Lobbyist for Coal Company Hosts Katie McGinty Fundraiser

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Last edited Sat Mar 12, 2016, 06:46 AM - Edit history (2)

Hillary Clinton said company was ‘outrageous and must be stopped’
Katie McGinty / AP

BY: Brent Scher
March 4, 2016 11:00 am

Democratic Senate hopeful and former lobbyist Katie McGinty spent Thursday night at a fundraiser hosted by a top Pennsylvania lobbyist who represents a coal company that was recently attacked by likely Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Holly Kinser runs her own lobbying firm, The Kinser Group, and writes on its website that she has “earned the reputation as one of the best lobbyists in Pennsylvania.” She hosted the fundraiser at her firm’s office, located inside Philadelphia’s iconic Bellevue hotel. Among Kinser’s clients is the Patriot Coal Corporation, which went through its second bankruptcy in three years last October and was forced to restructure due to a distressed coal market. Its plan drew the attention of Clinton, who called it “outrageous” and said that it “must be stopped.”

“Patriot Coal is trying to take $18 million of the $22 million put aside for retired coal miners, wives and widows and use it to pay its lawyers instead,” Clinton said of the plan. “Ensuring health care and retirement security should be the first priority in a bankruptcy proceeding, not the last.”

Kinser’s ties to McGinty, who had already received $1,000 from McGinty before Thursday’s fundraiser, are likely rooted in Kinser’s close relationship with former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who serves as McGinty’s campaign chairman. Though McGinty has successfully managed to get both the state and national party to rally around her candidacy, it hasn’t helped her pull away from her opponents in the polls or financially.

She continues to trail Joe Sestak, who lost to Republican Sen. Pat Toomey in 2010, in poll after poll and also had $2 million less cash on hand than he did at year’s end. Rendell himself has admitted that McGinty’s campaign has a fundraising problem and just told the Philadelphia Inquirer that if she is unable to spend $3.5 to $4 million on television ads in the coming weeks, “she won’t win.”

http://freebeacon.com/politics/lobbyist-for-coal-company-hosts-katie-mcginty-fundraiser/

The article includes the sordid past history of lobbyist, Holly Kinser, her ex, Bill DeWeese and her current relationship with Rendell.