Word: pacs
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Congressman Green is correct; TIME's chart was wrong. Top recipients of PAC contributions for January-June...
...stunned to find myself listed as having received $300,000 this year from political action committees (PACs) [NATION, Aug. 20]. When listing the names and campaign receipts of certain candidates for Congress, you mistakenly identified total campaign contributions as PAC money. In fact, PAC contributions in my case have been less than 15% of the total contributions this year, and past campaign experience has placed me among the "little guys" when judging PAC recipients...
Candidates who elect to run PAC-less campaigns, however, are still in a decided minority. Only two members of the Senate and eight Congressmen decline to accept PAC contributions.* No wonder: unless a candidate is personally wealthy or politically invulnerable, the highroad can be a short cut to defeat. Democratic Congressman Tom Harkin of Iowa, for example, takes PAC money even though he has voted repeatedly to limit PAC influence. Says a Harkin aide: "To refuse PAC money would be to lay down your sword when you know your opponent...
...lobbying to include the offices of Congressman and Senator in the legislation that this year will provide $130 million in tax revenue for presidential candidates. Several bills now before Congress provide for public financing. But there is a practical roadblock on Capitol Hill: incumbents, who receive 77% more in PAC donations than challengers, have no desire to vote away their built-in advantage...
...PAC opponents are confident that they will succeed eventually. "The confrontations over the PAC issue are going to get worse, not better," predicts Fred Wertheimer, president of Common Cause. "We all have the same goal: to get rid of a rotten system that simply has to be changed...