Max Baucus Couldn’t Possibly Be Influenced By Campaign Donations

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Today’s Washington Post offers a rundown of the huge amounts of lobbyist and industry cash Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) has raised recently by virtue of his key role in drafting health care legislation. Baucus raised some $3 million from the health and insurance sectors between 2003 and 2008, according to the Post. The Senator refused to comment for the article, but his spokesman, Tyler Matsdorf, offered up this gem:

[Sen. Baucus is] only driven by one thing: what is right for Montana and the country. And he will continue his open process of working together with the president, his colleagues in Congress, and groups and individuals from across the nation to get this legislation passed.

If members of Congress don’t like the public questioning what drives them, they could always set up a robust public financing system for elections and stop taking corporate and lobbyist money. Until then, people are going to wonder about what motivates them when they take millions of dollars from the industries that are most affected by their legislation.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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