Sen. Brown Trumps Elizabeth Warren in Fund Raising
February 3, 2012
In what could be an ominous political development for Congressional Democrats, Congressional Quarterly/Roll Call reported this week that Consumer Financial Protection Bureau mastermind Elizabeth Warren, D, has $6.1 million in campaign funds in the bank, while GOP incumbent Scott Brown’s war chest contains a whopping $12.9 million, in their match-up over the Senate seat long held by Democratic icon Ted Kennedy in traditionally liberal Massachusetts.
The candidates, staff and supporters of some campaigns (usually those with less money) cite such numbers to complain about the role that money plays in the electoral process. But candidates, staff and supporters of other campaigns (usually those with more money) argue that such financial support is a reliable proxy for larger support among the electorate.
Brown recently broke ranks with his fellow Republicans in the Senate when he came out in support of a vote for President Obama's nominee to head up the CFPB, Richard Cordray.
Obama has since made a controversial recess appointment of his nominee, antagonizing Congressional Republicans.
On a related note, earlier this week, Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, son of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul of Texas, announced his intention to join a lawsuit brought by some business groups challenging the recess appointments Obama made last month, including that of Cordray to the CFPB.
“With the recent recess appointments, President Obama has circumvented our Constitution and showed complete disregard for the separation of powers. He has demonstrated once again that he is willing to treat the office of the presidency like a dictatorship,” Sen. Paul said. “If this is allowed to stand, if this precedent is allowed to stand, nothing stops the president from appointing a Supreme Court justice tonight at 8:00 p.m. Is that the kind of lawlessness we want in our country? Are we going to completely abandon the advise-and-consent role of the Constitution and of the Senate?”
Rand is the first member of Congress to formally challenge Obama over the Cordray appointment. Other members of the GOP have threatened to do so and may decide to proceed , but it looks like they’ve decided to drop their threat of mass reprisals for the move.
Many of the president's Democrat allies on Capitol Hill have been urging their Republican colleagues to "get over it" already and to get on with the business of actively overseeing the CFPB, which one committee began doing in the Senate this week, following up on a House hearing last week. But a few Democrats have expressed unease with the recess appointment and what they and most Republicans see as an encroachment upon Congress' powers and prerogatives by the White House.
As we continue working on the next issue of Inside Regulatory Strategies, other stories we're following include:
- President Obama asked the U.S. Attorney General to create a special investigative unit comprised of federal prosecutors and state attorneys general to expand existing government investigations of “the abusive lending and packaging of risky mortgages that led to the housing crisis.
- The CFPB launched another round of feedback on mortgage closing forms. Late last week, the mortgage lending industry wrote to the bureau asking for transparency and openness in formulating and amending rules under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and the Truth in Lending Act that govern the initial and settlement disclosures.
- The CFPB released its regulatory agenda. We've prepared a chart that illustrates the key mortgage-related projects underway at the bureau.
- In State Roundup, we report that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia recently denied a motion to dismiss a putative class action suit alleging RESPA violations.
- In Federal Roundup, we note that the Department of Housing and Urban Development has published a final rule to enhance the FHA Lender Insurance process.
- In Worth Noting, we report that the CFPB, the Department of Defense, the Federal Trade Commission, and the New York Attorney General have announced a partnership to develop the Repeat Offenders Against Military (ROAM) Database to track enforcement actions against entities or individuals engaged in consumer financial frauds against military personnel, veterans and their families.
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