ROLL CALL: Levin takes corporate PAC money through loopholes

Mike Levin promised voters he wouldn’t take corporate PAC money, but he lied.

A new Roll Call investigation found that during the first six months of 2021 Levin’s taken over $160,000 in laundered corporate PAC money.

Will Levin return the cash he’s taken through loopholes in his bogus PAC pledge and come clean to CA-49 voters?

In Case You Missed It…

$6M flows through loopholes in pledge against corporate PACs
Kate Ackley
Roll Call
8/3/2021
https://www.rollcall.com/2021/08/03/6m-flows-through-loopholes-in-pledge-against-corporate-pacs/

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A CQ Roll Call review of fundraising disclosures during the first six months of this year found that most of the 62 members of Congress who say they have sworn off donations from the PACs of individual companies have received contributions from colleagues’ campaign accounts or leadership PACs, many of which are full of corporate PAC donations.

Many also report contributions from the PACs of business and professional organizations, such as the American Bankers Association and the American Medical Association, that technically do not violate the pledge because they aren’t tied to a single company. It would violate the pledge, for example, to take a donation from Allstate’s PAC, but not if you take, as members touting the pledge have, from the American Property Casualty Insurance Association PAC, the American Council of Life Insurers PAC or the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers PAC.

Other PACS contributing to the incumbents who say they’ve sworn off corporate money include those of the National Beer Wholesalers Association, American Crystal Sugar Co., Mortgage Bankers Association, National Association of Realtors, American Association for Justice and the American Society of Anesthesiologists. All such groups represent business and professional interests that seek to influence lawmakers and officials in Washington, D.C. 

It is, like union and ideological PAC cash, special interest money. 

All told, the 62 incumbents in the House and Senate, nearly all of them Democrats, have hauled in $6.1 million in contributions from PACs and committees during the first six months of this year. The majority, about $2.4 million, came from PACs and committees controlled by lawmakers, including members’ campaign accounts and their leadership PACs, which routinely accept donations from corporate PACs. 

Almost $1 million came from the PACs of lobbying groups and law firms, professional associations and business interests, the analysis shows. And some members who have taken the pledge benefit from another stream of corporate money that doesn’t show up in their own reports because it is spent by party committees and super PACs for independent ads that boost their campaigns or attack their opponents. That spending was not included in this analysis. 

Harder’s office did not respond to a request for comment, but when he introduced his bill to ban corporate PACs earlier this year, he said industry influence was rampant. 

“Throw a rock in any direction from Capitol Hill, and you’ll find a corporation looking to buy somebody’s vote,” he said. “It’s corrupt, it’s just plain wrong, and it has to stop.”

The other two sponsors of the legislation are Democrats Jared Golden of Maine and Mike Levin of California. Golden’s campaign disclosed about $100,000 in total PAC and committee contributions out of $1 million raised during the first six months of the year, mostly from fellow lawmakers and their leadership PACs. Levin’s PAC total was about $160,000 out of $944,000 raised for the same period, mostly from the PACs of lawmakers, ideological groups and unions. 

Neither office responded to requests for comment. 

“Corporations have too much power over American politics,” Golden said in a statement upon introducing the bill. “Our government should be responsive to the people, not corporate special interests.”

For this analysis, CQ Roll Call downloaded all contribution reports filed this year by members who have taken the pledge and excluded contributions from individuals, a pot of money that can include corporate influence since many corporate executives give personally in addition to supporting a company PAC. 

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Read more in Roll Call.