Saturday, August 08, 2015

Marco doesn't vote, Jeb doesn't talk: Florida GOP candidates for president want it their own way ... by gimleteye

For Tampa Bay Times, Alex Leary blogs: "As he campaigns for president, the Florida Republican (Marco Rubio) is increasingly skipping his elected duty in Washington. In July alone, he missed more than half the Senate votes. In June, Rubio missed 67 percent of votes, including taking an entire week off for fundraising in California and to attend a candidate gathering in Utah.

In April, a month in which he missed 21 percent of votes, Rubio went to the floor to bemoan how he could not get traction on amendments aimed at the Iran nuclear accord. “If you don’t want to vote on things,” he said, voice rising, “don’t run for the Senate."

OpenSecrets.org attempts to analyze the dark money contribute to Jeb Bush's super PAC, Right to Rise: "Another set of donations from Hong Kong, however — which adds up to just under half-a-million dollars — is more mysterious. In May 2015, Chen Shu Te, who describes himself as “retired,” made three separate donations of $150,000 and over — totaling $499,137 — to Right to Rise USA. OpenSecrets Blog hasn’t been able to link him to any entity.

Federal Election Commission (FEC) rules prohibit “foreign nationals” (which doesn’t include green card holders) from “contributing, donating or spending funds in connection with any federal, state, or local election in the United States, either directly or indirectly.” The FEC also states any “federal political committee” aware of such contributions must either refund them or deposit them and “take steps to determine its legality” — all within 10 days of the “treasurer’s receipt.” A refund must be issued if the committee cannot confirm “within 30 days of the treasurer’s receipt” that the donation was legal.

When contacted by the OpenSecrets Blog about about whether Chen Shu Te’s contributions have been vetted, the super PAC’s communications director, Paul Lindsay, said that Right to Rise USA doesn’t “respond to questions from DC advocacy organizations.” Told that the Center for Responsive Politics is not an advocacy organization, Lindsay insisted otherwise and would not answer our query.

Don't vote. Don't talk. Marco and Jeb.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Marco, do your job you clown. Imagine if any other gig allowed you to miss over half your work for a few months while you applied for another job!

Re: foreign money, real life mirrors House of Cards!

Anonymous said...

Did Obama miss any 2005-2008 votes?

Anonymous said...

Like any senator, it's not the hours personally spend on the floor but what gets done. Since he is in the majority party, he only needs to show up if his 54th vote matters. Otherwise it's just piling on.

Anonymous said...

Glad he is not voting since he always votes in the wrong direction.

Anonymous said...

So his vote doesn't matter? Then what are we paying him for?
I guess he won't have to worry about anyone bring up the substance of his voting record if he doesn't have one.