Louisiana Voice

State Sen. Karen Carter Peterson should certainly know better, so the only reasonable assumption is that she just doesn’t care.

The 5^th District state senator and former head of the Louisiana Democratic Party – and a lawyer, at that – has not only placed Tulane University’s tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) non-profit in jeopardy, in the process, she has exposed herself to legal liability from a possible lawsuit from the university.

Carter Peterson is pitted against fellow State Sen. Troy Carter of the state’s 7^th District in next Saturday’s runoff election to decide who will succeed former U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond who resigned to become a senior advisor to President Joe Biden.

Besides collecting per diem and mileage payments for 20 of last year’s 24 days of the Louisiana legislative session which she did not attend, she now has plastered a post of the green Tulane University logo on a promotional ad for a two-hour phone bank to benefit her campaign. Beneath the Tulane shield were the words in white typeface on a blue background, “Tulane for KCP” with the words below that line in smaller print: “Phonebank like our city depends on it.” In the bottom right corner of the illustration is a photo of Carter Peterson.

The use of the Tulane colors and logo are an infringement on the school’s copyright of the image and also puts Tulane in a delicate position because 501(c)(3) non-profits are supposed to be non-political. The endorsement of any candidate in any political race could theoretically endanger its non-profit status, though that is not likely to happen since Tulane did not give Carter Peterson permission to use its logo.

Michael Strecker, executive director of Public Relations for Tulane, responding to an inquiry, sent the following email to LouisianaVoice:

“As a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, Tulane University is prohibited by federal law from endorsing any candidate for elected office. It has not offered an endorsement to either candidate in Louisiana’s 2^nd congressional district race; nor has it given permission to either candidate to use its name, “TU” shield, wordmark or any other graphic representation of Tulane University in their campaign communications. Tulane has sent Sen. Peterson a letter underscoring this.”

Asked to make a copy of the letter available, Strecker wrote back that he was unable to do so, explaining, “This letter was addressed to Sen. Peterson and her campaign. It was not sent as an open letter.”

It’s not the first time Carter Peterson has played a little dirty in this campaign. In a recent MAILER sent to voters in the 2^nd Congressional District, she attempted to tie her opponent, Sen. Troy Carter, chairman of the Legislative Democratic Caucus, to Donald Trump – something of a reach, at best.

In that mailer, she pasted a photo of Trump next to one of Troy Carter, prompting him to angrily sputter, “There’s nothing you will find in anything I’ve ever done to support any of the foolishness that my opponent is desperately trying to spread.”

The operative word in Carter Peterson’s latest tactics would indeed appear to be “desperate.”

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LouisianaVoice is right at the halfway point of its April fundraiser but we’re still a good ways from the halfway point in meeting our financial needs.

I know times are tough right now and if you can’t afford to help, I understand. But if you are able to do so, anything you can contribute to the continuation of solid investigative journalism would be appreciated more than you could ever know.

If you can, please help us. You can contribute by credit card by clicking on the yellow DONATE button to the right of this post. If you prefer, you can pay by check. The address is LouisianaVoice, P.O. Box 922, Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727.

Remember, we are a 501(c)(3) non-profit so anything you contribute is fully tax-deductible. Also, anyone contributing $125 or more will receive a signed copy of either Louisiana’s Rogue Sheriffs: A Culture of Corruption, or Bordello on the Bayou, a novel based loosely on the story of the Baton Rouge Madam of a few years ago. Please state your preference and provide your mailing address.

As always, thank you for supporting LouisianaVoice these 10 years.

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Mitch McConnell wants corporate CEOs “out of politics,” the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) notwithstanding. But he wants to keep accepting campaign contributions from those same CEOs.

At LouisianaVoice, we’re not hypocritical: We actively solicit contributions from those who can afford it and we just as actively solicit their participation in the democratic process we call government in this country.

Unlike politicians, however, we don’t come around with our hands out on a constant basis. We hold our fundraisers twice a year – April and September.

It’s April.

Please help us pursue journalistic investigative reporting by contributing what you can – and no more. We’re striving to shine a bright light on the way in which your tax dollars are being spent. We’ve got a couple of pretty good stories we’re working on even as this is being written that will likely make the subjects a tad angry. But then our job is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. It takes time and it takes money, however, to do this.

I’m retired, so I have the time.

I’m retired, so the financial funds are another matter.

To give by credit card, click on the yellow DONATE button to the right of this post. It’ll take you to my PayPal account (and you need not have a PayPal account of your own to do this). Or, if you prefer, you may send a check to: LouisianaVoice, P.O. Box 922, Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727.

Remember, LouisianaVoice is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, so all contributions are tax-deductible. Also, those giving $125 or more will received a signed copy of one of two of my books: Louisiana’s Rogue Sheriffs: A Culture of Corruption, or Bordello on the Bayou, a fictionalized account of the Baton Rouge Madam of a few years back. Be sure to state your preference and to provide your mailing address.

As always, thanks and let’s keep ’em honest.

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In terms of pure chutzpah, you have to hand it to Mitch McConnell.

Corporate CEOs, he says, should “stay out of politics.”

His DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE from corporate influence comes after a couple of dozen corporations condemned a new, more restrictive election law enacted by the Georgia legislature and after Major League Baseball pulled the plug on the 2021 All-Star game from the state in protest of the legislative action.

Among the companies condemning the new law were Delta Airlines and Coca-Cola, both headquartered in Atlanta.

Of course, neither McConnell nor any of his other Repugnantcan colleagues have refused the generous, life-giving teat of corporate campaign largess funneled to them either in the form of contributions from individual corporate executives or through political action committees created in the aftermath of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. I’ll get to the specifics of that in a moment.

“I found it completely discouraging to find a bunch of corporate CEOs getting in the middle of politics,” an indignant McConnell told a press conference in Kentucky earlier this week. “My advice to the corporate CEOs of America is to stay out of politics. Don’t pick sides in these big fights.”

But he wasn’t finished. “It’s jaw-dropping to see powerful American institutions not just permit themselves to be bullied, but join in the bullying themselves,” he said.

Unsaid was whether or not he considered Repugnantcans in Congress to be part of that bullying process of which he was so critical.

Then came the not-so-subtle threat: “Corporations will invite serious consequences if they become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order,” he warned.

I mean, it’s not like Florida’s Repugnantcan Gov. Ron DeSantis awarded the Covid Vaccine distribution contract in Palm Beach County to PUBLIX GROCERY STORES after Publix contributed $100,000 to DeSantis’s campaign.

But that’s not Mitch, you say? You’re correct, of course.

Well then, let’s take a look at ol’ Mitch’s corporate campaign contributions for the election cycle just completed. In federal elections, of course, it’s (ahem) against the law for corporations to contribute directly to campaigns so I’ll list the contributions from corporate individuals first and PACs in parenthesis:

• Blackstone Group: $108,502 ($1,000);
• UPS: $102,570 ($5,000);
• KKR & Co. (global investments): $80,630 ($7500);
• NextEra Energy: $71,091 ($5000);
• Apollo Global Management: $53,575 ($10,000);
• Capital Group Companies: $59,250 ($0);
• Humana, Inc.: $48,383 ($10,000);
• Blue Cross/Blue Shield: $33,984 ($20,500);
• AT&T: $54,137; $0;
• GEO Group: $42,194 ($10,000);
• CC Clark, Inc. (bottlers of Coca-Cola in Mississippi and Kentucky – can you say irony?): $49,461 ($0);
• Eli Lilly & Co.: $48,639 ($0);
• Raytheon Technologies: $28,156 ($18,500);
• American Airlines Group: $46,432 ($0);
• United Health Group: $43,802 $0);
• Foley & Lardner (international law firm): $35,320 ($7,000);
• MetLife, Inc.: $36,938 ($5,000);
• JP Morgan Chase & Co.: $36,727 ($5,000).

Those are pretty telling, but when you look at industry contributions, you get an even better picture of how dependent McConnell and his fellow Repugnantcans are on corporate charity which is returned in the form of massive corporate tax breaks. Again, I list individual contributions followed by PAC contributions from the same group in parenthesis:

• Securities and investments: $1.6 million ($201,000);
• Lawyers/law firms: $1 million ($171,000);
• Health professionals: $912,000 ($217,300);
• Insurance: $705,500 ($354,200);
• Pharmaceutical/health products: $475,200 ($316,800);
• Hospitals/nursing homes: $651,600 ($122,600);
• Misc. finance: $626,600 ($69,500);
• Oil & gas: $486,300 ($197,500);
• Lobbyists: $651,100 ($16,850);
• Leadership PACs: $13,500 ($542,500);
• Education: $532,400 ($11,600);
• Health services/HMOs: $411,500 ($128,100);
• Business services: $500,250 ($12,500);
• Misc. manufacturing & distributing: $414,600 ($83,100);
• Air transport: $370,800 ($122,000);
• General contractors: $463,700 ($26,000);
• Commercial banks: $305,500 ($154,300).

Keep in mind, these are contributions for only one individual, Mitch McConnell, and for only one election cycle, 2019-2020. McConnell, by the way, received MORE MONEY from S&P 500 CEOs than any other candidate in a competitive Senate race in 2020 – more than $258,600 from 37 individual donors. Altogether, he received $67 MILLION in campaign contributions from all sources for the 2020 election cycle. Multiply that by 100 senators and 435 representatives (of both parties) – and a smattering doled out to challengers just to hedge their bets – and you get a picture of what is shelled out every single election cycle just to keep the fat cats fat.

It’s enough to make you wonder if all that campaign money and money spent lobbying Congress could be put to better use like oh, say, education, infrastructure, health care, the environment.

But then, that would necessitate corporate CEOs getting involved in politics and we just can’t have that.

Just ask Mitch.

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