Boeing, Banks Give to Democratic Candidates After Election Wins
By Jonathan D. Salant
Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- It didn't take Boeing Co. very long to realize the political landscape had been altered after the Democrats captured control of Congress.
During the campaign, the world's second-largest maker of commercial airplanes backed Republican Senator Jim Talent of Missouri with a maximum $10,000 campaign contribution from its political-action committee. Just 17 days after his defeat, the PAC wrote a $5,000 check to Claire McCaskill, the Democrat who beat him.
Boeing isn't alone. Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. and a trade group for banks including Wachovia Corp. and Citigroup Inc. are among the political donors who drew the same lesson from the Nov. 7 returns.
Special-interest groups ``buy influence and access with people who hold power,'' said Craig Holman, a lobbyist with Public Citizen, a Washington-based advocacy group that favors overhauling campaign-finance laws. ``It has nothing to do with campaigns or even ideology.''
Election Day doesn't mark an end to political fund-raising. Candidates must pay off debts and begin assembling warchests for the next campaign, creating new opportunities for PACs.
Chicago-based Boeing says its donation to McCaskill reflects the interests of the company and its 16,000 Missouri employees.
Supporting the Incumbent
``In districts where there are a large number of Boeing employees, we have routinely supported the incumbent, who obviously is looking after the interest of the Boeing employees,'' spokesman Doug Kennett said. ``The election is now over and we have a new senator who has the same constituents.''
McCaskill didn't respond to a request for comment.
During the campaign, Fort Worth, Texas-based Burlington Northern Santa Fe, the biggest U.S. railroad by shipments, contributed $5,000 to Republican Senator Mike DeWine of Ohio; 13 days after the election, it gave $2,500 to Democratic victor Sherrod Brown.
``It was appropriate for us to begin a relationship with Brown,'' Burlington Northern spokesman Richard Russack said.
Brown, who will deal with some transportation issues as a member of the Senate Banking Committee, didn't respond to a request for comment.
The American Bankers Association, the Washington-based trade group whose members include Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia and New York-based Citigroup, gave $5,000 to Democrat Heath Shuler of North Carolina three days after he won a House race against Republican Representative Charles Taylor. The bankers group supported Taylor during the campaign.
Nine Days Later
The association, which also had given to DeWine's campaign, contributed $2,500 to Brown nine days after he was elected. Brown who will be a member of the Banking Committee, ran as an economic populist, criticizing President George W. Bush's tax cuts as disproportionately favoring corporations and wealthy people.
Association spokeswoman Laura Fisher didn't respond to several requests for comment.
The lobbying firm of Holland & Knight LLP, whose clients include El Segundo, California-based Computer Sciences Corp. and Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. in Connecticut, contributed $1,000 apiece to five freshman Democrats following the election. In each case, the firm had supported the Republican incumbent. It declined to comment.
Democratic Representative-elect Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania was a lobbyist for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center before running for the House. The hospital industry supported the incumbent, Republican Melissa Hart, who sat on the Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over some health issues. After Altmire won, he received $4,000 from hospital-related political action committees that had contributed to Hart before Nov. 7.
Dollars From Hospitals
The Washington-based American Hospital Association, the trade group for companies such as Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. and Birmingham, Alabama-based Healthsouth Corp., contributed $2,000 to Altmire eight days after he was elected.
``We started building a relationship with him and contributed to help him pay down his campaign debt,'' association spokeswoman Amy Lee said.
Altmire said many hospital officials that he knew through his old job supported Hart because of her committee position. Once they were free to contribute to his campaign, some did, he said.
``These are folks I've had a long-term working relationship with,'' Altmire said. ``They were excited that I won and wanted to help.''
The phenomenon isn't limited to business, either: At least one organized-labor group has done the same thing. Before the election, the air traffic controllers union gave the maximum $10,000 to Republican John Sweeney of New York, a member of the House Appropriations transportation subcommittee. The union has since given $5,000 to the Democrat who beat him, Kirsten Gillibrand. Union spokesman Doug Church declined comment.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net . |
