Miers’s Political Contributions to Al Gore and Lloyd Bentsen
posted by Daniel Solove
Harriet Miers’s
political contribution history doesn’t look surprising until you get to the
two earliest entries. On the later entries, she gave to George Bush (R), Kay
Bailey Hutchison (R), Pete Sessions (R), and Phil Gramm (R). But the two
earliest entries, from the late 1980s, strike me as very odd.
|
MIERS, HARRIET E MS DALLAS, TX 75219 LOCKE PURNELL RAIN HARRELL |
GORE, AL (D) President ALBERT GORE JR FOR PRESIDENT COMMITTEE INC |
$1,000
primary |
02/16/88 |
|
MIERS, HARRIET E MRS DALLAS, TX 75201 LOCKE PURNELL ETAL |
BENTSEN, LLOYD SENATOR (D) Senate – DC SENATOR LLOYD BENTSEN ELECTION COMMITTEE |
$1,000
primary |
03/30/87 |
Larry Solum
October 4, 2005 at 4:30 pm
Posted in: Politics
Print This Post
Responses (4)
Kate Rears - October 5, 2005 at 3:23 pm
An uneducated opine: Some folks are speculating that she only gave to those candidates because they were shoo-ins to LOSE.
John - October 5, 2005 at 4:38 pm
Although Bentsen was Dukakis’s running mate in 1988, he simultaneously, and successfully, ran for reelection to the Senate. So Miers backed an incumbent and a winner. I believe she’s on record as being a former Democrat, so these contributions, especially the Bentsen one, shouldn’t be too surprising.
John M. - October 6, 2005 at 12:45 pm
Additionally, one should not forget that Harriet Miers ran for Dallas City Council in 1989. While I am not sure if she ran as a Democrat or if that was a non-partisan election, I am guessing that her contributions may have also related to her upcoming candidacy.
I would not be surprised if she was closely involved with other Democratic politicians who recommended she make these contributions. It is also important to recall that politics in 1988 differed greatly from what we have before us today. In 1988, there were several Southern Democratic House and Senate members, who were truly conservative. After the 1994 election, the parties began to move closer to their party’s poles (the Democrat Party becoming more liberal, the Republican party becoming more conservative), making the liberal Republican and conservative Democrat a rare breed.
Thus, even if Harriet Miers was a Democrat, there is no reason to automatically believe that she was ever liberal. Just because the 2005 Democrat Party is almost synonymous with liberalism does not mean that the same held true in 1988.
SCOTUSblog - October 11, 2005 at 10:14 am
Blog Round-up – Tuesday, October 11th
Professor Bainbridge asks, If West Wing tracked Real Life? Who would our Supreme Court nominee be? Orin Kerr has this post on Miers and the Anti-Defamation League. She was honored by them in 1996. The National Law Journal has this…
Leave a Reply