An anonymous commenter who read Eric Massa's most recent FEC filing noted that Massa has started accepting donations from corporate political action committees (PACs).
In the last filing, Massa accepted a total of $7,000 from local companies Genentech, Harris and Time-Warner. Massa's long-standing position in the past two campaigns was that he only accepted money from individuals and Union PACs.
Jared Smith, Communications Director for Massa, confirmed that this is a change in Massa's policy. Smith said that Massa had financed his last two campaigns from individual donations, and that he didn't believe it was fair in this economic climate to expect individuals to donate to his campaign.
Smith also said that Massa continues to support Clean Money/Clean Elections (CMCE), and will co-sponsor CMCE legislation. Massa has also delegated the decision of whether to accept or reject corporate donations to a kitchen cabinet of supporters who will vet each donor.
Comments
Wow, you can blame anything on the current financial crisis, even the need to break one's campaign promises. Also, Smith's claim that Massa financed his last two campaigns from individual donations is technically false since Massa is using some of the corporate PAC donations for debt relief. I don't see this as being a huge deal but it is yet another example of a politician saying one thing to get elected and then doing the complete opposite once in office. For everyone who thought that Massa was different, guess what, he's not!
Yes, in this case, Massa is the same as everyone else in Congres.