SD-55: Alesi’s Funding Model
After reading ladkiddo’s article about Alesi getting kickbacks from the Jazz Festival, it made me want to make a picture of the whole thing:
This is actually quite a clever, if sneaky, way of getting you and I to contribute to Alesi’s campaign twice. Here’s how it works:
1) We pay taxes
2) They go into a slush fund, out of which, Alesi gets $3.9 M (for 2005-2006, which is the latest I could find from The Albany Project’s very handy pork spreadsheet)
3) Alesi gets to look like a hero for funnelling some of that ca$h to various high-PR value interest groups (like the Jazz festival), and gets his name on things
4) The interest groups kick back money directly to Alesi’s campaign fund
And this diagram is just talking about the Jazz festival. Multiply this by many other interest groups, and that kind of money (and free PR) starts to add up. Robach does the same. Nozollio has been doing the same as well. Just standard operating procedure to keep the NY State Senate in GOP control.
It’s pay-to-play, and it’s a dishonest way of supporting the “incumbant protection racket”. It’s clever, but unfair that our tax dollars goes to support Alesi.
Related posts:
“you’re my prized pupil”-Ted Stevens to Jim Alesi
[...] And if I’m going to be consistent, the “love buying” campaign finance model that Alesi, Robach and other GOPers have used doesn’t feel any better if they’re Dems doing [...]