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Constituents of Ron Kind in Wisconsin begin to ask questions about their Democratic Reps's alliances. See how your Democratic Rep voted here.

from: Dane101.com

The Cost: Rep. Ron Kind and the Telecoms

Submitted by Jesse Russell on Mon, 2006-06-12 09:53.

Today we start a new feature on Dane101 called "The Cost" Anyone who visited these pages on Friday knows that Dane101 was a little upset at a handful of Wisconsin legislators for siding with the big telecoms against small business and user-created media in Wisconsin. After that vote we began looking at campaign contribution numbers via opensecrets.org for those who voted in favor of the Communications, Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006 without a Net Neutrality amendment. What we learned is the telecoms have a great deal of money to throw around - everywhere. Obviously there is a great deal of legislation out there that could impact the future of the way we communicate so they have any number of reasons for donating to candidates of all stripes and spots. It inspired us to start "The Cost" where we crunch the numbers so you can decide for yourself how much a role money plays in political decisions.

Today we bring you Rep. Ron Kind of District-3. Kind is the only Democrat that decided it would be a good idea to create a two-tier system for the internet that could force small internet dependent businesses in Wisconsin to pay large fees just so they can compete with richer and more established corporate entities.

Below you will find campaign contributions that Kind received from Telecoms. We aren't saying this money influenced his vote, but it is good information to have. For all we know, Kind just doesn't understand the Internet. Dane101, via the Wisconsin Coalition for Net Neutrality, has requested a statement from his office explaining why he voted for COPE without New Neutrality. Until then, we can only speculate.

1998 - 2006

SBC: $16,000
SBC via PAC: $20,500
Total: $36,500

BellSouth: $4000
BellSouth via PAC: $13,700
Total: $14,100

AT&T: $5000
AT&T via PAC: $5000
Total: $10,000

Ameritech via PAC: $6200

GTECorp via PAC: $1250

Verizon via PAC: $9250

Total for last eight years: $80,950