After TARP, Morgan Stanley gets back in the influence game
By: Timothy P. Carney
Examiner Columnist
October 21, 2009
Morgan Stanley's political action committee resumed donations in the third quarter of this year after the New York-based investment bank paid back its U.S. taxpayer rescue funds, Federal Election Commission records show.
The PAC had ceased making campaign contributions until Morgan Stanley repaid $10 billion in June under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. After making no donations during the first six months of this year, Morgan Stanley gave $157,500 between July 1 and Sept. 30, including $120,000 in September.
The investment bank made $374,000 in political contributions during the first nine months of 2007; its donation total for the comparable period this year represents a 58 percent reduction.
"Since repaying TARP, Morgan Stanley's PAC has resumed normal PAC-related activity," Carissa Ramirez, a spokeswoman for Morgan Stanley, said in an e-mail yesterday.
Most of the other large U.S. financial institutions have reduced their political giving at a time when Congress is drafting new financial regulations. Just two of 10 institutions reported increases in their PAC contributions through the first nine months of this year, compared with the same period in 2007.
Morgan Stanley has long been a major political giver. Its employees contributed $3.7 million for the 2008 elections, fifth among financial companies, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research group.
The company's PAC donations this year include $2,500 to Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the House Financial Services Committee. Frank's panel is writing the revamp of financial regulations. The PAC also gave $5,000 to Rep. Melissa Bean, an Illinois Democrat, and Rep. Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat. The two lawmakers co-chair the financial services task force of the pro-business New Democrat Coalition.
The PAC of Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. lender, gave $195,000 in donations during the first nine months of 2009, as compared with $349,122 during the same period in 2007, a decline of 44 percent.
Spokeswoman Shirley Norton didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced its PAC giving by 86 percent, to $72,500 from January to September this year from $520,784 during the same period two years earlier.
Jennifer Zuccarelli, a JPMorgan spokeswoman, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
