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Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley is taking heat from campaign finance watchdogs for hosting a fundraiser Monday night with lobbyists and a political action committee representing the mortgage, insurance and financial industries.
The problem, critics say, is that Grassley recently backed those industries in his opposition to legislation allowing judges to renegotiate mortgages.
File photo: Sen Charles Grassley. (Lauren Victoria Burke/wdcpix.com)
“The lobbyists and PAC hosting this event have made it clear that they will continue to fight against the types of financial market reforms now under discussion in Washington,” said David Donnelly, national campaigns director of Public Campaign Action Fund. “In the weeks to come, will Sen. Grassley again listen to them and their campaign money, or to constituents back home who are hurting because of the failures of Wall Street, the banks, regulators, and Congress?”
In April, Grassley fought against legislation that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to renegotiate the terms of mortgages as part of bankruptcy proceedings, a procedure known as “cramdown.” The Mortgage Bankers Association led the successful charge against the legislation, which led sponsoring Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., to say of the banks “frankly they own the place.”
Now, critics say the industries who benefited from Grassley’s opposition are thanking him with campaign cash.
Donations ranging from $1,000 to $2,500 per person to Grassley’s re-election committee were required for attendance. According to research by Public Campaign, the event was organized by key members of the mortgage and private equity industries, including Pace Bradshaw of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America; Smith W. “Smitty” Davis, head of the financial institutions policy practice of lobbying firm Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld; Suzanne Hutchinson, executive vice president and a registered lobbyist for the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America; and the political action committee of Aflac Insurance.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Sen. Grassley has raised nearly $2.8 million from the finance, insurance, and real estate sector over his career for his campaign and leadership political action committee.
(h/t Huffington Post)
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