A governing committee of the Democratic Party decided Friday to not ban donations from corporate political action committees, instead choosing to delay a decision until 2020.
Advocates sought the ban on corporate PAC money — rather than on corporate donations as a whole — to communicate independence from business interests, even though the Democratic National Committee took just $144,000 in corporate PAC donations last year, or about .08 percent of the party’s $175 million 2018 windfall, according to Vox.
The ban previously was adopted in 2008 when former President Barack Obama ran for office, but was abandoned in 2016 when Hillary Clinton sought the presidency.
The latest proposal was sponsored by Christine Pelosi, chairwoman of the California Democratic Party women’s caucus,but was punted Friday by the DNC Resolutions Committee, delaying a decision until 2020 when the DNC Platform Committee will decide.
“Though my corporate PAC ban failed, we managed to nix a ‘study’ and negotiated a path forward to a VOTE by the Platform Committee and 2020 Convention.” tweeted Pelosi, daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
More than 50 House Democrats and several 2020 Democratic presidential candidates have said recently they will refuse corporate PAC donations as more left-wing policies find traction within the party, notably including increased support for government-financed healthcare.
Opponents of the proposed restriction included DNC Resolutions Committee member Charlie King of New York, who reportedly said: “My No. 1 focus, frankly, is to get rid of Donald Trump. … Sometimes perfection is the enemy of the good.”
The DNC is not considering a ban on donations from corporations, which could prove more detrimental to the party’s bottom line.
Although the DNC took little money from corporate PACs last year, it did rake in a good deal of contributions from corporations. The party’s top corporate donor last year was hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, which gave more than $1 million, and was until recently run by CEO Robert Mercer, whose other investments include Breitbart News and President Trump’s 2016 campaign.
