Washington- Rep. Nancy Boyda has earned quite a reputation for telling her constituents one thing and doing another in Washington. While Boyda is not alone among freshmen Democrats who have made a habit of breaking their campaign promises, Boyda’s constituents will be especially offended as they learn that, despite Boyda’s continuous rhetoric about breaking the ties between lobbyists and lawmakers, she seems to have found it acceptable to mingle at DC fundraisers with lobbyists, and of course, accept their campaign cash.
Nancy Boyda did a radio interview yesterday in Kansas, where she said:
“What I have done since I got to Washington, is to say to the whole DC crowd: ‘Leave me out of your whole fundraising shtick…. Don’t pull me into all of these receptions….’”
Then, in nearly the same breath, Boyda admitted:
“I’ve gone to some receptions in DC, not very many of them, but…” (KCUR-FM Kansas City, 6/9/08)
Apparently for Nancy Boyda, the fundraisers she has attended yielded her sizable amounts of campaign cash from Washington’s most liberal elite leaders and special interests. Boyda has taken $119,500 from organized labor, and subsequently voted to strip away a union worker’s democratic right to a private ballot. Boyda has also accepted $17,500 from the trial lobby, and has since repeatedly delivered paybacks to her trial lawyer friends who have tied up the court systems with frivolous lawsuits against private telecommunications companies who assisted in terrorist surveillances after 9/11.
“Since Nancy Boyda was elected to Congress, she has made a habit of promising her constituents in Kansas one thing and doing another once she got to Washington,” said NRCC spokesman Ken Spain. “Nancy Boyda’s credibility on this issue was flushed down the toilet the day she started making national headlines for her fundraising hypocrisy.’”
Despite Nancy Boyda’s promise to Kansas voters that she would stay out of that “whole scene,” Boyda continues to contradict herself, as pointed out several months ago by The USA Today and a local Kansas television station:
“Second District Congresswoman Nancy Boyda is receiving attention Thursday after the USA Today published a front page expose on the role of lobbyists in Washington.
“The national newspaper listed Boyda in one of two anecdotal examples of lobbyists’ influence in the halls of Congress.
“Kansas Republicans called the article another embarrassment for Boyda. ‘Whether she is walking out on military generals or cozying up to Washington lobbyists at fundraisers and then legislating on their behalf, Nancy Boyda is getting noticed for all the wrong reasons,’ a representative of the party wrote in a brief statement.” (WIBW-TV Topeka, Jan 31, 2008)
“On Dec. 19, Rep. Nancy Boyda, a freshman Democrat from Kansas, issued a news release taking credit for a $485,000 grant for a wastewater treatment project in Iola, a town in her district… the firm hosted a fundraiser for Boyda at its offices. The cost for catering, beverages, room rental and incidentals: $1,203, paid for by the firm’s PAC.
“On the day the House of Representatives passed the lobbying law in July, Boyda said that the ban on gifts and meals was important to her constituents because ‘they want to know that I'm not sitting someplace in Washington, D.C., with somebody that gets my attention for two solid hours.’” (USA Today, 1/31/08)
6 comments:
Radical republicans are the only ones who think unions are bad
As a Teach for America alum, I have been on the receiving end of union criticism. They constantly harass our organization and our efforts at every turn. I'm a big union fan, and a liberal, but I've had enough with the NEA and the AFT and their "my way or the highway" level of reasoning.
i'm an independent voter and would never trade my union membership in for anything. the only people who have ever said anything bad about unions are management and people who have never been in a union.
so? all of ryun's money is from texas and all of jenkins' money is form Kansas city & wichita.
this one bites too many asses for it to do the republicans any good.
I am sure many Kansans of the 2nd District have less of a problem with Jenkins raising money from Kansans outside her 2nd District than Nancy Boyda raising her money from Washington lobbyists and Democratic Washington leadership like Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, Charles Rangel.
Or having most of your money from out of state
most of nancy's money and most of lynn's money has come from kansas...and most of jim's hasn't
that's the message people are going to take from this.
it's going to be awfully hard to paint either lynn or nancy has "beholden to DC money" because lynn isn't taking any (aside from pro-choice money) and boyda is in the district too much. ryun, on the other hand....
Post a Comment