Believe it or not, South Florida Democratic Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Ted Deutch -- supporters of the Stop Online Piracy Act -- happened to get a lot of money from interest groups supporting the legislation.
According to the nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization MapLight, Wasserman Schultz and Deutch took in nearly $1 million combined in contributions from interest groups supporting SOPA, compared to only around $125,000 in contributions from interest groups not in favor of it.
SOPA and its Senate counterpart, the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), were pretty much the talk of the nation yesterday, when several websites went down in protest of the potential for internet censorship that the bills' language carries.
It was apparently enough for Sen. Marco Rubio to change his stance yesterday, as the onetime cosponsor of PIPA said he changed his mind.
Wasserman Schultz, a recipient of $569,428 in contributions from interest groups supporting SOPA, and Deutch, who took in $396,549, haven't changed their stances on supporting the legislation.
According to MapLight, Wasserman Schultz took in the 14th-most money from these interest groups out of the entire House of Representatives, and Deutch got the 34th-most.
Wasserman Schultz and Deutch -- the only two members of Florida
delegation who are cosponsors of PIPA -- also received more money from
those special interest groups than any other representative from
Florida.
MapLight's numbers show that interest groups supporting the bill contributed about five times more money to House members than interest groups that oppose it -- more than $85 million compared to nearly $17 million.
Wasserman Schultz, who's also chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, released an ambiguous statement through her press secretary yesterday not explaining specifically why she's supporting the legislation that's caused so much drama.
On the Senate side, Sen. Bill Nelson is still a cosponsor of PIPA and happened to rake in the 17th-most money in the Senate from interest groups supporting that legislation at $266,369.
You can find all this information from MapLight by clicking here for SOPA and here for PIPA.
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