{"id":417308,"date":"2010-03-11T13:24:35","date_gmt":"2010-03-11T18:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"tag:www.opensecrets.org,2010:\/news\/\/8.1413"},"modified":"2010-03-12T11:31:41","modified_gmt":"2010-03-12T16:31:41","slug":"rep-eric-massas-bankrollers-angry-disappointed-and-disassociating-themselves-from-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/417308","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Eric Massa’s Bankrollers: Angry, Disappointed and Disassociating Themselves from Him"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ericmassa29.jpg\"<\/a>Hundreds of people and political action committees supported freshman Rep. Eric Massa<\/a> with millions of dollars because they largely considered him a left-leaning lion in an Upstate New York congressional district<\/a> chocked with conservatives \u0096 a coup for Democratic faithful.<\/p>\n

Now, Massa’s political career is little more than embers inside a still-hot inferno of accusations and admissions<\/a> that he routinely used sexually charged language around male staffers, when not outrightly tickling and groping them.<\/p>\n

Massa resigned his office Monday, then submitted to live interviews<\/a> Tuesday with Fox News’ Glenn Beck and CNN’s Larry King, both of which produced more cringe-worthy moments than, say, a naked row in a congressional gymnasium shower.  <\/p>\n

“A human train wreck,” is how Democratic strategist Bob Shrum described Massa.<\/p>\n

“[P]eople say Washington politics is a freakshow, and Eric Massa is writing a whole new chapter,” said CNN senior political analyst David Gergen.<\/p>\n

So, where does this leave Massa’s legion of bankrollers who supported him during times less lascivious?<\/p>\n

Alternately disappointed and angry, with an undercurrent of bamboozlement.<\/p>\n

Some say they believe Massa should consider donating or returning his remaining campaign funds, which through December totaled nearly $644,000<\/a>. Others want no part of such discussion \u0096 or Massa himself.<\/p>\n

“It’s his prerogative to donate the money. If he does he does, if he doesn’t he doesn’t, but I wouldn’t be disappointed if he did donate it,” Lionel Kaplan, an attorney in New Jersey who in May donated $1,000 to Massa, told Capital Eye<\/a><\/em>. <\/p>\n

“His money — it should go to any other progressive cause to support progressives who will speak up on the environment, on heath care, the public option,” said Bobette Gorden, a marketing executive in Arizona who donated $500 to Massa last year. “I really believed in him. It’s such a shame. I’m not mad, I’m sad … I don’t get any pleasure from him dropping out.”<\/p>\n

For Dick Alexander, chairman of Texas-based software company Global Shop Solutions, Massa’s campaign money should “be put toward a campaign to balance trade.”<\/p>\n

Alexander, who last year donated $1,000 to Massa, told Capital Eye<\/em> he once met with the former congressman in Washington, D.C., and left impressed by his commitment<\/a> to balancing the nation’s trade deficit. Massa’s political implosion is “just surprising — a disappointment because he’s one of the few in Congress who was very much a balanced trader,” Alexander said.<\/p>\n

Jim Spellane, media director for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers<\/a>, said his organization is experiencing some “buyer’s remorse” regarding its $34,500 in contributions to Massa.<\/p>\n

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers PAC first decided to donate to Massa “in consultation with the local level” of its organization, Spellane explained.<\/p>\n

“The goal was to elect those who supported the issues of working people,” he said.
But Spellane declined to comment on whether he believes Massa should refund that money \u0096 the largest total contribution to the embattled politico by any single PAC.<\/p>\n

Other PACs and organizations that had once supported Massa with five- and six-figure donations are completely disinclined to now discuss their association with him. <\/p>\n

“We have no comment on any of that,” said Paul Doell of the American Maritime Officers PAC<\/a>, which has donated $10,000 to Massa this election cycle.<\/p>\n

Massa is only one of six federal candidates this election cycle to receive $10,000 \u0096 the legal maximum \u0096 from the American Maritime Officers PAC, Center for Responsive Politics<\/a> research indicates.<\/p>\n

ActBlue, a political action committee and online fund-raising conduit for Democrats that sent more than $672,000 to Massa for his career, notes that it didn’t directly support Massa. Instead, it processed credit card donations from individuals to Massa’s campaign.<\/p>\n

“So not only do we not have a position on his behavior, the question isn’t even germane to what we do,” ActBlue<\/a> spokesman Adrian Arroyo said.<\/p>\n

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi<\/a> and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer<\/a>, meanwhile, both contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Massa through their leadership PACs. So has Rep. Charles Rangel<\/a> (D-N.Y.), who’s been hamstrung with ethical issues<\/a> of his own.<\/p>\n

Aides to both Pelosi and Hoyer said their offices would respond to questions from Capital Eye<\/em> about their leadership PAC contributions to Massa. Neither office ever did.<\/p>\n

Pelosi and Hoyer are hardly alone in their financial support of Massa, as a veritable all-star roster of Democrats helped Massa fill his campaign coffers in recent years.<\/p>\n

This includes former President Bill Clinton, who in August conducted a fund-raiser in Manhattan for him, according to political event tracker Party Time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Massa’s all-time top contributors<\/a> are listed below. Note that the organizations’ contribution totals are based on donations from both political action committees and individuals associated with them: <\/p>\n