A Supreme Court ruling and congressional action in December opened the door to huge increases in contributions to political parties.
Givers were once capped at $123,000 in contributions of all descriptions. The Supreme Court struck that down. Then Congress created new political party accounts to which donors could give.
In the first three months of 2015, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, the three main party committees for Republicans collected more than $5 million for three newly created accounts — the headquarters, convention and legal services accounts — as well as for the expanded recount account. The vast majority of this money came in six-figure contributions from wealthy party stalwarts.
Warren Stephens, president of the Arkansas-based financial firm Stephens, Inc., is the top donor to the new accounts after giving $501,000 in contributions to the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Republican National Committee.
UPDATE: A fellow traveler has a thought. Maybe those big Asa tax cuts for rich people ARE creating jobs.
Remember all the “job creating” that Arkansas’ wealthiest families were going to do with the massive tax cuts lavished on them last session by Arkansas lawmakers? Apparently some of them are spending part of their new windfall on political contributions that will put our lawmakers further under their influence. We can’t afford to give pre-K students, health clinics, libraries, proven summer programs for youth, our highways and infrastructure what they need because of those tax cuts.
But some political consultants, TV ad makers and campaign sign printers will get some work.