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Payday Lenders Pumped Money into Campaign Committee

Of course they did. 

Payday lenders pumped $10,500 into a campaign committee controlled by Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan (D-Janesville) just before and after he announced he no longer supported clamping a 36% annual interest rate cap on the industry, a report released Monday shows.

A payday loan executive and industry lobbyist gave the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee a combined $5,500 on Sept. 9. A day later, Sheridan said for the first time publicly he opposed the rate cap, even though he co-sponsored a bill to do that in the last legislative session.

Three weeks later, the Democratic committee received a total of $5,000 from two Check ‘n Go executives, the report by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign says. The group monitors campaign spending and lobbies for limiting contributions.

“It’s hard not to notice” the timing of the donations, said Mike McCabe, the Democracy Campaign’s executive director. “It’s just something that jumped out of us.”

Sheridan, 51, disclosed in late January he had dated Shanna Wycoff, 31, a lobbyist for Axcess Financial, which operates Check ‘n Go. The two are no longer seeing each other, Sheridan said earlier this month.

Sheridan, who is in the process of getting a divorce, has insisted his relationship with Wycoff played no role in his change of views on regulating the industry. He has said he privately told some Assembly Democrats as early as 2008 he no longer supported a 36% rate cap.

Posted by Owen at 1735 hrs
Politics + Politics - Wisconsin

1. Aren’t most of those payday loan places actually affiliated or orphans of the big banks?

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 01, 2010 at 1810 hrs
   
   
   

2. In America it’s illegal for politicians to sell their votes. When I find out where they’ve hidden it I’m going to leave this corrupt compost pile known as Wisconsin and move there.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 01, 2010 at 2148 hrs
   
   
   

3. Shouldn’t be surpirsed, as this happens on both sides of every aisle in every country.  (Paul Ryan gets ton of insurance money…and he votes against insurance regulation…go figure)

   On a different note, are you going to comment on how Brooklyn prosecutors found no illegal actions by ACORN, and that the “prostitute/pimp” video was (gasp) edited to meet the agenda of the filmers…

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 01, 2010 at 2155 hrs
   
   
   

4. Scott,

   They only rent their votes.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 02, 2010 at 1512 hrs
   
   
   

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