Can you pick The Onion without hovering your mouse over the links?
Not much of a challenge really, but if you just looked at the headlines you’d have an easy 50 / 50 shot at being wrong.
California Getting Closer To Having Lawmakers Wear Donors’ Logos
The initiative, called “California Is Not For Sale,” was created in part to curb the influence of money in politics, and has been compared to NASCAR drivers displaying company logos on their shirts. It is backed by California attorney and businessman John Cox, who committed $1 million to the effort. It will need 365,000 valid signatures in order to qualify for the ballot in November, and organizers are confident they can muster enough support.
“The idea was conceived during a protest that was being staged for a separate ballot initiative in which we had all of the cutouts of California politicians covered in logos,” Ryan Smith, a coordinator for the initiative, told The Huffington Post on Tuesday. “Everyone who saw it said, ‘You have to actually do this.'”
In 2013, a White House petition proposed requiring members of Congress to wear NASCAR-style clothing showcasing their donors’ logos. The issue of big donors has also resurfaced in the national spotlight following the rise of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and real estate mogul Donald Trump, who both notched victories in the New Hampshire primaries Tuesday. Sanders, a Democratic presidential candidate, has based his campaign on money in politics, and Republican candidate Trump has primarily financed his own run.
For Cox, the initiative is a good way to address the specter of quid pro quo governance.
Wealthy Donors Pump Millions Into Sanders’ Campaign In Last-Ditch Effort To Destroy His Credibility
NEW YORK—Grasping for any way to halt the Democratic candidate’s momentum, a coalition of wealthy donors reportedly pumped millions of dollars into Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign this week in a last-ditch effort to destroy his credibility.
“Unfortunately, our attempts to attack his message and brand him as a radical have had little effect on his poll numbers, so the only option left on the table was a massive, coordinated barrage of maximum-level contributions directly to his campaign,” said hedge fund manager Robert Mercer, who, along with hundreds of other high-net-worth investors and major financial corporations, has funded a new super PAC known as Corporate America For Bernie, which has already debuted a series of laudatory, pro-Sanders television and radio ads aimed at undermining the candidate. “Our strategy is to hit Bernie with a few million in direct support in New Hampshire, and then unleash an all-out flood of money into his pocket in the run-up to Super Tuesday. We have the resources to keep funding him for as long as it takes to get him out of the race. I can assure you that we will not hesitate to give upwards of $5 million or even $10 million apiece to Bernie’s campaign if that’s what it takes to stop Bernie’s campaign.”
At press time, the newly cash-flush Sanders campaign was launching a series of attack ads targeting its own excessive wealth and influence.
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