Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun spent more than a million dollars in the last election cycle to ensure he keeps his monopoly at the busiest border crossing in North America and killed the planned International Crossing (DRIC) bridge.
Last week on the last session day of the 95th Legislature session, the entire Michigan Senate Republican caucus voted no on discharging House Bill 4961 from committee; a bill that would authorize Michigan to enter into a public-private partnership with Canada to build the DRIC bridge. It occurred in the very week that the post-election campaign statements were due to be released to the public, and it showed a major reason something that has such widespread bipartisan and binational support was killed.
According to the Detroit Free Press, “the Moroun family -- Matty, his wife, Nora, son Matthew and daughter-in-law Lindsey” spent more than $1 million in campaign cash.” The fact is it is probably much more because he has so many companies with different names.
“He was especially generous to candidates in the state Senate, where the DRIC proposal has been bottled up all year and finally was shelved Thursday,” the Free Press reported. “Moroun gave thousands of dollars to 19 Senate candidates, and 15 of them won. He gave at least $150,000 to political action committees dedicated to electing Republican Senate candidates.”
“Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop successfully blocked bringing a vote on the DRIC proposal to the Senate floor,” but in May he promised an up or down vote. The Moroun family has contributed nearly $400,000 this year to political action committees (PAC) and candidates controlled by Bishop that helped Senate Republicans, to Bishop's unsuccessful attorney general campaign or directly to Senate Republican candidate committees to keep the family monopoly.
The Free Press reported that “In both the House and Senate, many of the contributions came after Oct. 17, the last campaign finance deadline before the Nov. 2 election. Those donations didn't become public until Thursday, when post-election campaign finance reports were due to the Secretary of State's Office.”
The timing is suspect. Moroun made sure the contributions would not come out until after the election, and Bishop made sure the news of the generous contributions would not come out until after he had successfully blocked a vote on DRIC. Despite it only being Dec. 6, Bishop made sure the last session day was last Thursday; the shortest lame duck session in recent memory, an with plenty of unfinished business.
In fact, the last session day ran all day and all night on Thursday, and it adjourned at 3:50 a.m. on Friday morning. In other words, instead of conducting business in the light of day, he choose to keep the Senate in a marathon session until almost 4 a.m. so session would not run until after Thursday.
2 comments:
It's good to know that the only reason something doesn't get done is due to money. In this case, it's the money from a guy that contributed to Republicans. In other cases, votes are cast for Socialist Democrats because of Union money.
Oh wait. Unions would never do anything like that. How silly of me to even suggest such a thing. It's only Republicans that are elected by big donors while Socialist Democrats are elected only by the people.
I've looked back at your recent writings on this topic. You never give the reasons for the opposition to this bill. You just whine that some rich guy owns a bridge.
You fail to mention that this bill has the potential for a land grab. You fail to mention that there is zero proof that this new bridge can sustain itself financially without hitting the taxpayers with larger and larger fees (taxes).
You talk about how Former Governor Engler is behind this project, but any other time you talk about Engler is to blame him for all of the terrible things happening in Michigan. Then you blamed Bush. So Engler is good if he agrees with Socialist Democrats on something but he's wrong on everything else.
Your constant whining about one aspect of this only makes one wonder what the other side is saying and lo and behold, when it's looked at, there are what seem to be legitimate reasons behind the opposition. Yet, you never mention the merits of, let alone the reasons for the opposition.
You complain abot $1 million being donated to candidates, but why do you not question Canada offering $550 million to the other side? Do the math. That's 550 times more money and it's coming from a foreign government.
If money is evil, wouldn't more money be more evil? Well, not if it's for your position I guess it's not.
I know I’m wasting my time debunking your crap, but what the heck, it’s not like it’s hard to do.
Again, anonymous coward, there is no such thing as a Socialist Democrat in the United States and that is just a false, Republican smear. The facts speak for themselves. What “union money" are you referring to, coward?
Again, anonymous coward, there is no such thing as a Socialist Democrat in the United States and that is just a false, Republican smear.
“You never give the reasons for the opposition to this bill?” I certainly have given the reasons for the opposition, when I debunked them. You’re the guy who supports him keeping his monopoly; you give the reasons for doing it, and I’ll debunk them just like every other lie you post here.
I “fail to mention that this bill has the potential for a land grab” because it’s not true. I “fail to mention that there is zero proof that this new bridge can sustain itself financially without hitting the taxpayers with larger and larger fees (taxes)” because it’s not true.
I have never talked about “how Former Governor Engler is behind this project.” I said he is one prominent Republican who supports its, and I do so because it shows it has bipartisan support. I agree with you that he should be blamed “for all of the terrible things happening in Michigan,” but there are still some Republicans in this state that care what he thinks. I don’t know why they do, but they apparently do. It’s rare that the chamber of commerce and unions and Republicans and Democrats agree on something, but they do on the need to build the DRIC bridge. The only ones against it are the Michigan Senate Republicans.
I blame Bush because he caused the worst recession since the Great Depression. Once again anonymous coward, there is no such thing as a Socialist Democrat in the United States and that is just a false, Republican smear.
No, I have never complained “abot (sic) $1 million being donated to candidates,” but I did complain about 1 million being donated to candidates. So this money put up by the Canadians, what candidate is it going to? You really are an idiot.
Once again, anonymous wimp, I am still waiting for you to back up your outrageous lie that we were “nearly shoulder to shoulder once.”
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