NOTUS reports that Cait Conley pledged not to accept corporate PAC money, yet nearly half of the contributions she received from federal PACs came from committees that took corporate PAC money. Conley’s campaign did not respond to the outlet’s request for comment.
NOTUS reported this morning that Cait Conley is “one of the candidates who pledged not to accept corporate PAC money,” and that she has benefited from a workaround the outlet says “is enabling the flow of money from business interests into the campaign accounts of many Democrats who otherwise reject cash from corporate PACs.”
According to the report, “nearly half of the contributions that Conley received from federal PACs came from committees that took corporate PAC money.” Conley received tens of thousands of dollars from PACs that get contributions from corporations, including defense companies Honeywell International and Lockheed Martin.
The report describes a broader arrangement in which committees established by Democratic leaders, including Jeffries, House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, and House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, “have donated to ‘no corporate PAC money’ candidates while receiving donations from corporations such as banking giant Barclays, pharmacy chain CVS and insurance company UnitedHealthcare this year.”
“Cait Conley made a show of swearing off corporate PAC money, and this morning the whole country learned that her words continue to mean nothing. She’s received tens of thousands of dollars from Washington committees chockful of corporate cash, including money from defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Honeywell,” said Lawler for Congress spokesman Ciro Riccardi. “Corporate money still reached her campaign; it simply made a stop at a leadership PAC on the way, so the pledge could stay on her website.”
Cait Conley owes Hudson Valley voters direct answers to basic questions:
- Will she return the tens of thousands of dollars she’s received from leadership PACs funded by corporate money?
- Will she commit, for the rest of this campaign, to refusing contributions from any committee that accepts corporate PAC money?
- Will she remove the references to not taking corporate money from her website?
- Why did her campaign have nothing to say when NOTUS asked for comment?
“Cait Conley has spent this campaign lecturing the Hudson Valley about corruption and getting money out of politics, and it turns out that she’s been funneling corporate dollars into her campaign through the side door,” Riccardi concluded. “She should be honest with voters about her pledge meaning nothing, or immediately return all money she’s received from Leadership PACs that take corporate dollars.”