Word: pac
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...that can total no more than $25,000 a year. Companies are not allowed to contribute directly to campaigns, but they, along with labor unions and other organizations, can set up political-action committees that solicit donations from employees or members and give the money to selected politicians. A PAC can donate no more than $10,000 to one campaign, but contributions of that size could conceivably be made to every presidential contender and all of the candidates for the 535 seats in Congress. With so many opportunities to give, PACs have boosted their handouts enormously, from ; $25 million...
Perhaps not surprisingly, AT&T, which is heavily regulated by the Government, has the plumpest business PAC. In 1987 the company's committee controlled a fund of $1.45 million, up from $1.28 million in 1986, which it used to support 398 congressional candidates, most of them incumbent Democrats. Roughly 45% of AT&T's 45,000-member management-level staff donated an average of $75. Says AT&T spokesman Burke Stinson: "It's a part of people's everyday lives now, along with the United Way." United Parcel Service, which is hemmed in by Government restrictions on the mail business...
Critics charge that the soft money and large PAC contributions to candidates amount to little more than sophisticated vote buying. When tax reform came before the Senate Finance Committee in 1986, its 20 members received $969,000 from insurance PACs and $956,000 from energy PACs, according to a report by Common Cause. Says Nancy Kuhn, a fund raiser for Dukakis in New York: "It's no mystery why the chairman of the finance committee can raise more money than the chairman of the judiciary committee." Even some members of Congress conceded, in a 1987 survey, that campaign contributions have...
...congressional races, Democrats rake in the largest share of PAC monies, despite the common perception that corporations lean toward Republicans. The reason is that Democrats hold majorities in both the House and Senate, and incumbents always have a better chance of winning than newcomers. Says one PAC manager: "The core of our business is access to legislators. We can get shut out if we give to challengers who lose." This year PACs have contributed $66 million to congressional incumbents, an increase of 29.4% over 1986, while handing challengers only $7 million, about the same as in previous elections. Democrats have...
Defending donations by PACs, Vice President of Business-Industry PAC Bernadette Budde said that these private fundraising groups "represent an avenue for small givers" and claimed that they were essential to "getting somebody that they like elected or re-elected...