The most surprising revelation in the Public Citizen report on lobbyists’ campaign contributions is that 73 percent of lobbyists failed to make even a $200 donation to a candidate.
“I was astounded,” said Taylor Lincoln, a primary author of the report. “I had our IT guy send me a list of the lobbyists who hadn’t contributed to … make sure myself” it was accurate.
Of the mere 27 percent who contributed, only about 1,650 — just 6 percent of the roughly 27,000 registered lobbyists — contributed 83 percent of the money, said the report, titled “The Bankrollers: Lobbyists’ Payments to the Lawmakers They Court.”
Even the total amount contributed seems small. The researchers identified some $103 million in direct campaign contributions given by lobbyists, their immediate family members and lobby firm political action committees — but that was for most of the eight years from 1998 to 2006. Former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his partner, Michael Scanlon, were estimated to have accepted $45 million just from their Indian tribe clients.
Though some of the numbers were surprising, Public Citizen asserted that the amounts were still cause enough to move toward having all campaigns publicly funded.
Such a limit would not go to the source of the problem, countered American League of Lobbyists President Paul Miller. He pointed to former California Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif., who pleaded guilty to accepting more than $2 million in exchange for help with government contracts.
“Mr. Cunningham was not bribed by a lobbyist,” Miller said.
Safavian trial begins
The first trial springing from the Jack Abramoff scandal is scheduled to begin today.
David Safavian, former chief of staff to the administrator at the General Services Administration, is charged with covering up Abramoff’s interest in land in Maryland and in a downtown Washington landmark, the Old Post Office on Pennsylvania Avenue. Safavian is alleged to have accepted a trip to Scotland from Abramoff, who was aggressively pushing for the properties. Abramoff is unlikely to testify but prosecutors are expected to produce hundreds of e-mails that provide further details of his operations.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
