Cantor won his 2010 election to Congress with 138,209 total votes, yet garnered over $10 MILLION dollars in campaign contributions, with the majority being from giant corporations that were not based in Cantor's district. That is alot of shiny balls in the "tax the wealthy" battle! Not to mention that Cantor, from a relatively small Congressional district, is one of the most powerful men in the entire U.S. Congress.
Whose shiny, big balls have made him so powerful?
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the following names show up as contributors (notations in parentheses provided by this author) :
- Goldman Sachs (Cantor's wife was a Vice-President for Goldman Sachs from 1985-1990)
- Altria Group (Phillip Morris' parent company and member of ALEC)
- Dominion Resources (power and energy company)
- SAC Capital Advisors (hedge fund manger)
- KKR & Co (assets management)
- Comcast Corp (cable, internet, entertainment)
- Blue Cross/Blue Shield
- Elliott Management (hegde funds management)
- McGuireWoods LLP (from their website: With approximately 900 lawyers and 19 strategically located offices worldwide, McGuireWoods uses client-focused teams to serve public, private, government and nonprofit clients from many industries including automotive, energy resources, health care, technology and transportation.)
- Capital One Financial
- MacAndrews & Forbes (investment company)
- New York Life Insurance (life insurance, annuities, mutual funds)
- Las Vegas Sands (resort hotel conglomerate)
- CCA Industries (Corrections Corp. America--private prisons and member of ALEC seeking to privatize prisons nationwide)
- Affiliated Managers Group (acquires majority interests in mid-sized investment management firms)
- JPMorgan Chase & Co
- Pfizer Inc (member of ALEC)
- Credit Suisse Group (international financial services group)
- Genworth Financial (international financial management)
- Blackstone Group (asset management company)
Also according to the Center for Responive Politics, Cantor's top 20 Industry Contributors 2009-2010 election cycle were:
- Securities & Investment $1,235,878
- Real Estate $618,197
- Insurance $612,275
- Health Professionals $449,000
- Pharmaceuticals/Health Products $340,800
- Retired $340,385
- Lobbyists $335,100
- Lawyers/Law Firms $332,010
- Pro-Israel $249,270
- Electric Utilities $243,098
- Misc Finance $243,089
- Computers/Internet $201,250
- Misc Manufacturing & Distributing $192,825
- Commercial Banks $187,350
- TV/Movies/Music $185,200
- Oil & Gas $180,900
- Retail Sales $180,050
- Health Services/HMOs $162,000
- Hospitals/Nursing Homes $142,750
- Food & Beverage $137,700
The report continues to show Sector Totals:
- Finance, Insurance & Real Estate $3,176,989
- Agribusiness $365,175
- Communications/Electronics $573,650
- Construction $220,500
- Defense $165,000
- Energy & Natural Resources $499,748
- Health $1,097,550
- Lawyers & Lobbyists $667,110
- Transportation $364,650
- Misc Business $1,186,716
- Labor $40,500
- Ideological/Single-Issue $369,633
- Other $411,201
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