Warren Denounced Big Business Money – But Cashing In Now

Sept. 03--U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren railed against Wall Street and big corporations for their "rigged" influence on Washington decision-making when she soared to victory nearly three years ago but is now accepting political donations from the very same special interests she campaigned against.

"Washington is rigged for big corporations that hire armies of lobbyists," the Massachusetts Democrat said in a campaign-launch video in 2011. "... I've stood up to some pretty powerful interests. Those interests are going to line up against this campaign." Warren's rhetoric as the anti-corporate candidate was so intense that she even claimed to have laid the foundation for the Occupy Wall Street movement.

But after Warren assumed office in 2013, Federal Election Commission data shows money from corporate political action committees -- capped under federal law -- has been trickling in to her campaign, including:

--A $5,000 donation last year from a PAC for Raytheon, a Waltham-based firm that banks billions in defense contracts, and $2,500 from a PAC for AstraZeneca, a global pharmaceutical company. Both are publicly traded on Wall Street.

--The Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. PAC donated $4,000 to Warren last year.

--PACs for Amgen, a publicly traded big pharmaceutical company with a local office, and Genzyme Corp., a Cambridge-based biotech, each gave $2,500 to Warren in 2013 -- in the months after she was sworn into office.

--Ocean Spray PAC also put $5,000 into Warren's campaign funds in 2013.

Warren used her opposition to the influence of special interest money in Washington to slam the then-GOP incumbent, U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, for taking "millions" in contributions from "Wall Street and other powerful interests."

A Warren spokeswoman did not respond yesterday to questions or calls seeking comment about how the senator would weigh special interest donations against her public platforms.

But Tobe Berkovitz, a Boston University professor with 30 years' experience as a political consultant, said he isn't surprised by Warren's shift in accepting special interest and corporate campaign cash, saying she is simply behaving in the same manner as other Washington insiders.

"One could say that this is political hypocrisy, but it's so common that it's pretty much business as usual inside the Beltway," said Berkovitz. "Skillful politicians manage to take contributions from organizations or businesses that might seem at odds with their stands on issues."

Berkovitz said it's all too common for sitting politicians to fight against the ills of Wall Street publicly while also taking money from the financial world once they are safely inside the Washington, D.C., establishment.

"For someone like Elizabeth Warren, she's not up for re-election, so she's got a little bit of time before people start looking at it," said Berkovitz. "If she does decide to run for vice president or gets drafted to run for president, then all of a sudden those things come into the spotlight. But if she's nimble, she can bob and weave her way out of it. She could say this is an organization that wants to support me and I'm an independent voice."

Campaign donations can give corporations the ear of Congressional members, according to Candice J. Nelson, an American University government professor who studies campaign finance.

"Special interests through their political action committees want access to members of Congress," said Nelson. "It's pretty basic. Ocean Spray is a big business in Massachusetts. It's not surprising that they want to have a dialogue with Elizabeth Warren."

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