Russ Steele
There is an interesting story going around the Internet that the Obama Administration chose the Chrysler Dealerships to be closed, most belonging to Republicans. Chrysler claimed that its formula for determining whether a dealership should close or not included "sales volume, customer service scores, local market share and average household income in the immediate area." But, there may have been other criteria involved - politics! More details here.
I went to the Open Secrets Donor Data Base and checked to see if our local Chrysler Dealership, owned by Gary Alcombrack, or Liberty Motors of Grass Valley, were Republican or Democratic donors. The data base search came up negative, no donations to either party. That is only one case, the question is still open. Were dealerships that donated to the Republican Party targeted? I have my doubts that Obama's reach is that long. However, the blogosphere is digging into the data and crunching the numbers. Stay Tuned.
Update: There appears to be more to this story. Here is an article from the Beltway Confidential
Evidence appears to be mounting that the Obama administration has systematically targeted for closing Chrysler dealers who contributed to Repubicans. What started earlier this week as mainly a rumbling on the Right side of the Blogosphere has gathered some steam today with revelations that among the dealers being shut down are a GOP congressman and closing of competitors to a dealership chain partly owned by former Clinton White House chief of staff Mack McLarty.
The basic issue raised here is this: How do we account for the fact millions of dollars were contributed to GOP candidates by Chrysler who are being closed by the government, but only one has been found so far that is being closed that contributed to the Obama campaign in 2008?