After Enron’s fraud on California during the 2001 electricity crisis became clear, a lot of politicians felt they had to give back their Enron contributions. Our consumer group was the beneficiary of a few of those returned dollars, since we fought the energy industry’s deregulation schemes.
Now Open Secrets reports AIG’s contributions, from employees and related political action committees, to federal lawmakers totaled $9.3 million over the last decade, with an exact 50%-50% split between Democrats and Republicans. AIG sure knows how to hedge its bets.
Well, Mr. President and members of Congress, it’s time to give back the money and Consumer Watchdog’s insurance reform project, which has tangled with AIG for decades, is proud to accept your donations at this link.
Below are the top recipients of AIG cash as recorded by Open Secrets, leading with the president. Consumer Watchdog would be honored to put AIG employees’ dough to work against the insurance industry’s agenda in Congress this year, including federal deregulation to gut state insurance laws, where top AIG donees will use AIG’s collapse as an excuse, of course.
| Senate | Obama, Barack | $104,332 |
| Senate | Dodd, Chris | $103,900 |
| Senate | McCain, John | $59,499 |
| Senate | Clinton, Hillary | $37,965 |
| Senate | Baucus, Max | $24,750 |
| Presidential | Romney, Mitt | $20,850 |
| Senate | Biden, Joseph R Jr | $19,975 |
| House | Larson, John B | $19,750 |
| Senate | Sununu, John E | $18,500 |
| Presidential | Giuliani, Rudolph W | $13,200 |
| House | Kanjorski, Paul E | $12,000 |
| Senate | Durbin, Dick | $11,000 |
| House | Perlmutter, Edwin G | $10,500 |
| House | Rangel, Charles B | $9,000 |
| Presidential | Edwards, John | $7,850 |
| Senate | Corker, Bob | $7,400 |
| House | Smith, Chris | $6,900 |
| House | Neal, Richard E | $6,500 |
| Senate | Rockefeller, Jay | $6,500 |
| Senate | Reed, Jack | $6,000 |
