Tuesday, May 26, 2009

It's Ford or Foreign from Now On (UPDATED AGAIN)

I've been wondering how Obama was going to sell Democrat cars to Republicans. Now that Chrysler and GM are puppets of the administration and the UAW owns and operates them, Republican car buyers must realize that an even larger portion of the purchase price of a new car is going to fund Democrat candidates and issues. As a result, they'll turn to alternatives that have less rent-seeking baggage. Megan McArdle observed a month ago that Ford is feeling really good:
Meanwhile, the folks at Ford have to be awfully glad they didn't take government money. They've apparently gotten quite a brand boost out of it, with a large number of their current customers trading in Chrysler or GM cars for a piece of the company that isn't teetering on the edge of receivership. It's not that Ford's future is necessarily that bright--but taking billions from the government sends a strong signal that there might be a problem with your cars in the future.
Now it looks like the Obama administration pressured Chrysler to make the dealer cuts and may have influenced which dealers are being shutdown. Doug Ross has the most complete coverage I've seen including complete lists of the dealers both cut and kept. If true, this represents a thuggish turn in Obama's brand of crony capitalism.

So, how is Car King Obama going to make up the revenue shortfall? Perhaps twead-jacketed, ivory tower lefties will be given "company" cars in lieu of a raise next year. They'll still drive their VWs and Volvos to work, of course. The GM and Chrysler zombies will be animated with student tuition and government grant dollars.

Cut Dealers:

This is a partial, crowd sourced solution. You are the crowd, so thanks in advance for helping out:
  1. Check the comments for the name you'd like to search--make sure no one's already done them and go in order down the list.
  2. Add a comment below to say that you're working on so-n-so--heck, claim three names at once if you want
  3. Click so-n-so's link--it's best to open it in a new window or tab so you can refer back here
  4. Check 2006, 2008, and 2010
  5. Enter the code at the bottom of the search page and run the search
  6. If the search doesn't return anyone, remove the zip and re-run
  7. If the search still doesn't return anyone, remove the state and re-run
  8. Look for so-n-so in the results
  9. Add up all their donations by year and party
  10. Add a comment below with so-n-so's full name and donation information
The links below were generated from the PDF of cut dealers linked by Doug Ross. The idea is that the link will pre-fill the opensecrets.org search form. I did this fast, so lots of things may be a little wrong--I know some of the zips are only four digits for instance. These people may not live in the zipcode or state that I specify.

Thanks again for your help! I will make the results available in a text file or spreadsheet when I can.

Update: I missed some cut dealers. It was late... I'll link those in a new post soon. I'll also get to the "kept" list, but you probably wont see that before Thursday morning. Special thanks to the Gateway Pundit for supplying the crowd! And many thanks to our hardworking crowd. cathy you sooo rock!

Update 2: After completing the cut list, I took a closer look at OpenSecrets and discovered that I can download their data tables. I'm in the process of doing that and will post my results for cut and kept dealers as soon as I can (not before late tonight and bet on the weekend for the kept list).

Update 3: Removed the list so this post wouldn't be so cluttered. You can download my Excel spreadsheet with the data here. I've done a follow-up where I analyze the correlation between states that voted for Obama and the dealer cuts (hint: no correlation). I highly recommend Doug Ross's post about partisan bias in the closings. Thanks again for all the help!

35 comments:

dsm said...

VERNON BUCHANAN
R 2006: $42,100
D 2006: $0
R 2008: $2,300
D 2008: $0

cathy said...

KAREN MICKEY $0
SEARCHED ALL DONATION CYCLES

cathy said...

KEVIN DIPIANO $0
SEARCHED ALL DONATION CYCLES

cathy said...

It might be easier to search at:

http://www.fec.gov/finance/disclosure/norindsea.shtml

Searches all cycles, all types of contributions (joint fundraising) based on the individual's name.

cathy said...

ALAN WEBB $0
SEARCHED ALL DONATION CYCLES

cathy said...

AARON BEECHER $0

cathy said...

STEVEN R SMITH $0

cathy said...

NICHOLAS ABRAHAM
R 2006: $500
D 2006: $1,000
R 2008: $0
D 2008: $500

cathy said...

LEWIS ADAMS $0

quigbrew said...

MIKE LOWRY $0

cathy said...

WES RYDELL
R Gave $1,000 self in 2002
R Gave $1,000 wife in 2002

cathy said...

WALLACE ALLEY
R 2008: $1,000

cathy is stopping here for now.

mymy said...

L. Estes MO. no donations

quigbrew said...

PHILLIP G MACK $0

quigbrew said...

DANIEL AMARAL $0

quigbrew said...

WILFRED W REISNGER JR $0

cathy said...

WILLIAM E ANDERSON $0

cathy said...

ANSEL ANDREWS $0

cathy said...

JACOB ANTWERPEN $0

cathy said...

ROBERT ARCHER (TX) GAVE $1,000 TO MINUTEMAN CIVIL DEFENSE 8/2006

cathy said...

ROBERT ARCHER WAS ACTIVELY CONTRIBUTING TO REPUBLICANS, BUT IT WAS PRIOR TO 2006 CYCLE

cathy said...

R C ARNOLD $0

Val or Bob said...

HOMER S HIGGINBOTHAM
CHARLES R OGLESBY
BARCLAY CLOSE

Information to follow

Val or Bob said...

HOMER S HIGGINBOTHAM 0$
CHARLES R OGLESBY 0$
BARCLAY CLOSE 0$

mymy said...

Waltz D. MI 1200 08 NRC

mymy said...

Smith B.SC. no donations,but Richard Smith retired donated $400 to Grahm R,,$1500 to McCain and $3600 to the RNC since 05.The dealership name is Dick Smith Chrysler-Jeep

mymy said...

Dewy Moore TX no donations

10ksnooker said...

MICHAEL E MAROONE DBA MAROONE DODGE OF MIAMI 110 SE 6TH ST. FT. LAUDERDALE, FL 33301
MICHAEL E MAROONE 110 SE 6TH ST. FT. LAUDERDALE, FL 33301
MICHAEL E MAROONE DBA COURTESY CHRY-JEEP OF CASSELBERRY 110 SE 6TH ST. FT. LAUDERDALE, FL 33301
MICHAEL E MAROONE DBA MAROONE CHRYSLER JEEP DODGE 110 SE 6TH ST. FT. LAUDERDALE, FL 33301
MICHAEL E MAROONE DBA COURTESY CHRYSLER JEEP OF SANFORD 110 SE 6TH ST. FT. LAUDERDALE, FL 33301
MICHAEL E MAROONE 110 SE 6TH ST. FT. LAUDERDALE, FL 33301
MICHAEL E MAROONE DBA GO DODGE SOUTHWEST 110 SE 6TH ST. FT. LAUDERDALE, FL 33301

Maroone family is known to be big Republican supporters in SFL. Maroone family, over $75,000 Republican, few thousand for Bill Nelson(D). Company goes by name of "Auto Nation" in South Florida.

Angie VanDaele said...

MICHAEL E MAROONE
Born: c. 1953

Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Occupation: Business
Party Affiliation: Republican

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: President and COO of AutoNation

AutoNation President and COO (1999-)
AutoNation President, Automotive Retail Group (1998-99)
AutoNation President, New Vehicle Dealer Division (1997-98)
The Maroone Group President and CEO (acquired by AutoNation in 1997)
Member of the Board of AutoNation (2005-)
Bush-Cheney '04
George W. Bush for President
Romney for President

MAROONE, KATHERINE C MRS
BOCA RATON,FL 33432 RETIRED/RETIRED 5/12/08 $2,000 McCain, John (R)
Maroone, Michael
Fort Lauderdale,FL 33301 AutoNation 10/15/08 $10,000 Republican Party of Florida (R)
Maroone, Michael E Mr
Fort Lauderdale,FL 33301 Auto Nation/Executive 10/14/08 $12,700 Republican National Cmte (R)
MAROONE, MICHAEL E MR
FORT LAUDERDALE,FL 33301 AUTO NATION/PRESIDENT 12/6/07 $2,300 Romney, Mitt (R)
MAROONE, MICHAEL MR
FORT LAUDERDALE,FL 33301 AUTONATION INC./PRESIDENT COO 7/1/07 $5,000 AutoNation
MAROONE, MIKE
FORT LAUDERDALE,FL 33301 AUTONATION/PRESIDENT 6/11/07 $2,300 Klein, Ron (D)
MAROONE, MIKE
FORT LAUDERDALE,FL 33301 AUTONATION/PRESIDENT 12/11/07 $2,300 Klein, Ron (D)

Anonymous said...

Charles Gabus
Des Moines Chrysler, Des Moines, IA

GABUS, CHARLES
DES MOINES,IA 50310 SELF/AUTO DEALER 9/14/04 $500 Nussle, Jim (R)

GABUS, CHARLES H MR
DES MOINES,IA 50310 CHARLES GABUS FORD INC/DEALER 6/18/07 $1,000 National Auto Dealers Assn

GABUS, CHARLES H MR
DES MOINES,IA 50310 HOMEMAKER 5/25/07 $1,000 Republican National Cmte (R)

GABUS, CHARLES H MR
DES MOINES,IA 50310 HOMEMAKER 1/26/05 $1,000 Republican National Cmte (R)
G
ABUS, CHARLES H MR
DES MOINES,IA 50310 CHARLES GABUS FORD INC/DEALER 7/31/07 $200 National Auto Dealers Assn

GABUS, GENE MR
DES MOINES,IA 50310 DES MOINES CHRYSLER PLYMOUTH/AUTO D 1/10/06 $500 Republican National Cmte (R)

commoncents said...

Great Post!
Keep us in the loop please
COMMON CENTS
http://www.commoncts.blogspot.com

ps. Link Exchange??

dsm said...

Thanks to everyone that's contributed! Note update 2 to the post:

"After completing the cut list, I took a closer look at OpenSecrets and discovered that I can download their data tables. I'm in the process of doing that and will post my results for cut and kept dealers as soon as I can (not before late tonight and bet on the weekend for the kept list)."

The data set is huge, so it's gonna take some time. Let me know if there is a specific analysis you'd like to see!

Anonymous said...

ALLEY, WALLACE
KINGSPORT, TN

Total Contributions: 1500.00

DAVIS, DAVID GOP 500.00

DEALERS ELECTION ACTION COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL AUTOMOTIVE DEALERS ASSOCIATION 250.00 2x

Anonymous said...

edit:
ALLEY, WALLACE
KINGSPORT, TN

Total Contributions: 1500.00

DAVIS, DAVID GOP 500.00 2x

DEALERS ELECTION ACTION COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL AUTOMOTIVE DEALERS ASSOCIATION 250.00 2x

Unknown said...

Hi all, I'm compiling all the info into a google spreadsheet. Here's what I have so far, I'll keep adding from what's here and what I can find too. Happy hunting.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=rMOoJCrIZmdEx-gC0pEf8TQ&output=html