Rep. Frank Content to Stay in the House
FRANK FEC
New Bedford Standard-Times
Valerie Sullivan
Boston University Washington News Service
08 February 2007
WASHINGTON, Feb. 8—Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) raised more than $1.8 million for his 2006 House race in which he was unopposed “because I thought I might … run for the Senate” in 2008, he said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
But now that he is chairman of the Financial Services Committee Rep. Frank is content to stay in the House. “As chairman of the committee, I can do more than I could as a freshman senator,” he said.
Filings with the Federal Election Commission show that Rep. Frank raised significantly more money in the past two House election campaigns, up from $432,544 in 2002 to $1,872,924 in 2006. In 2004 he raised $1,319,498—more than twice the average raised by Democrats running for a House seat.
The money attracted all the more attention because Rep. Frank’s opposition in 2004 was only a write-in campaign by television talk show host Chuck Morris. Rep. Frank received 78 per cent of the vote.
Massie Ritsch, the communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics, said Rep. Frank had little need for extra campaign money. “The fact is, the incumbent has an almost certain chance of winning,” Mr. Ritsch said. The center tracks money and politics.
Rep. Frank was not alone among Massachusetts House members with Senate plans. Take Democratic Rep. Marty Meehan, for example, who currently “has more cash on hand than anyone else in the House,” Mr. Ritsch said. “That’s almost certainly because [Rep. Meehan] thought there might be an opening in the Senate.”
Post-election, Rep. Meehan had more than $5 million, while Reps. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and William Delahunt (D-Mass.) each had approximately $2 million.
“A significant increase in a House members’ election fundraising often indicates aspirations of a Senate campaign,” Mr. Ritsch said.
In 2004, with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) running for president, the representatives were gearing up to fill the Senate seat that might soon become vacant.
The possibility didn’t end with Sen. Kerry’s 2004 loss to President Bush. “We then had the possibility after [Mr. Kerry] lost [the 2004 presidential election]… that he would announce in 2006 that he would run for president instead [of a Senate seat] and in that case… I would have again [considered a] run for the Senate,” Rep. Frank said.
But when Sen. Kerry announced in January that he would not run for president in 2008, Rep. Frank made other plans for the money. Days after the Kerry announcement, Rep. Frank said, he gave $250,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Given the Democratic majority in the House and his new position as chairman of the Financial Services Committee, Rep. Frank said he has other priorities now.
Mr. Ritsch confirms the importance of Rep. Frank’s new role. “He just has exponentially more influence now that the Democrats are in control,” Mr. Ritsch said.
Rep. Frank plans to wield that influence from the House. “I can do more in this job than I can in the Senate,” he said.
Rep. Frank’s fundraising power is higher than ever. “Now that he’s chairman of the Financial Services Committee, his fundraising will shoot up…. His top industries are already related to financial services,” Mr. Ritsch said.
In 2005-2006, 55 percent of Rep. Frank’s funds came from individual contributions. Political action committees, or PACs, were responsible for 43 percent of his funds, with financial services sectors leading the way.
“The FIRE [finance, insurance, and real estate] sector gives more money than any sector…. It’s a plum assignment,” Mr. Ritsch said of Rep. Frank’s chairmanship. In the 2006 election cycle, 85.9 percent of his PAC contributions came from businesses. State Street Corp., a Boston-based financial services company, and UBS AG, a financial services company headquartered in Switzerland, were Rep. Frank’s top contributors, with each giving $17,000 in contributions from their employees and their PACs.
Mr. Ritsch said he didn’t foresee Rep. Frank’s fundraising returning abruptly back to its 2002 levels. “You raise the money because it’s there,” he said. “Because you can. Because it’s being offered. You never know when you’re going to need it…. The election really never stops. The campaign really never stops.”
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