Fidelity banks on Barney Frank
Honchos host fund-raiser for finance panel’s chief
By Jay Fitzgerald, Boston Herald
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Fidelity chairman Edward “Ned” Johnson wasn’t kidding when he recently said his firm was beefing up its clout within Washington circles at a time of expected regulatory changes for the financial sector.
Boston-based Fidelity last month hosted a fund-raiser for U.S. Rep. Barney Frank at its downtown offices, and company executives dished out $28,000 in individual donations to the powerful chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
Among executives who gave money to Frank were Abby Johnson, Ned’s daughter, and Rodger Lawson, president of Fidelity. Both gave Frank $2,400 each, federal records show.
In all, about 27 Fidelity workers donated to Frank’s campaign during the first quarter. Their donations accounted for about two-thirds of all the individual donations Frank received during the three-month period.
Ned Johnson himself was not listed as a donor.
But Frank, a Newton Democrat expected to play a major role in drafting new financial regulations, also received $2,500 last month from Fidelity’s political action committee, records show.
Fund-raising “doesn’t influence” the congressman, said a spokesman, while adding that Frank appreciates Fidelity’s support.
“The fact they (Fidelity executives) reached out is welcome,” said Frank spokesman Jim Segel.
A Fidelity spokesman said it’s not uncommon for Fidelity employees to get involved in public affairs.
“We feel it’s important to communicate with public officials about the importance of a strong economy and financial-services industry,” said spokesman Vin Loporchio.
But Jim Lowell, editor of the independent Fidelity Investor newsletter, said he’s never heard of Fidelity backing Frank or other lawmakers to such an extent.
Still, Lowell he said he’s not surprised by Fidelity’s fund-raiser for Frank, considering that Ned Johnson earlier this year vowed in an annual report to strengthen Fidelity’s government and public-affairs unit amid increasing calls for more financial regulations.
Fidelity’s political action committee has contributed to Frank and other lawmakers in past years.
But the Washington Independent, the online arm of the Center for Independent Media, recently reported that individual Fidelity employees had given Frank only $3,750 over the previous two decades - until last month’s fund-raiser.
Lowell said Frank, an old-fashioned liberal, and Johnson, a conservative who recently ridiculed “make work” government programs, make for “interesting” allies.
Article on Herald website
1. Fidelity Investments holds big fundraiser for Barney Frank, raising thousands of dollars for his campaign fund.
US Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is probably among the despised members of Congress these days. As Chairman of the House Banking Committee, most people have seen his arrogant, condescending manner in various television interviews over the past several months.
Barney Frank’s recent activities seem to range across the spectrum (and this is just his recent stuff):
Financial meltdown. Frank’s complicity in this country’s financial crisis has become legendary. This includes Frank’s very public ********** affair with Herb Moses, a high-paid executive with Fannie Mae. At the same time, Frank opposed government restrictions on risky activities by Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae which led directly to terrible consequences. (How’s your 401(k) doing?)
Hate crimes. Barney Frank was a co-sponsor and major proponent of the onerous **** Crimes bill passed by the US House last week, Local Law Enforcement **** Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, which would punish thoughts, rather than actions, regarding sexual orientation and “gender identity” in America. The terms “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” remain undefined in the legislation.
Transgender agenda. Rep. Frank recently got a step up on the **** crimes bill (protecting the employment of transsexuals) by hiring a woman with a hormone-induced beard and mustache who dresses as a man to serve on his Washington staff in the US Capitol. (See MassResistance blog report.)
Homosexual programs in schools. This past weekend Barney Frank came to Boston to raise money for PFLAG, a ********** activist group that targets kids in the public schools, and puts on various homosexual, bisexual, and transgender events for kids and adults, many extremely radical.
Well, it turns out that not everyone is upset with ol’ Barney. Boston-based Fidelity Investments wants to make sure that Frank wins his next election. So a few weeks ago they “reached out” to him and threw a fund-raiser for Frank at their downtown Boston offices, netting $28,000 for Frank’s campaign fund, which was reported in the Boston Herald last week, in the article below.
In our eyes, this represents the rock-bottom worst of politics and big business. Is ther
I guess you need to be asked, “Do two wrongs make a right?”