By now, it shouldn’t be news that Abdul El-Sayed lost in his primary bid against Gretchen Whitmer. But before we go singing kumbaya and uniting behind the democratic nominee for governor in Michigan, it’s important that we take another look at how Whitmer’s campaign went about things because 1) It’s frustrating that the party establishment continues to not give a wet shit about any of this and 2) there’s another primary election in about three days where the healthcare lobby is secretly filling the coffers of candidates willing to play their game.
As reported by Alex Kotch for Sludge, an outlet for “investigative journalism on lobbying and money in politics,” Whitmer, through her family ties to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, took in nearly $145K in funds from BCBS’s Blue Cross PAC. Somewhere along the way, the Whitmer campaign dismissed single-payer in Michigan as unrealistic which perhaps coincidentally would put BCBS and other health insurers out of business were such a thing to become law. Build A Better Michigan, Whitmer’s political organization, tried keeping voters from the truth about it’s finances by claiming a glitch in its servers accidentally sent its most recent disclosure to the IRS. After being pressured successfully to release its donor information, two shadowy organizations emerged as its biggest donors, funneling a total of $550K to BBM.
One of the organizations, Progressive Advocacy Trust, seems to have no idea where the money came from. The other organization seems to have donated money to the campaign that it couldn’t account for at the time. BCBS of Michigan has remained mum on the discrepancies.
For a supplemental read ahead of Saturday’s primary elections in Hawaii: Healthcare Lobbyists Secretly Secure Democrats’ Opposition to “Medicare for All,” Documents Show
Good News (we have those too!)
It's official: Missouri voters have STRUCK DOWN the state's right-to-work law, by a landslide.
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) August 8, 2018
Labor Gets Big Win in Missouri on Right-to-Work Law
James Thompson won in his race. KS04
Congratulations to @JamesThompsonKS, the 2018 Democratic nominee for #KS04! pic.twitter.com/pP43hvbRnw
— Kansas Dems (@KansasDems) August 8, 2018
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Where is the Left Wing’s Foreign Policy?
Forever and always:
