Holland Sentinel - Rob Davidson: Corporate cash and Huizenga's conflicts of interest

Op-Ed

By Rob Davidson

My congressman, whom I'm challenging on Election Day, has been taking a lot of money from banks, including those that don't have any presence in our district. Curious, but otherwise unremarkable, given how banks, insurance companies, drug makers and their front groups are flooding Congress with enough cash to drown out the voice of the people.

Who can keep track of all this? Yet, we must, more so now than ever.

When I launched my campaign for Congress to represent citizens of the Second Congressional District in West Michigan, I made a few promises to myself, to my family and friends and to the citizens I met as I talked to people and knocked on doors. One of those promises is that I would not take corporate campaign money. To listen to people effectively and consistently, I had to make sure that they remain the foundation of my campaign -- and that meant rejecting any corporate political action committee, or PAC, money.

Given the things I've said about fighting so all Americans have healthcare, I doubt the insurance industry and drug companies would cut a check for my campaign. I believe insurance companies shouldn't deny people who have preexisting conditions or sell junk insurance that covers nearly nothing. Drug companies, hungry for profits, shouldn't gouge patients. In return for my refusal to do what they want, they'll give money to my opponent instead, which they have.

So, no corporate PAC money for me. Just small donations from ordinary folks -- $20 here, $35 there.

These small contributions reflect the sense of hope in people -- Republicans, Democrats and independents -- that our politics can transcend money and that the people we send to Congress should listen to them, not the wealthy corporations and their high-priced lobbyists.

Here's the reality: a congressional race on average can cost north of $1 million.

Congressman Bill Huizenga is no slouch at raising money. To date, he's raised $1.5 million, according to campaign finance records, and more than $1 million of that comes from corporate PACs.

Politicians and PACs are nothing new, and none of this would be noteworthy, except for a Fox Business report on Aug. 10 that shed light on the efforts of a front group funded by the nation's largest banks to weaken safeguards designed to prevent banks from taking the kinds of extreme financial risks that led to the 2008 Great Recession.

Congressman Bill Huizenga signed a letter to help big Wall Street banks avoid oversight and allow them to take the same kinds of risks that led to the 2008 financial meltdown and taxpayer bailout. And he's getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from those same Wall Street banks in return.

We should be skeptical of free money, coincidences and ambitious politicians.

And in the era of Citizens United and untraceable dark money, corporations are playing an even larger role in trying to influence politicians so they'll push policies that favor campaign donors.

This political quid pro quo comes at a cost.

When politicians take money from insurance companies and drug makers, they're expected to vote in support of their donors, even if that means taking healthcare away from 20 million Americans -- including tens of thousands here in West Michigan. When politicians take a total of $6.8 million from big banks this year alone and then pressure the Federal Reserve to sideline a safeguard that prevents banks from reckless behaviors that led to the Great Recession, voters are right to demand more transparency.

No wonder voters are angry. Wall Street billionaires and big banks just got a nearly $2-trillion tax handout -- a giveaway that's blowing up our national budget and raising concerns that some politicians, including Huizenga, are sharpening their knives to slash Medicare and Social Security.

With all that money changing hands and a lot of already wealthy people getting even richer, Michigan families who work hard and struggle from paycheck to paycheck are the ones in danger of getting left behind by a Congress that's too busy cashing campaign checks to listen to their own constituents.

-- Dr. Rob Davidson is a Democratic candidate for Michigan's Second Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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