Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Business Leadership Fund PAC

The Business Leadership Fund Political Action Committee is the political lobby for the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce. On it's website are various plans - one of which is for Countryside indexed under "Quality of Life". CLICK HERE!

From the PAC's website:

"There's an old saying that if you're in business, you're in politics. As a taxpayer and employer, you know that local government philosophy and policy represent a significant cost to you and your customers. Decisions made in local government affect your business. Shouldn't you have a say in the process?

Finding pro-business candidates and helping them win election to local office is the best way to protect your livelihood and your investment."

CLICK HERE for more on this PAC.

Why am I bothering to post the obvious?

Answer: The Roanoke Times DataSphere (Matt Chittum) has made it a point to question where the thousands of dollars for the "Joe Smith" ad came from and just who are the Citizens for Sensible Decisions (CSD). "Who gave it? How much? What precisely did it buy?"
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This titillating topic of sinister political scandal will end with a disappointing fizzle. "Joe Smith" is Wishneff. Wishneff = CSD. Money came from Wishneff, THE END.
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The real funny part is Matt asking "What precisely did it buy?" Hey, maybe it bought re-erection of Victory Stadium? CLICK HERE for registration of Citizens For Sensible Stadium Decisions.
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Matt, how about asking what "precisely" did the thousands of dollars from the Business Leadership Fund PAC "buy"?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Valerie, the day you made the same point on my blog, I requested data on donors and expenditures for every committee in the Roanoke and New River Valleys. I haven't received it yet -- I'll renew my request today -- but when I do I'll post it promptly. Meanwhile, all of this information can be found at http://www.vpap.org.

There for the searching is all the information about every registered PAC in Virginia.

I hasten to point out, however, that missing from this database and any that I can make available, is the information on Citizens for Sensible Decisions.

So while you and anyone else can go an find out all you want about the money that has flowed through the Business Leadership Fund, we all remain in the dark about the doings of CSD.

Unknown said...

Hello Matt,
I think you will find out that the "Citizens for Sensible STADIUM Decisions" and the "Citizens for Sensible Decisions" is one and the same. Yes, they should have registered the name change as Victory Stadium is gone.

My point is that the few that are left from the original CSD Stadium PAC probably just wanted to support Wishneff who was the staunch supporter of Victory Stadium and remained so to the end. The money for the ad though admittedly I don't know as a fact but feel with some certainty that it came from Wishneff himself.

As far as the donation to me - they were sympathetic to the Countryside issue as I was to the Victory Stadium issue years ago.

The Business Leadership Fund and the Chamber of Commerce wants EVERYTHING their way and the citizen be damned. Just ask the neglected neighborhoods. The reduced services. They watch money being pulled out of a hat for private developers and now the recent 3.2 million for the junk yard acquisition for Carilion.

We don't have enough police (another story in itself - morale). We had a breakin and the dispatcher said there was no officers available. They had to sit outside their house for 3 hours before officers showed up. We do have gangs.

Anonymous said...

Who knew what and when did they know it and where did it come from and what did it get.....give me a break!

But if not for these serious issues what would matt do?