PAC Contributions Give Incumbents Big Advantage
WASHINGTON 10/21/04-New Hampshire’s House incumbents have derived a financial advantage in their reelection campaigns from political action committee contributions, according to Federal Election Commission reports.
Through Sept. 30, Rep. Jeb Bradley received $427,872 from PACs, while his Democratic challenger Justin Nadeau received $48,273. Rep. Charles Bass received $270,551 and Democratic challenger Paul Hodes received $30,550.
Political action committees are organized to raise and spend money to elect and defeat candidates. Most PACs represent business, labor or ideological interests. A political action committee for a company, for example, allows employees to pool contributions to be distributed by the committee.
A PAC can give up to $5,000 per election to a candidate, for a maximum of $10,000 for the primary and general elections. Individual contributions are limited to $4,000 a year per candidate, but individuals may give as much as $5,000 a year to PACs.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan group that analyzes campaign finance data, the defense industry is the top contributor to Bradley’s campaign (counting PACs and industry employees). For Bass, the top contributors are in the defense, computer, insurance and automotive industries.
Several business PACs gave the maximum $10,000 to Bass and Bradley.
According to the center, BAE Systems North America Inc., one of the largest employers in New Hampshire and a top supplier to the Defense Department, topped the donor lists for both Bass and Bradley. The company’s PAC gave the maximum $10,000 to this year’s campaign, and its employees and their family members raised that total to more than $24,650 to Bradley and $12,750 to Bass, according to the center.
The BAE PAC also gave another $5,000 to Bradley this year to help him retire his debt from the 2002 election. ( See sidebar .)
John Measell, a spokesman for the BAE PAC, said the committee gives money to candidates based on where the company has plants and on whether the incumbent is a member of a committee related to defense.
Bradley is on the Armed Services Committee as well as the Veterans’ Affairs and Small Business Committees, and Bass is on the Energy and Commerce Committee.
The National Beer Wholesalers Association’s PAC also contributed to both New Hampshire incumbents. The association represents the interests of 1,800 brewers, 2,000 beer wholesalers and 560,000 retail establishments across the country, including 10 beer distributors in New Hampshire and their 620 employees. Its PAC gave $10,000 each to Bass and Bradley.
Michelle Semonef, the association’s public affairs director, said one of the major reasons the PAC contributes to Bass and Bradley is their support for repealing the estate tax. She said the tax can impede the process of inheriting a business and pointed out that a lot of the association’s members inherit small, family-owned businesses.
“We consistently look for candidates who are going to prop up small businesses, and they are both pro small-business leaders,” Semonef said.
Another business PAC that has given the maximum $10,000 to Bradley are is the National Association of Realtors PAC. He also received the maximum contribution from House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s leadership PAC, the Keep Our Majority PAC. PACs that gave the maximum to Bass included the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association PAC and the Daniel Webster PAC, which is New Hampshire Sen. John Sununu’s leadership PAC.
Steve Weiss, a spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, said business PACs favor incumbents because contributions to them begin to work immediately as the incumbents are already members of committees of interest to the companies.
“Donors view contributions as investments, and they’re going to make the safest investments possible,” Weiss said. “And contributions to a challenger are, frankly, a risky investment.”
According to the FEC reports, Bradley had raised $925,197 and had $326,090 in the bank as of Sept. 30. Nadeau raised $589,760 but had only $14,592 left. Bass had raised $563,044 and had $295,347 on hand, while his opponents had raised $524,656 and had $89,305 on hand.
According to the FEC, Hodes received $10,000 from the PAC of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and $3,000 from the PAC of the Laborers’ International Union of North America.
Dan Vicuna, a spokesman for the Hodes campaign, said that small, individual contributions were vitally important.
“You’re not going to have the same kind of advantages as incumbency,” he said, adding that the campaign was compensating by being creative in its approach to fundraising, with efforts like the campaign’s Rock and Roll Back the Deficit tour. Vicuna said the tour combined Hodes’ musical background with talk about the federal budget.
Nadeau received $10,000 each from the PACs of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Food Workers Union, according to FEC reports.
“If your opponent has a financial advantage, you just have to be smarter with the use of time,” said Steve Marchand, campaign director for Nadeau. “You have to work harder on individual contributions . but you sleep better at night.”
