Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto Zooms to Wealthy Massachusetts Suburb to Raise Cash

The Brookline Democratic Town Committee is hosting a fundraising ZOOM event for Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, featuring Sen. Amy Klobuchar as a special guest.

The invitation reads:

Senator Cortez Masto won her seat by just 2.4% in 2016.

She faces a tough campaign in 2022 and needs our support.

The Senate is evenly split, with the Vice Presidency of Kamala Harris giving an advantage to the Democrats. A loss of even one seat could cost us the majority. Historically, the party in the White House loses an average of 4 seats in the Midterms. We can’t let that happen.”

According to Forbes’ latest ranking, three of the wealthiest people in the US live in Brookline, including the fourth-richest person in Massachusetts, and the historic town is home to three billionaires. Brookline ranked first in the state and 10th nationwide in its list of top places to live for 2020. Brookline real estate is also consistently among the most expensive in the country and is a largely white-collar town. Over 70% of its residents are white and only 5% of its residents are latino. The average household income in Brookline is $175,833 and Massachusetts in the second wealthiest state in the country.

Jonah Goldberg writes in a column entitled: “The hypocrisy of Democrats’ ‘Build Back Better’ bill giving the rich a colossal tax cut”:

‘Democrats rely on wealthy donors, too. In 2020, 24 of the top 50 individual donors gave to Democrats. Liberal billionaires are a thing, too. As in 2008, Wall Street money went disproportionately to Biden and other Democrats in 2020.

The rule of thumb is that culture-war issues help Republicans with voters and help Democrats with donors. But sometimes, wealthy liberals want their financial interests protected, too.

But I think the biggest reason for the SALT giveaway has less to do with Democrats carrying water for the 1% and more to do with protecting what Walter Russell Mead has dubbed the “blue social model” of politics. The Democratic Party is heavily — and increasingly — dependent on college-educated, urban (often white) voters clustered in big cities and very wealthy suburbs.’

The National Republican Senatorial Committee was quick to respond to Masto’s hypocrisy on repealing the State and Local Tax (SALT) supported by some of her Democratic colleagues.

“Tonight, Catherine Cortez Masto will hold a fundraiser in one of the wealthiest towns in New England, Brookline, MA. Good thing the wealthy in Massachusetts are expecting a windfall from Democrat-run Washington, so they can afford to shell out cash to one of the Democrats’ most vulnerable members.

Statement from NRSC Spokesman T.W. Arrighi: “The Democrats continue to outdo themselves and show the country just how out of touch they really are. As Americans struggle with rising costs and supply shortages during the holiday season, Democrats are bickering over how big of a tax cut to give millionaires and billionaires in blue states. Their indifference toward the struggles of working Americans, and the role they are playing in making them worse, is shocking but unsurprising.”

Her leading challenger for the Nevada Senate, Adam Laxalt, tweeted:

My opponent – who supports Schumer and Biden's massive tax cut for the mega rich – is fundraising across the country in one of the wealthiest states.

Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, families are hurting. But she just doesn't care. https://t.co/d2XXQR4Reb

— Adam Paul Laxalt (@AdamLaxalt) December 1, 2021

As Cortez-Masto continues to play the moderate, partner with and praise progressives, and remain mum on SALT, fundraising in a wealthy, predominately white suburb of Massachusetts (and Hollywood) may not sit well with her ‘eat the rich’ constituents in Nevada–a state where Bernie Sanders won the Nevada Caucus and the Bernie Sander’s wing of the party now controls the Nevada Democratic Party.