Companies that sought bailout poured cash into Dem, GOP conventions

Troubled financial services companies took advantage of campaign finance laws that allowed unlimited donations to the summer’s Democratic and Republican national conventions to pump millions of dollars into political coffers just weeks before securing billions in federal bailout money, according to a joint analysis published Wednesday by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) and the Campaign Finance Institute (CFI).

DNC Roundup: Corporate money, politics, protests, plots and more

As Denver sweeps up the last of the confetti, The Colorado Independent rewinds its coverage on the Democratic National Convention.

Coors, Denver-based firms pony up just 40 percent of Dem convention dollars

Coors donated more money this year to the Democratic National Convention host committee than to its Republican counterpart in Minnesota. No, the notoriously conservative brewer is not changing its stripes under new ownership. Like many other local corporate donors, Coors…

Railroad industry DNC donations add freight to regulation bill

Two western railroad companies are donating an unusually high amount — more than $1 million — to the Denver National Convention (DNC) host committee — at the same time that railroad regulation proponents say they’re close, for the first time…

Convention cash doesn’t help donors’ immediate financial fortunes

Donating to the Democratic National Convention may eventually influence politicians, but it won’t have any effect on a company’s immediate financial situation in these shaky economic times.

Some official sponsors of the host committee saw…

Vail Resorts contributes $500,000 to DNC

With a hefty $500,000 donation to the Democratic National Convention (DNC), scheduled for Aug. 25-28, the state’s largest ski-resort operator, Vail Resorts, is looking more to marketing value than obtaining goodwill from the next presidential administration, according to a corporate…

DNC acquires more concrete than cocktails for convention

With a target $40 million to toss around, you’d figure the Democrats would be planning one heck of a party in Denver. Although the Democratic National Convention’s host committee will surely spend a pretty penny on entertainment, most of that…

Corporations buy influence and ‘civic pride’ with DNC cash

More than 100 sponsors, many of them corporations, are footing the bill for this summer’s Democratic National Convention in Denver Aug. 25-28. Most donors won’t respond to queries about why they coughed up cash; others say their companies…