It’s no coincidence that the Democrats’ leading fundraisers — New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen — are the sponsors of the DISCLOSE Act, a bill that would further regulate political communications by corporations, nonprofits and unions.
All politicians, especially Democratic moneymen like Van Hollen (who runs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) and Schumer (former head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee), benefit from the web of campaign finance regulations that draws businesses and interest groups to K Street and Washington.
In January, when the Supreme Court ruled in the Citizens United case that Congress shall, in fact, make no law abridging the freedom of speech, Schumer warned, “This opens the floodgates and allows special interest money to overflow our elections and undermine our democracy.” Schumer, as the top recipient of money from Wall Street, real estate, and the insurance industry, knows about being awash in special-interest money.
So is he just blowing smoke? Not exactly. Citizens United overturned a federal ban on organizations using money to praise or critique politicians just before Election Day. In other words, businesses, unions and activist groups are now as free to talk about Chuck Schumer’s proposals as Chuck Schumer or the New York Times are. This is no good for Schumer, not only because it makes it easier for criticism of him to reach Americans’ tender ears, but also because it allows groups and businesses to go over his head, so to speak.
Now, business can speak directly to Americans. This mitigates their need to beg politicians and hire lobbyists. That’s bad news for politicians, who may speak as if they despise lobbying but who regularly tell business to lobby more.
For instance, Politico last week told how Apple’s “low-wattage approach in Washington is becoming more glaring to policymakers.” Apparently, the company “is one of the few major technology companies not to have a political action committee,” and “Compared with other tech giants, Apple’s lobbying expenditures are small.” Apple’s focus on business over politics recalls Microsoft’s experience in 1998 when one Hill staffer warned, “Their hands-off approach to Washington will come back to haunt them.”
The travel industry is another example. A few years back, Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., told hotels and airlines to work together more. Soon they formed the Travel Industry Association, which hired Delahunt’s chief of staff as its lobbyist.
The most telling episode was probably Chuck Schumer’s hedge-fund racket. Once Democrats took over Congress in 2007, Schumer told fund managers to start playing ball. The industry multiplied its lobby spending by six, hired a former congressman to head its trade association, and — of course — ramped up giving to Schumer and other Senate Democrats. Then the hedge funds hired Schumer’s banking staffer, Carmencita Whonder, as a lobbyist. She’s now a leading fundraiser for Schumer.
Following Schumer’s money helps explain why politicians want all political discourse to be funneled through the crooked mile that runs from K Street to Capitol Hill. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Schumer is the No. 2 recipient of lobbyist contributions so far this election — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is No. 1. All of the top seven and 11 of the top 15 are Democrats. Democrats have raised $11.7 million from lobbyists this cycle — twice as much as Republicans have raised.
But that $11.7 million only counts the contributions lobbyists and their PACs made from their own pockets. Add the money raised by lobbyists, and you begin to see why Van Hollen can’t have big business circumventing the K Street funnel. Democratic lobbyist Ben Barnes and his wife are the most politically generous couple this year, having each given $115,000 by last September — the maximum allowed by an individual in an election cycle.
But Barnes, whose clients include health care companies and government-owned General Motors, has raised $641,950 for the DCCC. Barnes is the top bundler on record this election, but second place goes to Tony Podesta, whose brother John (co-founder of the Podesta Group lobbying firm) was Obama’s transition director. Podesta’s favorite charity is the DCCC.
Lobbyists and K Street PACs have bundled $2.48 million for the DCCC this cycle. Van Hollen’s Republican counterpart — the National Republican Campaign Committee, has pocketed only about $520,000 in lobbyist-bundled cash.
Speech restrictions draw businesses to K Street, where politicians can more easily demand cash and cooperation. Who wants the First Amendment ruining such a fine arrangement?
Timothy P. Carney, The Examiner‘s lobbying editor, can be reached at [email protected]. He writes an op-ed column that appears on Friday
