, Mark Pryor, Chuck Schumer and others took money also

4.14.2014
News Jeff Dunetz 19

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is trying to turn the Koch Brothers into the modern face of political evil, having mentioned them in the senate at least 134 times on the senate floor during the past few weeks. What he hasn't explained is if they are so evil why do so many Democratic Party members of congress take their money?

During the past five congressional campaigns (2006-14) Koch money went to President Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Dianne Feinstein, Mark Pryor, Chuck Schumer and other members of Congress.

The chart below represents direct donations to Democratic Party candidates from Koch Industries employees since 2006 according to OpenSecrets.org (2014 donations are based on FEC numbers through March 10) Retired Democratic Party members of Congress received another $291,000 but were not included in the chart.

Many of Harry Reid's senior senators are on the chart below:

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/obam...brothers-money