The 2006 elections are shaping up to be the most troublesome kind for political practitioners: unpredictable. What makes me say that this early in the season is a new report from the Campaign Finance Institute, a non-profit research group in Washington that takes a rigorous academic look at the latest trends in political financing.
They’ve been looking at the latest FEC reports on spending in congressional races and found that in competitive districts – those relatively few spots on the map where the seat may be winnable by either party – challengers are raising ample sums to take on the incumbents, as are candidates from both parties in close districts with open seats.
Continue readingNo Access Like Inside Access
Inside access is the name of the game in Washington lobbying, and an item in the “Heard on the Hill” column in today’s Roll Call (subscription required) shows the lengths some lobbyists are willing to go to to get it. Specifically, Rebecca Cox, a lobbyist for Continental Airlines and the wife of former Congressman (and now SEC Chairman) Christopher Cox (R-Calif.).
Like all congressional spouses, Rebecca Cox was issued a special pin that gives her access to parts of the Capitol complex normally closed off to the public. She’s still entitled to wear that pin, since her husband resigned his seat during the current session of Congress.
Continue readingMillionaires and the Minimum Wage
Cynicism is a human-borne disease that is caused by a variety of factors, one of which includes paying close attention to the actions of politicians in crafting laws.
If you were up and awake at 1:41 a.m. Saturday morning and watching the roll call vote in the House of Representatives on C-SPAN, your cynicism levels would no doubt have leaped alarmingly.
In that vote, the House attached a double-edged amendment to an overhaul of the nation’s pension policies. On the one hand, it included a $2.10-an-hour raise in the minimum wage, to be phased in over the next three years – a popular idea with the public, according to recent polls. On the other hand, it slashed the rate on estate taxes for multi-millionaires – an even more popular idea if your net worth exceeds $5 million.
Continue readingOff and Running: US Chamber Fires First Salvo
And we’re off... The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is advancing its political and business plan for the 2006 elections by firing an opening $10 million salvo of election ads in the districts of more than 30 of their allies in Congress. Allies that they’d like to see safely reelected, whatever the national mood toward Congress. The ads are slated to run in August, with another wave to follow after Labor Day.
This opening salvo – the biggest in the Chamber’s history – is as sure a barometric reading as you’re likely to find this election year that the nation’s business community is growing nervous about a potential shift in the balance of power in Congress.
Continue readingSelf-Funders: Ever Hopeful, Despite the Odds
Every two years the same political phenomenon repeats itself, like a rerun of Groundhog’s Day. A new crop of congressional candidates with stars in their eyes – and money in their pockets – take aim at a coveted seat in the U.S. Congress by plugging their personal fortunes into the campaign.
If the past is any indication, come sunshine or clouds on Election Day, nearly all these self-funded candidates will lose.
The latest fillings with the Federal Election Commission show that so far this election cycle, 16 candidates have anted up $1 million or more of their personal fortunes. (You can find the list on Open Secrets.) Some 53 have given $250,000 or more.
Continue readingA Natural Progression
If you really want to track the money in American politics, you have to start by realizing that what you’re pursuing is a moving target.
In fact, one of the oldest arguments made by opponents of campaign finance reform over the years has been is that money, like water, seeks the easiest route. If you try to dam it up in one place – through reform rules outlawing soft money, for instance – it will just change course and gush out somewhere else.
There’s an undeniable logic in that argument, though I don’t agree that it’s a good reason to scrap all reform. Rather, you’ve got to keep pursuing those natural watercourses, bending close to the ground and looking for new spots that might be bubbling up.
Continue readingDoolittle Family Cashing In on Donations
A story in today’s Roll Call (subscription required) notes that California GOP Congressman John Doolittle’s wife is earning more money than ever this year from fundraising activities on behalf of her husband.
It’s been reported earlier – including in a blog here last week – that she’s been collecting a 15 percent commission on all contributions to her husband’s leadership PAC. Julie Doolittle runs a fundraising business out of the family home in Oakton, Virginia – though it doesn’t advertise and she is apparently the only employee.
Continue readingInterstate Commerce in Campaign Contributions
In the older and simpler days of American politics, if you gave a campaign contribution to a candidate for Congress, you had every expectation that the money would support their campaign. These days that expectation is often wrong.
For the past few election cycles – particularly since the GOP won control of Congress in 1994 – there’s been a steady increase in what you might call interstate commerce in campaign contributions. You give to a Congressman from Kentucky, say, but the money eventually winds up in Florida or Michigan, or some other district with a tight race.
Continue readingFriday Potpourri: Polls, Money & Ted Stevens
It’s Friday. There’s plenty of news in the air, but most of it on subjects – like the disintegrating Middle East – that don’t relate directly to money and politics. So it’s time for some end-of-the-week miscellany. Let’s start with polls.
Beware early polls – especially generic ones. The AP has a story today on an Associated Press-Ipsos Poll that shows that “Americans by an almost 3-to-1 margin hold the GOP-controlled Congress in low regard and profess a desire to see Democrats wrest control after a dozen years of Republican rule.”
Continue readingDoolittle’s Leadership PAC Pays Wife
What a deal. Your husband is a member of Congress. You’re his spouse and you start up a business raising money for his leadership PAC, and collecting a 15% commission on every dollar the PAC raises.
That’s the essential scenario for Congressman John T. Doolittle (R-Calif) and his wife Julie, and the details are spelled out on the front page of today’s Washington Post. The story also dwells on expensive gifts that Doolittle’s PAC – the Superior California Federal Leadership Fund – spent money on, but I’d like to focus today on that fundraising commission.
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