Posted on 05/19/2009 4:28:14 PM PDT by smith5460
Chrysler announced the closing of 789 dealerships earlier this month. On today's radio program, Rush Limbaugh spoke for a few seconds about whether or not some of the dealership closings are the result of politics (campaign contributions). After hearing this, I decided to look up the contributions of the dealers on the Internet.
Here are a few examples of the campaign donations made by some of the dealers who will close their doors shortly. I'm not anywhere close to going through the entire list yet. The figures are only from the 2004, 2006, and 2008 Election cycles:
(1) Michael E. Maroone
Mr. Maroone has 6 dealerships in Fort Lauderdale, FL that will close. Since 2003, he has donated $12,700 to the RNC, $10,000 to the Florida Republican party, and $2,300 to Mitt Romney's Presidential campaign.
(2) Vernon Buchanan
Vernon Buchanan is a member of the U.S. House from Florida since 2007. One of his dealerships in Venice, FL will close. In the past 3 election cycles, Mr. Buchanan has given $50,000 to the RNC, $20,000 to the Florida Republican party, $4,000 to President Bush's campaign, and numerous amounts of money to other Republican candidates for Congress.
(3) Larry Crain
Mr. Crain's dealership in Little Rock will close. He has given $1,000 to President Bush, $1,000 to Marvin Parks (U.S. House cndidate in Arkansas), $2,300 to Mike Huckabee's Presidential campaign, and $2,300 to John McCain's Presidential run.
(4) Thomas Ganley
Mr. Ganley has 3 dealership that will close in Lakewood, Ohio. He has given $1,250 to Sen. Voinovich, $200 to Sen. Dewine, $7,750 to the National Auto Dealers Association, and $250 to Steven Latourette.
(5) Ray Huffines
Mr. Huffines will have a dealership in Denton, TX lose. He and his family are huge donors to the GOP. He has gave at least $1,000 each to Sen. Brownback, Gov. Huckabee, and Sen. McCain during their Presidential runs. He gave $3,400 to Sen. Cornyn, $5,900 to Rep. Sam Johnson, $800 to Rep. Tom DeLay, and $5,000 to Jeb Hensarling.
(6) Ronald Hoover
Mr. Hoover has 2 dealerships in Charleston, SC that will close. He gave $1,000 to Pres. Bush, $1,000 to Senator Graham, $750 to Henry Brown, $500 to Charlie Condon, and $500 to the RNC.
(7) Roger Penske
Roger Penske has a delearship in Michigan that will close soon. He has given $28,500 to the republican Senate Committee and $15,000 to the RNC. He gave $2,300 to Guiliani's Presidential run, and more money to Senators Kyl, Alxander, Collins, and Elizabeth Dole. In the interests of fairness, he also gave small amounts to Michigan politicians Kilpatrick, Dingell, and Stabenow.
(8) J.J. Fitzgerald
The most interesting find so far is John Fitzgerald, Jr. and J.J. Fitzgerald III. They have two dealerships that will close soon in Maryland.
While the previous entries gave mostly to Republicans, these two guys gave most of their donations to the Democrats.
The two gave $3,800 to Chris Van Hollen, $1,000 to Rep. Hoyer, over $3,000 to Ben Cardin, and other small amounts to Barbara Mikulski, Wynn, and Dennis Hastert.
Since 2004, they gave $300 to Wesley Clark's Presidential run during the Primaries. In the General Election, they gave $1,000 to John Kerry. In the 2008 Democratic primaries, they gave $2,000 to Hillary Clinton. When the 2008 General Election came down to John McCain vs. Barack Obama, they didn't donate any money to Barack Obama. The Fitzgeralds gave $4,600 from May to September 2008 to John McCain's Presidential run.
Excellent study. Once boiled to a simple set of statistics, we might have a case of corruption at hand. However, who in the world will prosecute these people??
WOW; if this turns out to be true for all or the great majority, this has to be considered a scandal of the highest order.
I bought two cars from Maroone but it was a long time ago.
Interesting. It looks like you’re doing this alone. Too bad America has no ‘journalists’ left.
Wow. I didn’t realize they were closing Roger Penske. How the hell do they justify that?
Somebody should do a full analysis. So far this is only anecdotal, but I’ll bet the results continue to hold up.
I hope someone or organization continue to look into this so that holy hell can be raised about how politics played a part in these closings.
lawsuit. It is at times like these that big-time lawyers can prove their usefulness to society.
Surprise!!!!!!!! (NOT!)
Thanks for looking this up. I wondered, too, about whether Rush’s speculation was true. I’m guessing more car dealerships are owned by Republicans than Democrats so there may be more math that needs to be done.
So what about the Long Island dealer that got this idea running? Who did he donate to?
Interesting.
I posted this on an earlier thread. I knew it would probably be proven somehow.
Letter from a Dodge dealer
Tuesday, May 19, 2009 2:57:17 PM · 142 of 325
wombtotomb to IYAS9YAS
Check 2 things:
Their voting record-too conservative they were axed
Their Church attendance
I bet either one or the other has something to do with it. We can’t have those faith filled (ie bitter clingers) running successful businesses. It would only bolster their argument.
Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies
Here’s a link to a blog that will detail the campaign contributions as they are investigated. I will continue to update this blog until every dealership owner has been researched.
http://chryslerdealershipshutdown.blogspot.com/
In order to make an inference, one would need to know the % of dealers left in place who made donations to either Republicans or Democrats. Perhaps all the rest of the dealerships were pro-Republican? Just knowing that the majority to be terminated lean Republican is not enough to prove political bias.
Of course, the whole mess is skulduggery no matter how the terminated dealerships were chosen.
I have to agree! No surprise!
The Unions voted for this guy, now he is absconding with the car industry and making some of them close shops. I bet they have alot of regrets.
On Beck, I saw a NJ dealer who said his franchise was being given to a dealer two miles down the road. Also, on FR there was a letter from a dodge dealer that said his dealership was being given to someone else. In order to complete this picture, we need to find out the campaign contributions of the people who are getting dealerships.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2254042/posts
Just make the charge ~ "Obama closes Chrylser dealerships who didn't come across with lots of campaign bucks". See what happens.
I will look into the contributions of the other dealers as soon as I get through the 789 dealers that will be cut. It’s a pain in the butt to go through 41 pages of terminated dealers.
It’s a safe bet that most of the people getting laid off are Democrats. I wonder if the MSM is covering that story.
bookmark
Good work! Thanks.
Penske also has a huge Chevy dealership here in Indy. So far, no word on its status.
marked
Ping
Pearson's chi-square test comes to mind. It tests whether a distribution fits what would be expected.
In this case, is the percentage of closed dealerships which contributed to Republicans significantly different from the percentage which gave to Democrats?
You rule! The bloggers have taken over the true investigative reporting job from the “real” journalists.
To those dealers who are being shut down, I would say this... Re-open selling Ford or any other manufacturer that has not been nor will be confiscated by the government.
I’ve been a Chrysler fan for a long time.
There is absolutely NO WAY I will ever buy one again... not because of the quality of the product, but rather because of who the owner is.
What the Government has done is UNCONSTITUTIONAL!
I will NOT support an unconstitutional government with my patronage of their put-puts vehicles.
BE GRATEFUL you are no longer associated with a government owned entity selling product to the public.
Take advantage of the situation and get rich by cornering the privately owned dealership market.
To those business owners big or small who are thinking about taking taxpayer money, I would say think again! I for one have no intention of buying ANYTHING produced by the government... and if the government owns you, then they ARE the producer.
BOYCOTT THE FED!
I am going to hit a couple of other sites and point them here to take a look at this. The more people who can help you out, the better.
Thank you so much!
Bump!
Lots of investigating needs to be done.
Definitely not only which dealers are losing but which dealers are gaining.
What makes you say this? Mechanics in dealerships earn more if they work faster and/or better. Service writers work on commission. Sales works on commission. Only cleaning staff and clerks work a straight hourly rate. None of them are government employees.
Isn't Ganley running for the Voinovich seat?
Right. For all we know, 90% of dealers are Republican. If the dealers who get to stay open made just as many donations to Republicans, then there’s nothing here.
BTTT.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to look at a few of the non-closing dealers to see if a pattern of discrimination appears, before going through 41 pages of closing dealers?
Lindsay Graham.... the tough-guy from South Carolina.... or maybe just maybe that hardnosed character from Pennsylvania...Arlen Spector.
UAW members are pleased as could be w/Baraq.
They are gonna get $3200/month retirements and platinum benefits from billions of YOUR tax dollars.
The Chicago way.
My bad! I recant! I forgot to use Al Gore’s science where ANY correlation proves causation!! [Remember the huge chart in the movie which shows that CO2 and temperature are positively correlated. You just have to ignore the fact that the temperature changes occur first.] Therefore, of course there is political bias.
Ping for later
Finally you can do state by state comparisons and look for imbalances there with respect to representation.
Thank you. This job will need a few more people to look at the contributions of the dealerships (the ones who will be terminated and the survivors).
I don’t know if politics is involved in the closings, but I was trying to find out if it might be possible.
Do you remember the names of the New Jersey dealer and the dealer the business was transferred to?
The first 3 pages of Chrysler dealers are up on the blog. I will analyze more dealers and try to analyze the surviving dealers at some point.
If anyone has any information on the dealers, please let me know.
It’s just basic fascism, no reason to be surprised.
Thanks, we have family connections with Tom..He’s a great guy!
BTTT
My brother-in-law just retired from GM. He felt he was forced out and now he is terrified of life after GM. He and his wife and all the other folk in Michigan voted for Obama. They are getting what they asked for.
_______________________________
Kidding, right?
The basic premise is worth examining, many here have said so from day one. But, a "good" study would cover at least 75% of all Chrysler dealerships, both those closing and staying in business. An "excellent" study would cover 100% of both.
This meager sampling has no value.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.