Wall Street: The campaign issue

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Tip to would be politicians: Don't run for office if your resume lists a lot of Wall Street experience. The political pollsters have apparently uncovered that Wall Street is held in poor esteem by citizens right now. Why else would they encourage candidates to make an issue of their opponents' ties to big banks?

The latest to experience this: John Kasich. He served nine terms as a Republican in Congress and then took a job with Lehman Brothers (Lehman Brothers news). Now, he wants back into the political game--he wants to be governor of Ohio--but his Lehman Brothers ties are getting in the way. His opponent "is gleefully making hay of Kasich's Wall Street ties, as if the very fact that Kasich worked for Lehman is enough to disqualify him from high office," notes Fortune

This doesn't have to be fatal. Meg Whitman's ties to Goldman Sachs were even more off-putting. And the issue seemed to derail her campaign momentarily. But she ended up winning the nomination. Since then, her opponent Jerry Brown has not made an issue of her ties to the bank. But he may have to as election day nears. 

For more:
- here's the Fortune article

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