Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has received over $100,000 from Comcast, a company he helped by supporting its merger with Time Warner Cable.
David Cohen, executive vice president at Comcaast, bragged in a blog post recently that nearly 70 mayors, along with other officials, have gone on the record to support the merger--and he singled out Emanuel for his support.
Emanuel recently wrote a letter to the Federal Communications Commission saying that the proposed merger would not reduce choice, elevate prices, or otherwise harm consumers.
“Further, we are optimistic that the increased resources of the combined corporation will lead to more investment in local network infrastructure and faster Internet speeds,” he wrote.
But now it turns out that Emanuel and the political committees he controls have received more than $100,000 from Comcast and its employees, reported the IBTimes.
“For example, during his time running for and serving as mayor of Chicago, Emanuel has received large campaign contributions from Comcast and its employees, including from Cohen himself, who contributed $5,000 to Emanuel’s mayoral campaign in February 2011. Cohen also contributed $10,000 to the Chicago Committee, which the Chicago Tribune has described as Emanuel’s ‘other political fund (which) he uses for political activities that support his policy initiatives at City Hall.’ In all, records from the Illinois State Board of Elections show Emanuel’s mayoral campaign and his other municipal political organizations have received $50,000 from Comcast employees since he began running for mayor in 2010,” it wrote.
‘Similarly, Comcast was also one of the top donors to Emanuel’s congressional campaigns, giving $46,000 to Emanuel between 2003 and 2008, according to records from Open Secrets. Additionally, employees of Comcast made more than $25,000 worth of contributions to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee when Emanuel chaired that organization, according to data from PoliticalMoneyLine.com.”
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