Are Chrysler Dealers Getting the Chicago Treatment?

I’ve seen this story all over the blogs today. Here is the original story I think.

To quickly review the situation, I took all dealer owners whose names appeared more than once in the list. And, of those who contributed to political campaigns, every single one had donated almost exclusively to GOP candidates. While this isn’t an exhaustive review, it does have some ominous implications if it can be verified.

However, I also found additional research online at Scribd (author unknown), which also appears to point to a highly partisan decision-making process.

Sure looks damning and if Rahm Emanuel was in on the decision it seems perfectly plausible to me.

But let’s not jump the shark just yet.

Getting a franchise from any of the big three automakers requires a huge of amount of secured liquidity. Getting two or more franchises obviously requires even more. So these are wealthy people who pay taxes and presumably not idiot celebrities.

A car dealership is a small business and I suspect that the GOP does fairly well in that demographic.

My point is that while this info is interesting it is only part of the data needed. The real question becomes how many owners were Obama supporters and what became of their dealerships?

Another question that would be interesting is does anyone in Congress own or have a family interest in a Chrysler dealership?

Category: Politics