Corporations spend million on nomination conventions

New York, Sep 5 (PTI) Despite both Barack Obama and John
McCain promising to fight vested interests and lobbyists,
major corporations have spent more than 100 million U.S.D. on
the nomination conventions of the two parties besides throwing
lavish parties to gain access in the new administration
irrespective whosoever wins, a media report said Friday.

In an investigative report, A.B.C. News said the big
corporations have put up 58 million U.S.D. for the Republican
campaign, almost the same amount that they spend on the
Democratic meet.

From the moment they arrived at the airport, Republicans
have been reminded that this convention is being brought to
them by corporate America, the network said, pointing out that
their logos appear everywhere even in the lavish parties they
host.

Including among them is a Swiss-based bank, U.B.S., which
is under investigation by the government for allegedly helping
the rich avoid billions of dollars in U.S. taxes, the report
stated. The bank says it is cooperating with Congressional and
federal authorities.

"I think it's very clear that those who give to the host
committees are getting access and influence that they desire,"
it quoted Meredith McGehee of the Campaign Legal Centre as
saying.

Though the corporations try to keep press from lavish
parties, they make sure that the Congressmen know who is
footing the bill.

A.B.C. News said top House Republican John Boehner was
seen dancing at "Best Little Warhouse Party" an event put on
by corporate lobbyists close to Boehner at the last four
conventions.


In some places around town this week, the corporate logos
were even flashed on giant T.V. screens. It's a complete
contradiction of John McCain's decade long effort to get
corporate money out of politics, the network said, showing a
clip form 2000 in which McCain said, "We have to have campaign
finance reform and return the government to the people and
take it out of the hands of special interests."

Yet, at his nominating convention this week, A.B.C. News
said the big money donors were seated in the prime skyboxes
overlooking the proceedings below a kind of Republican
royalty, whose multi-million dollar contributions to pay for
this convention do not have to be disclosed for 60 days after
election day.

"If we don't do anything about the way the conventions are
financed, we have a danger that our democracy is going to be
severely damaged by unequal access and unequal influence by
convention donors," said Steve Weissman, of the Campaign
Finance Institute.

Stating that Convention limelight shines of a big donor,
the New York Times singled out Robert Wood Johnson IV, the
billionaire heir to the Johnson and Johnson fortune and owner
of New York Jets for mention.

Johnson's exalted status, the paper said, shows that for
all of McCain's efforts to purge the influence of money in
politics, the big donors still wielded sizable influence over
this convention, getting singular access to the campaign and
shaping the endless chain of parties and events outside the
convention hall.