The Indiana Republican Party hit Democratic gubernatorial challenger Jill Long Thompson yesterday for taking most of her campaign money from sources outside of Indiana. In the release, they tie her to Washington "special interests" and try to paint her as out-of-touch with Hoosier values.
Is that really a good idea, considering Mitch Daniels has taken campaign donations from out-of-state companies to which he turned right around and handed huge privatization contracts?
One such example that springs to mind is the award of the enormous Family and Social Services Administration contract to privatize welfare benefits to a coalition that included Texas-based Affiliated Computer Services. According to campaign finance reports, the company or its D.C. lobbying arm maxed out to the Guv in 2004, 2005 and 2007.
They got a multi-million dollar deal out of the administration, so what's a few thousand bucks in campaign contributions?
At the end of the day, money is money, and politicians, like it or not, need lots of it to compete in high-profile races like this one. Unless the cash comes from Citizens United For Terrorism, I'm not sure real folks care. What do you think?
