PACs Gave $73 Million to Congressional Candidates

Political action committees run by special interest groups and others gave a record $73 million to congressional candidates in the last 15 months, the Federal Election Commission reported Saturday.

The outpouring was $9 million above the level for the same period two years ago, the report said. Top donors included groups representing doctors, accountants, auto dealers, milk producers, cigarette manufacturers, insurance agents and underwriters and gun owners, the report said.

The most generous PAC over the period, according to the report, was the Democratic Republican Independent Voter Education Committee, known as Drive, which is operated by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, with $1,366,720 in contributions.

After that came PACs operated by the Assn. of Trial Lawyers of America, $937,550; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, $747,283; the Airline Pilots Assn., $722,500; the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, $696,340 and the American Bankers Assn., $685,971.

Critics of the campaign finance system said the new figures show the need for legislation to curb the influence of PACs, which they say buy lopsided influence in Congress with political contributions.

“There’s a sense here that special-interest PAC money is going merrily on its way while Rome burns,” said Fred Wertheimer, president of Common Cause, the citizens lobby that long has urged reform of the campaign finance law.

Wertheimer pointed to figures showing that the PACs gave most of the money to incumbents and said that showed the object was to buy influence. “This money shuts out most citizens of this country from having a fair chance to have their voices heard,” he said.

PAC defenders countered that many of the committees were set up with an eye toward giving ordinary citizens as well as business interests greater voice. Top donors included groups representing liberals, labor unions and women’s groups, said Steve Stockmeyer, executive vice president of the National Assn. of Business Political Action Committees.

The notion that most Americans are shut out represents “the sort of outrageous statement that the reformers have made about PACs in order to reinforce their sort of narrow vision of how things ought to be reformed,” Stockmeyer said.

In the 15 months ending March 31 of this year, the FEC said, PACs contributed $63.7 million to incumbents, $3.4 million to challengers and $6.4 million to candidates running for open House and Senate seats. Democrats received $48.6 million and Republicans $24.6 million.