RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Businesses that lobby the Virginia General Assembly invest almost exclusively in sitting legislators, to the exclusion of challengers and open-seat candidates.
A Virginia Public Access Project analysis of 18 months of itemized campaign contributions reveals that businesses that lobby the General Assembly or the lobbyists and firms that represent them gave 99.61 percent of their cash to incumbents.
By contrast, candidates seeking to oust incumbents this fall received just 0.04 percent of money given by business lobbyists, and candidates vying for open seats got 0.34 percent.
In dollars and cents, that means sitting lawmakers got $7.40 million of the $7.43 million in contributions business interests gave in legislative races since Jan. 1, 2010, VPAP found.
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Once a bribe is taken, the ones after that are easy to make (and take). All these businesses who give "campaign contributions" (BRIBES) already know who is in their pocket (all of them) and they PREFER incumbents, hence the funding. Now start looking at the legislation being passed by the same "lawmakers"...I guess the "system" works fine...
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