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Bought and Paid For

Corporations pour $20M into DNC

September 4, 2012

Several corporations—including banks that accepted federal bailouts totaling in the billions—have contributed more than $20 million to fund the Democratic National Convention (DNC), according to a Bloomberg report.

Companies including Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) have contributed $20 million toward the cost of the Democratic National Convention, helping fund an event that Democrats initially said wouldn’t accept corporate money, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Organizers of this year’s convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, turned to corporations after the city’s host committee struggled to reach its $36.7 million fundraising goal, according to the people, who requested anonymity.

Last year, the Charlotte host committee set up a separate entity called New American City Inc., to take corporate cash and to which Bank of America and Wells Fargo contributed, according to the people. The two banks were on a list of corporate donors released Sept. 1 by the host committee that also named AT&T Inc. (T), US Airways Group Inc. (LCC),Duke Energy Corp. (DUK) and the law-and- lobbying firm McGuireWoods LLP.

It is unclear if Bank of America donated their millions before or after they laid off 30,000 employees and shipped jobs to an overseas call center.

The DNC has been plagued by charges of cronyism for months now. Earlier this year, the Free Beacon reported that Jim Rogers—who, along with his wife, has donated more than $210,000 to Democratic candidates and committees and who offered the DNC a $10 million line of credit—is the CEO of a company that benefitted greatly from the so-called stimulus bill.

Just as Rogers has helped fund Democratic politicians, they, in turn, have helped steer massive amounts of federal funding to Duke Energy. The 2009 stimulus package, for instance, was a boon for the company: Duke received federal grants totaling $230.4 million for a number of "green" energy projects including "smart grid" development and wind energy storage.

According to Recovery.gov, Duke created 196.6 jobs as a result of the grants.