Pat Toomey's 3rd Quarter Fundraising Occupied by Wall Street Money
Over the weekend, Occupy Wall Street protestors marched from Philadelphia City Hall to the office of Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction member Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) to “demand a recommendation that includes job creation; not tax cuts for the wealthy,” as part of the plan the so-called “supercommittee” devises.
Sen. Toomey also released his fundraising report for the third quarter of the year over the weekend—and financial industry money makes up the biggest giving sectors.
Toomey received at least $40,000 from the political action committees (PACs) of finance, insurance, and real estate companies, according to Public Campaign analysis of Federal Election Commission (FEC) data. Examples of these donations include the PACs of Fidelity Investments ($1,000), PNC Financial Services Group ($5,000), and the American Financial Services Association ($1,000).
In his 2010 election, Toomey raised $2.3 million from Wall Street interests and benefitted from $1.5 million in outside spending by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a front group for some of the country’s largest corporations and Wall Street banks.
Will Wall Street cash influence the work of the supercommittee? Hopefully not, but with all that financial industry money filling his bank account, it seems like a perfect time for Pennsylvanians to remind Toomey he works for them and not big campaign donors.