When registered lobbyists dig into their wallets, incumbent senators almost always benefit.
More than 1,000 federally registered lobbyists have personally donated $2.76 million to the campaigns of U.S. senators seeking re-election this year, according to a Center for Public Integrity study of contributions from 1999 through September 2004. That represented 95 percent of lobbyist contributions in those 26 races; only 5 percent, $157,000, went to challengers.
This trend of registered lobbyists financially supporting incumbents is clear in states like Connecticut and Nevada, where Democratic incumbents Christopher Dodd and Harry Reid, respectively, each received around $190,000 from lobbyists, while their Republican challengers received no lobbyist contributions whatsoever. In fact, in more than half of this year’s 34 senatorial races, lobbyists gave nothing to challengers while giving an average of $95,000 to the incumbents in those states.
Senate Minority Leader Thomas Daschle, Democrat of South Dakota, received $260,000 from lobbyists, the most of any senator seeking re-election this year. Daschle was followed by Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) with $225,000; Dodd with $190,000; Reid with $188,000; and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) with $151,000.
One reason that these donations concern campaign finance experts is that they create the potential for apparent conflicts of interest. In fact, the Center found that lobbyists sometimes made personal contributions to the very lawmakers they sought to influence.
For instance, Senator Specter received $24,500 from lobbyists working for Blank Rome LLP. One of Blank Rome’s largest clients is FastShip Inc., which transports containers between the U.S. and Europe. In 2003, Blank Rome billed the company $160,000. At a press conference with FastShip executives earlier this year, Specter took credit for bills appropriating $40 million in federal funds to construct the company’s state-of-the-art marine cargo terminal at the Port of Philadelphia.
Similarly, Senator Daschle’s campaign received more money—$13,650—from lobbyists associated with Patton Boggs than from lobbyists at any other firm. Patton Boggs’ second largest client during the last six years was the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, which over that period paid the high-powered lobbying firm $5.8 million. One of ATLA’s top priorities was to ward off limits on awards in medical malpractice suits. In July 2003, Daschle spearheaded a successful effort to block such proposed limits.
The Center also found that lobbyists favored Democratic senatorial candidates by a two-to-one ratio, with about 850 of the nearly 25,000 registered lobbyists donating $2.3 million of their own money to Democrats and almost 600 of them contributing $1.2 million to Republicans. Of the 26 Senate incumbents running for re-election this year, 14 are Democrats and 12 are Republicans.
Lobbyists donated a total of $3.5 million to candidates in the 2004 senatorial elections, an average of $2,800 per contributor. Since 1999 these lobbyists—along with their colleagues—billed more than $3.3 billion, which accounts for more than 30 percent of all the reported federal lobbying during that time.
A similar study by the Center in May 2004 found that more than 1,300 registered lobbyists donated $1.8 million to President George W. Bush over the last six years, while 442 lobbyists contributed $520,000 to Senator John Kerry.
Lobbyists’ Money
Democrat
State
Republican
Lobbyists’ Money
$42,000
Tony Knowles
AK
Senator Lisa Murkowski
$71,000
$137,000
Senator Richard Shelby
AL
Wayne Sowell
$0
$122,000
Senator Blanche Lincoln
AR
Jim Holt
$0
$0
Stuart Marc Starky
AZ
Senator John McCain
$22,000
$85,000
Senator Barbara Boxer
CA
Bill Jones
$0
$33,000
Ken Salazar
CO
Peter Coors
$2,500
$190,000
Senator Christopher Dodd
CT
Jack Orchulli
$0
$6,000
Betty Castor
FL
Mel Martinez
$50,000
$2,500
Representative Denise L. Majette
GA
Representative John Isakson
$25,000
$73,000
Senator Daniel Inouye
HI
Cam Cavasso
$0
$0
Arthur A. Small
IA
Senator Charles Grassley
$127,000
$0
N/A
ID
Senator Michael Crapo
$29,000
$34,000
Barack Obama
IL
Alan Keyes
$0
$111,000
Senator Evan Bayh
IN
Marvin Bailey Scott
$0
$0
George H. Cook
KS
Senator Samuel Brownback
$12,000
$0
Frank Daniel Mongiardo
KY
Senator Jim Bunning
$61,000
$90,000
Chris John
LA
David Vitter
$15,000
$92,000
Senator Barbara Mikulski
MD
E. J. Pipkin
$1,000
$3,750
Nancy Farmer
MO
Senator Christopher Bond
$103,000
$93,000
Erskine B. Bowles
NC
Representative Richard Burr
$110,000
$147,000
Senator Byron L. Dorgan
ND
Mike G. Liffrig
$0
$0
Dorris R. Haddock
NH
Senator Judd Gregg
$85,000
$188,000
Senator Harry Reid
NV
Richard Ziser
$0
$137,000
Senator Charles E. Schumer
NY
Howard D. Mills
$0
$3,300
Representative Eric D. Fingerhut
OH
Senator George V. Voinovich
$49,000
$43,000
Brad R. Carson
OK
Thomas A. Coburn
$1,000
$67,000
Senator Ronald Wyden
OR
Al King
$0
$25,000
Joseph M. Hoeffel
PA
Senator Arlen Specter
$225,000
$11,000
Inez Moore Tenenbaum
SC
James W. Demint
$30,000
$259,000
Senator Thomas Daschle
SD
John Thune
$28,000
$0
R. Paul Van Dam
UT
Senator Robert Bennett
$47,000
$151,000
Senator Patrick Leahy
VT
Jack McMullen
$0
$132,000
Senator Patty Murray
WA
George R. Nethercutt
$53,000
$23,000
Senator Russell Feingold
WI
Tim Michels
$0
There are other candidates for the Senate in Louisiana, however Chris John and David Vitter are the only candidates that received lobbyists’ contributions.