Campaign Contributions Correlate to Committee Placement
WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 – For New Hampshire’s members of Congress, their committee assignments in the House and Senate often affect which political action committees contribute to their campaigns.
“What interest groups are trying to do is to control the agenda of a committee, and they’re trying to either often keep things out of a bill, as well as to get things into a bill,” said Linda Fowler, a government professor at Dartmouth College. “If they can get favorable legislation at the committee level it just makes their job as lobbyists a whole lot easier because committees are the gatekeepers.”
Congressman Charles Bass (R-N.H.) is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee as well as of several of its subcommittees, including Telecommunications and the Internet. During the current election cycle, some of his largest contributions came from political action committees of well-known companies and trade groups that are affected by subjects within the committee’s Jurisdiction, such as General Motors Corp., Verizon Communications and United States Telecom Association.
“He is on the Energy and Commerce Committee in the House, and that is the committee that deals with a lot of issues that are important to us,” said Robert Eisenbud, director of legislative affairs for Waste Management Inc., which contributed $2,500 last May, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. “There’s the subcommittee on hazardous waste and the environment that he sits on, and as a waste company involved in environmental issues that’s one that’s of interest to us.”
Political action committees often will concentrate their contributions to committees that focus on issues important to them and will give to members of those committees on a bipartisan basis.
“The congressman is on the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over health issues,” said Frank McLaughlin, director of political affairs for the American Dental Association. His political action committee typically gives money to members of that committee, McLaughlin said, because the panel affects “how the health care profession, and in our case certainly dentistry, is practiced on the federal level.”
Shannon Finney, the communications manager for Financial Services Roundtable, an industry association, said that because of the diversity and complexity of her organization’s interests, it has a stake in a broad set of legislative issues.
According to filings with the Federal Elections Commission, the Financial Services Roundtable PAC contributed $2,000 to Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.), who sits on the Joint Economic Committee, the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee.
“We’re completely bipartisan; we just want to make sure that the interest is in our industry,” Finney said.
The Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers’ political action committee donated $2,000 last April to Sununu, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.
“He is on the banking committee and on the commerce committee,” said Joel Wood, senior vice president of government affairs for the council. “He is extremely knowledgeable about financial services and related issues because those are two of the key committees of jurisdiction.”
The American Council of Life Insurers, which donated $1,000 in July, according to the Federal Election Commission filings, also tends to contribute to those people who have an understanding of what the industry is facing, according to spokesman Jack Dolan.
“Frequently, a lot of money goes to those members who are on committees that have jurisdiction over our issues – not surprisingly, the general way that people make their PAC contributions,” Dolan said. Sununu “is knowledgeable about the life insurance business and the myriad of issues that we deal with,” he said.
Other times, contributions are based on specific votes or legislation. However, that correlation is more difficult to make, Dartmouth’s Fowler said.
“Political scientists who have tried to establish a statistical relationship between roll-call voting and campaign contributions have failed,” Fowler said. “The results are very inconsistent, but there is a much stronger relationship between funds for committee members.”
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