Communications Industry Put $50 Million in Politics : Donations: Candidates, parties got the money in the last decade from companies with a stake in ‘information highway,’ Common Cause says.

The communications industry, which has a big stake in government decisions about the “information superhighway,” gave more than $50 million in political action committee and “soft money” contributions to congressional candidates and political party units during the last decade, a Common Cause study showed Wednesday.

AT&T; donated $5.6 million in PAC money to candidates, nearly twice as much as any other entity in the industry, which includes telephone, entertainment, computer, broadcasting, cable and publishing interests.

The top soft money donors, whose contributions--unlike PAC gifts--are unrestricted and funneled to political party committees, were concentrated in the entertainment world. MCA Inc. led with $574,000. Most of that was contributed by Chairman Lew Wasserman, $357,000, and President Sidney Sheinberg, $120,000.

Top recipients of PAC largess from 1984 through 1993 were congressional barons who run committees with prime jurisdiction over communications issues. Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, collected $336,000, and Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.), chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, took in $329,000.

Leading California recipients were Rep. Vic Fazio (D-West Sacramento), vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, $191,000; Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Sacramento), an influential member of the Ways and Means Committee, $154,000, and Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale), ranking Republican on Energy and Commerce, $149,000.

“The communications industry has made great use of the preferred method of communicating in Washington these days--millions of dollars in special-interest political money,” Common Cause President Fred Wertheimer said.

“The huge amounts of political money given by the communications industry is of particular concern today as the issue of telecommunications and the information superhighway moves to center stage on the national agenda.”

Common Cause and other advocates of campaign finance reform have said they believe that such contributions unduly influence legislation. Donors and recipients play down the huge money flow, insisting that, although the dollars may help gain access to lawmakers, it does not buy votes.

Besides AT&T;, the top PAC contributors were GTE Corp., $2.9 million; Bellsouth Corp., $2.5 million; National Cable Television Assn., $2 million; US West Inc., $1.3 million; National Assn. of Broadcasters, $1.3 million; Pacific Telesis Group, $1.2 million; Hughes Communications, $1.1 million, and Sprint Corp., $1.1 million.

In addition to MCA, the leading soft money donors were Time Warner Inc., $568,333; Bell Atlantic Corp., $439,000; Marvin Davis, president of Davis Cos., $410,000; MCI Communications Corp., $391,000; the late Thomas Watson Jr., chairman emeritus of IBM Corp., $384,000; NYNEX Corp., $375,000; Sony Corp. of America, $371,000, and Pacific Telesis, $337,000.

With the entertainment industry concentrated in Southern California, it is not surprising that some of the primary recipients of its $6.8 million in contributions during the last decade were Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), $52,000; Fazio, $38,000; Moorhead, $33,000; Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), $32,000, and Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), $32,000.