Sunlight Foundation

Most House Republican members contributing to campaign committee

With expectations running high that they will take the majority in the House of Representatives, Republican House members are putting up their own campaign and political action committee money to fund the party's national House electoral arm.

According to data obtained from TransparencyData.com, 157 current Republican House members--out of a total of 179--have ponied up more than $24 million to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) so far this cycle. This accounts for more than a quarter of the total raised by the party committee.

The NRCC is charged with helping to elect new Republican members to the House and protect current members from defeat. The money raised will largely go towards advertising and campaign activities that will be necessary for the party to win back the majority.

Leading the charge in giving money to the NRCC are the current party leaders and those in line to chair committees in the event of a Republican takeover of Congress.

Minority Leader and Speaker-in-waiting John Boehner--through his campaign committee, political action committee and a committee set up by his staffers--has given nearly $2 million to the campaign committee. Minority Whip Eric Cantor, in line to become Majority Leader in the event of a GOP victory, has given over $1 million.

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Following the two major party leaders in giving are some important potential chairmen of powerful committees. Rep. Spencer Bachus, in line to head the House Financial Services Committee, has given $905,180 and Rep. Dave Camp, in line to lead the House Ways & Means Committee, has given $873,200. Rep. Frank Lucas, in line to head the House Agriculture Committee, sent $646,000 to the NRCC this cycle.

Many of the other top NRCC givers are members likely to be seeking leadership posts in the 112th Congress. Reps. Jeb Hensarling, Kevin McCarthy and Mike Pence are all likely to seek important leadership posts if the Republicans retake the majority. To help them do so, they've contributed hefty amounts to the NRCC. Hensarling has given $690,150, McCarthy gave $589,394 and Pence has given $564,000.

Pence is currently the Republican Conference Chairman and McCarthy is the Chief Deputy Whip. Both are featured co-authors with Cantor in a book touting new leaders among House Republicans titled "Young Guns."

Hensarling previously sought the position of Conference Chairman after the Republicans lost their majority in the 2006 midterms, but stepped aside to allow Pence to take the spot.

Twenty-two House Republican members have not given money to the NRCC this cycle. This list largely consists of party back-benchers and retiring members, but also includes the media star Rep. Michele Bachmann. The members who have not ponied up to the campaign committee are Reps. Bachmann, Brian Bilbray, Henry Brown, Steve Buyer, Charles Djou, Jo Ann Emerson, Elton Gallgley, Tom Graves, Parker Griffith, Dean Heller, Wally Herger, Pete Hoekstra, Timothy Johnson, Walter Jones, Blaine Luetkemeyer, Dan Lungren, Adam Putnam, Phil Roe, Adrian Smith, John Sullivan, Lee Terry and Don Young.

Lunch Time Link Round-Up

Local county commissioners in the district of Indiana Rep. Mike Pence passed a resolution requesting that the congressman end his ban on earmarks. The President of Ball State University is also supporting the call for Pence to accept earmarks.

Rep. Darrell Issa is seeking more information on Countrywide's VIP mortgage deals with lawmakers and political figures like Sens. Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad. Issa is trying to obtain eight years worth of documents relating to the "Friends of Angelo" program. Angelo Mozilo, the CEO of Countrywide, is currently facing multiple indictments brought by the federal government.

The trial of former Rep. William Jefferson is finally getting under way. In case you forgot, Jefferson was caught with $90,000 in cash in his freezer.

And over at Party Time, Nancy Watzman has a post on how a little sunlight can make lawmakers rethink how they fundraise. A common practice in fundraising letters is to list the committee memberships of the lawmaker raising money. For a fundraiser to aid Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Democratic lobbyist Heather Podesta went a little over the line in her solicitation, aligning amounts of money with the committees Feinstein sits on. Feinstein wound up cancelling the fundraiser due to the appearance of impropriety.

News for the Afternoon:

  • Roll Call reports that the lobbying reform bill is "stuck in limbo" thanks to the inclusion of 527 reform in the House reform package. Does anybody think that this bill is going anywhere? No. It doesn't matter much since the reforms that are included in the bills fall far short of what is needed to fix the problems in Congress. It does demonstrate that even after such high-profile guilty pleas and investigations that the leaders in Congress refuse to fix the inherent problems in the system that led to those abuses and guilty pleas.
  • Glenn Reynolds provides a Pork Busters update at Instapundit. He provides links to a Heritage Foundation report on reforming the budget process, the new-fangled Pork Busters site, and to a group that has the name Sunlight in its name.
  • If Homeland Security is supposed to be so important (and personally I think not getting blown up and emergency disaster assitance are pretty important things) then please explain why everyone wants to cash out of the Department. The New York Times wants to know too:
    "If homeland security is the central concern of the Bush administration, one wonders how it managed to create a department in which so many of the top brass were so eager to quit the crusade so soon and cash in so efficiently. But the worst effect of this kind of take-the-money-and-run mentality is on the people left behind. How many of them, having watched others land lucrative jobs as lobbyists, will temper their own judgments about what systems to buy and what consultants to use with an eye on their own private-sector prospects?"
  • The San Bernardino Sun keeps reporting on the lobbying and earmarking scandal surrounding their local congressman [sw: Jerry Lewis] (R-Calif.). San Bernardino County released 3,500 pages of documents related to their contacts with Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White, the lobbying firm in question in the scandal. The documents reveal that San Bernardino used the lobbying firm to develop "strategies to get federal funding," work on "problems with endangered species," and "arranging meetings with senator and Congressmen". The key question is why on earth did a county represented by Lewis need to hire a lobbying firm to make contact with their representative. This should be completely unnecessary and it looks rather peculiar.
  • And finally a noted conservative opponent of earmarking, [sw: Mike Pence] (R-Ind.), defended his own earmarks to CongressDaily. Pence, who has been a vocal opponent of earmarking and pork-barrel funding, was forced to defend two earmarks that he placed into the recently passed Transportation-Treasury appropriations bill. Pence's spokesman stated that the congressman, "stands by his earmark requests." Pence also stated that he supports earmark reform but does not wish to do away with the process entirely. Of course, his defense of his own earmarks sounds much like the defense given by so many others who have been criticized.
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GOP In-Fighting Over Earmark Reforms:

The Associated Press is reporting that the House Republicans have not been able to come to an agreement on the earmark reform provisions in the lobbying and ethics "reform" bill (if you want to know why I use quotations marks go here). In one corner is Appropriations Chair Jerry Lewis (R-CA) who is peeved that the earmark reform only targets earmarks originating out of his committee. Lewis declared that a reform that "does not touch on the 'Bridge to Nowhere' is not really reform." In the other corner is Mike Pence (R-IN), the spokesman for the most conservative Republicans. He said to CongressDailyPM that Lewis' argument against limiting earmark reform to the Appropriations Committee alone "feels to many of us like an effort to defeat earmark reform." Caught in the middle is Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) who is "confident" the bill will be "on the floor tomorrow" despite Republicans having "some work to do on earmark reform".

In the Senate Tom Coburn (R-OK) is planning to offer amendments to the emergency spending bill directly targeting spending that he wants to cut, including the Gulf Coast railroad sought by Trent Lott, Thad Cochran, and Haley Barbour. (CongressDailyPM)

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Emergency Pork:

Today both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times ran stories about the pork-filled emergency supplemental bill that contains Sen. Trent Lott's (R-MS) now infamous "Magic Railroad". Some congressmen and Senators are not happy with the $15 billion worth of extra picnic shoulders thrown into a bill that is intended to provide funds for rebuilding New Orleans, the Gulf Coast, and Iraq. Tim Chapman at the Capitol Report writes that both Mike Pence (R-IN) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) have called on the President to veto the bill if the extra money is not removed. Pence called the bill a "fruit basket" of unrelated spending. John Spratt (D-SC), the ranking Dem on the House Budget Committee, said, "A lot of these things are desirable, and some are even necessary, but they don't belong in an emergency spending bill."

I haven't been by the Capitol lately but I've heard they're hanging this new sign out front:

 

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