By J. Robert Smith
In a recorded conversation with Arizona Party chairman Jeff DeWit, Kari Lake is offered money by DeWit to back out of the race for the U.S. Senate. DeWit was playing bagman. He claimed to have gotten a request to approach Lake from “back east.”
“There are very powerful people who are gonna keep you out,” he [DeWit] said. “But they’re willing to put their money where their mouth is in a big way.”
The audio of the conversation was posted at Rumble. On Wednesday, DeWit resigned his position, charging that he was set up by Lake and her campaign. But he wasn’t set up. He incriminated himself. His words are his words. He brokered an offer to Lake. If he hadn’t resigned, he should have been removed by the Arizona GOP’s executive committee.
“Money is the mother’s milk of politics,” said the late Jesse Unruh, who was a Democrat mover-and-shaker in California for years. He coined the phrase.
Money has always made politics go-round. Doesn’t matter. Clean money, dirty money… money to candidates, money to officeholders, their families, friends, and favored interests. Money – and let’s add power, which corrupts plenty of politicians, bureaucrats, and every other suckerfish in the business.
Difference between past generations and today is politics is flush with money. Meaning, seas of bucks. Much of the dough is anonymous. Two Supreme Court rulings made that so.
Citizens United vs. the FEC was the biggie. Per Vox, July 1, 2021:
Citizens United stripped the government of its power to limit the amount of spending on elections, especially by corporations. But the decision also gave the Court’s blessing to nearly all laws requiring campaigns and political organizations to disclose their donors.
Republicans and conservatives (not one in the same) initially cheered the ruling. But what’s happened is that corporations have been taken over by so-called progressives. Corporate money tilts toward Democrat candidates. A lot of it.
Making matters worse, a second SCOTUS ruling (Americans for Prosperity vs. Bonta) struck down most donor disclosure laws. Scads of very wealthy people can give anonymously. It’s called “dark money,” and Democrats and left-wing causes are the greatest beneficiaries.
While most big dollars flow to Democrats and the left, there’s still some big money making its way to Republicans.
Nikki Haley, who’s the establishment’s attempt to foil Trump’s candidacy, is the recipient of some really big money.
Haley’s nonprofit – Stand for America, Inc. – didn’t redact some of donors names from tax forms a couple of years ago.
(From Politico, August 26, 2022):
Many of the GOP’s biggest donors are among those who funneled anonymous contributions to former U.N ambassador Nikki Haley’s nonprofit as she lays the groundwork for a prospective 2024 presidential bid, according to previously unreported tax documents obtained by POLITICO.
Haley’s nonprofit policy advocacy group, Stand For America, Inc., has received major donations from people including New York hedge fund manager Paul Singer, investor Stanley Druckenmiller, and Miriam Adelson and her late husband, casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, the Internal Revenue Service filings reveal.
You can bet that big-dollar donors are calling the shots in Haley’s presidential campaign. In fact…
Bloomberg reported on Jan. 24, 2024 that “Wall Street” donors were keeping Haley’s campaign from sinking.
Simone Levinson, a Haley backer and a co-host for the fundraiser, said she had not seen any donors drop their support of the candidate.
“People don’t just look at numbers, they look at behavior,” Levinson said, referring to Trump’s combative speech Tuesday night, in which he lambasted Haley. “People are now being reminded of this divisive hate-spewing rhetoric of the Donald. Is this really what you want representing our country, as opposed to Nikki?”
Topping things off, Haley has become a rich woman through politics.
Reports Forbes, August 8, 2023:
Since then [resigning as U.N. Ambassador], Haley’s net worth has ballooned from less than $1 million to an estimated $8 million. How did she make so much money in so little time? By following a tried-and-true playbook for politicians looking to cash in on their fame. Speeches to companies like Barclays and organizations such as the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs provided more money in a day than Haley had previously earned in a year. It’s not clear how many talks she gave from 2019 to 2021, but Haley hauled in $2.3 million from just 11 events in 2022.
Even Haley’s husband is in on the act. It isn’t unusual for family and friends to trade on an officeholder’s (or past officeholder’s) ties to have nice paydays.
Per the Daily Beast, August 12, 2023:
The latest financial disclosures from former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley reveal as much as $500,000 of her husband’s net worth derives from a mysterious “military technical services company”—an apparent shell entity tied to a government contractor seeking tax credits from her successor’s administration.
There is no evidence that Haley or her husband, Michael Haley, have broken any rules. However, the materials suggest the family could benefit financially from state and federal policy, including from the export of military equipment to Taiwan.
Haley isn’t extraordinary. Too many politicians – Republican and Democrat, conservative and liberal – have sold themselves for a pound of flesh – or a side of beef or a whole hog, nowadays. And they’re not necessarily violating the law to do it.
Some politicians like Donald Trump and Kari Lake aren’t playing the game. In part, that’s why both catch holy hell. Haley does play the game, and for her, the payoffs are lucrative.
