Finally had a chance to read about whats happening in Richmond. Chevron just posted earnings of $5.59 BILLION during the three-month period ending Sept. 30. $3 Million is pennies... [In the last two mayoral elections – in 2006 and 2010 – RPA member and Green Party candidate Gayle McLaughlin won, in part because third-party candidates entered the race and split the vote. That’s not happening this time. What is happening is that Chevron, which put $1.2 million into defeating the RPA and electing its own candidates in 2010, has doubled down and is spending $3 million on the race this year. This is thanks, in part, to the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling, which removed most limits on the money that can go into and come out of independent political campaign committees. It’s also thanks to the fact that Chevron is not stupid and knows how to do math. Spending $3 million on a mayoral race in a refinery town is small potatoes, when that same refinery town is capable of hitting you up for $28 million in utility settlements. “If they win this election,” says Tom Butt, a city council member who is running for mayor this year, now that McLaughlin has reached her term limit, “it’ll be the smartest investment they ever made.”]
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 19:52:07 +0000
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