Accountability | Louisiana
In Reversal, Rispone Flushes Campaign With Special Interest Cash In Final Days of Election
As he enters the final days of the Louisiana Gov. runoff, Republican nominee Eddie Rispone is attempting to flush his campaign with outside money from special interests — attending five separate high-dollar fundraisers in the next week -- despite claiming throughout the primary that he would be fully self-financing his gubernatorial effort.
Rispone claimed repeatedly throughout the La. Gov. primary that his campaign would not be indebted to special interests because he was paying the tab on his own race. “I’m not beholden to any special interest group,” Rispone pointedly told The Advocate in September 2019.
Accountability | Louisiana
Rispone To Fundraise With Former Monroe City School Board Member Caught In Multiple Racist Scandals
Republican Louisiana Gubernatorial nominee Eddie Rispone is slated to attend a fundraiser hosted by former Monroe City School Board member Vickie Krutzer on Nov. 7, who was previously caught in multiple racist scandals during her tenure on the school board.
In 2012, The News-Star reported that Krutzer sent an email to fellow board members in Monroe City in which she took issue with the school district’s transportation department because it was “almost all minority” and subsequently caused her “nothing but headaches.”
Accountability | Kentucky
Bevin Attended Out-of-State Fundraiser With Murray Energy As It’s Potential Bankruptcy Imperils Kentucky Workers
On October 1, 2019 Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin chartered a state-owned plane for an out-of-state fundraiser in West Virginia hosted by Murray Energy -- owned by GOP mega donor Robert Murray -- while many of it’s Kentucky workers faced potential layoffs amid its ongoing financial crisis.
A day after Bevin’s fundraiser with Murray Energy, the organization admitted to recently failing to pay their private lenders on time, a move that typically serves as a warning sign of an organization with the potential to be forced into bankruptcy. If Murray Energy files for bankruptcy, some 300 of its workers in Kentucky could be left without work.
Accountability | Maine
Collins Took Campaign Cash From Top Opioid Distributors, Purdue Pharma’s Jonathan Sackler
Since 2001, Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins has accepted over $150,000 in campaign contributions from corporate PACs of the largest six U.S. opioid distributors and manufacturers -- McKesson Corp., Walgreens, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, CVS and Walmart -- responsible for the widespread distribution of nearly 75% of prescription opioids in Maine between 2006 and 2012.
Since the beginning of Collins’ Senate career, drug induced deaths likely linked to the crisis have been on the rise in Maine. In 2017, over 400 Mainers lost their lives to a lethal drug overdose, tabbing the State of Maine as having the 8th most drug induced deaths per 100,000 people in the United States that year. Over a ten year period between 2006 and 2016 in Penobscot County, for example, over 56 pills were distributed per person, of which a majority were likely from the same distributors bankrolling Collins’ reelection campaigns.
Accountability | Maine
Collins Voted Eight Times For Republican Plans To Gut Medicare
Despite hailing herself a champion of Maine seniors, Sen. Susan Collins has repeatedly voted for Republican legislation that would have slashed funding for Medicare benefits and against multiple proposals to protect or expand Social Security funding.
According to a review by American Ledger, between 1997 and 2017 Collins voted at least eight separate times for GOP budgets that attempted to slash funding for Medicare.
Accountability | West Virginia
Billionaire Jim Justice Collected $125,000 In Taxpayer-Funded Ag Bailouts While Evading Taxes
Earlier this year, billionaire West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s family farm accepted $125,000 in federally funded agriculture bailouts around the same time he attempted to evade paying millions in delinquent taxes on his multiple properties and business enterprises.
Accountability | Louisiana
After Jindal’s Appointment, Rispone Used Board Power To Stiff Louisiana Workers
After being personally appointed chairman of the Louisiana Workforce Investment Council (WIC) by then-Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal in 2008, Eddie Rispone used the power of his position to usher in an apprenticeship program designed to replace trained Louisiana workers with young and unskilled labor in order to yield higher corporate profit margins.
Between 2011 and 2015, Rispone -- a wealthy businessman himself -- advocated for and passed the Louisiana Apprenticeship tax credit, which would award tax incentives for businesses that institute apprenticeship programs designed to skirt regulations preventing them from hiring cheap labor.