Breakfasting with oligarchs.

[Gothmog]

17. For Sanders, campaign finance purity not always possible

This is a good article http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/sanders-campaign-finance-purity-not-always-possible

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) holds a fundraiser on the tony Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard every summer, which Sanders has attended several times to help raise funds for the campaign arm of Senate Democrats. Sanders is an independent who caucuses with the party.

Previously unreported are details about who exactly attended those fundraisers. A guest list shared with MSNBC from the 2007 event – the first year Sanders was in the Senate – shows the fundraiser featured 20 Democratic senators and their spouses, along with more than 100 lobbyists and wealthy donors who had donated the then-maximum $28,500 to the DSCC.

A Sanders campaign aide said the senator attended these events reluctantly and noted that New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who has warmer relations with Wall Street, was leading the DSCC at the time and that Sanders and Schumer don’t agree on everything.

“The people who financially support the Democratic Party need to hear the message that Bernie is delivering and that is resonating all over the country. It is also important that the Democrats take back the Senate,” said spokesperson Michael Briggs.

The 2007 Martha’s Vineyard fundraiser guest list included professional lobbyists, corporate executives, trade association heads, labor union brass and wealthy individual donors.

Some are government relations executives directly employed by corporations such as the financial firms Blackrock and Prudential Financial, or the defense contractor Raytheon. Others represent large Washington law and lobbying firms, such as DLA Piper, Patton Boggs, and Akin Gump.

Some names stand out, like John Breaux, the former Democratic senator from Louisiana turned mega-lobbyist who has worked for Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Wal-Mart, Chevron, ExxonMobil and more. Then there’s former Texas Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes, who has represented many petrochemical and pipeline companies as well as Stanford Financial, the now defunct financial firm felled by an alleged Ponzi scheme.

Other guests included a lobbyist for the private equity firm Blackstone Group as well as those who have represented pipeline company Kinder Morgan, the American Petroleum Institute, pharmaceutical giants such as Merck and Allergan (now involved in a controversial inversion deal), and the pharmaceutical trade association, among others.

Sanders met with lobbyists from Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street banks.