(RightWing.org) – Should our legislators take money from corporate lobbyists? Most Americans would say no to that, so politicians denounce corporate funding and ensure we all know how independent they are. The problem is not all of them are telling us the whole story.
When Representative Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) ran for reelection in 2020, he claimed he doesn’t take money from corporate Political Action Committees (PACs), boasting “they don’t own me.” But is that true? In fact, in the 18 months since that election, he’s accepted more than $43,000 in donations from corporate lobbyists.
It turns out Malinowsky’s rejection of corporate cash is all for show. He insists businesses can’t influence him because he won’t take their money – but he will take money from lobbyists, the people businesses hire to influence lawmakers. Since he ran a campaign ad boasting of his self-imposed ban on corporate funding in September 2020, Malinowski has accepted over $10,000 from lobbying firms and another $22,000 from trade associations. He’s taken thousands more from individual lobbyists. For example, last February, he accepted $6,000 from an influencer promoting Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
This November, Malinowsky will be defending his seat again, and he’s already in hot water over allegations of illegal stock trading. In 2020 he scraped by, winning with just a 1% margin. Will these latest revelations finish him off?
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