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Senator Murkowski continues to deliver for her major campaign contributors

By CREW Staff

David Dayen at FireDogLake reports on the latest effort to protect Big Oil on the Senate floor:

Bob Menendez and the Democrats plan to call for unanimous consent to bring up their Oil Company Bailout Prevention Liability Act during this week, daring Republicans to stand with their corporate paymasters and stop them. Last time out, Lisa Murkowski was designated the defender of Big Oil.

According to TalkingPointsMemo, Senator Murkowski prevented a vote on the oil bailout bill. And, she does, in fact, have strong ties to the oil and gas industry. Strong financial ties, that is:

In fact, the Senate didn't vote on the bill. Thanks to Senate procedures, Murkowski was able to block it simply by objecting to a voice vote request on the bill.

Like numerous Alaska lawmakers, Murkowski counts the oil and gas industry as a major backer. According to online records, it has contributed over $426,000 -- more than any other industry aside from electric utilities -- to her campaigns over the course of her career.

For Senator Murkowski, there's a pattern of protecting corporate contributors. Earlier this year, CREW analyzed the contributions to Murkowski from the industries affected by another energy-related issue.

It was recently revealed that Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) consulted with registered lobbyists on language that would curtail the EPA’s ability to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act.

Well, one of these former Bush-era EPA officials, Jeffrey Holmstead, now represents powerful corporate interests. Mr. Holmstead is registered with the Senate Office of Public Records as a lobbyist with Bracewell and Guiliani, and since 2007 he has represented the following clients: AMEREN Corp, Arch Coal, CSX Transportation, Duke Energy, Edison Electric Institute, Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, Energy Future Holdings, Mirant, Progress Energy, Salt River Project and Southern Company.

After digging into Federal Election Commission records, CREW has discovered more money tying Sen. Murkowski to Mr. Holmstead and his clients than was previously reported.

Since the 2004 election cycle, Sen. Murkowski’s campaign committee and PAC have received at least $126,550 from Mr. Holmstead’s firm (total: $2,000), his clients (total: $118,000), and his clients' employees (total: $6,550). Some of Sen. Murkowski’s largest donors included in that figure are Duke Energy, which has donated $22,550 and Southern Co., which has donated $38,000.

At the time we released this info., CREW's Melanie Sloan said, "Energy companies do not generally make contributions out of the goodness of their hearts, they make contributions because it makes business sense." Oil companies see the business sense of investing in Murkowski, too. And, she and her colleagues are delivering -- even in the wake of the catastrophic Gulf Coast oil spill.