Admj
join:2001-01-17
Placentia, CA
|  reply to Matt
Re: Oh .... my ....
A spokesman for Nunez, the bill's author, disputed that the money and freebies given by the telephone companies helped sway lawmakers' decisions.
"There is no connection between political spending and the policy work that gets done in the state Legislature," Nunez spokesman Richard Stapler said.
Yeah... Right! 
They were bought outright... Tickets anyone? |
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dynodb
Premium,VIP
join:2004-04-21
Minneapolis, MN
| I'm not defending the ethics of gift giving to lawmakers (or their staffers), but I find it hard to believe that $300 in free tickets or picking up the dinner tab a couple times is going to change someone's vote; the vote passed what- 64 to 8? I don't agree with the practice, but it seems unlikely the small gifts affected the outcome of the vote.
As for the $20 million, yes it's a lot of money, but it appears that the bulk of it was for advertising; I see nothing wrong with them trying to make their case to the public with TV ads.
It's unfortunate that it takes campaign contributions to get the attention of lawmakers, but that's the way it is and I really can't fault AT&T for writing the checks. |
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krayzie bone
join:2006-09-03
Marietta, GA | Well, I guess you'll be surprised the things people do, foe the love of tha money. Plus, I'm sure there are a lot of other "favors" that we don't know about, like the one favor that gets deposited in your account... |
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