Campaign Finance Cycle Never Ends

WASHINGTON – CUNA was out writing campaign contributions of $38,000 just days after the November elections, having already spent more than $3.5 million on the mid-term elections. In the days since the pivotal elections, which won control of the Congress for the Democrats, CUNA made contributions to Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, the new chairman of the Senate Banking Committee ($5,000); Nick Lamspson, the Texas Democrat who won Tom DeLay’s House seat ($5,000); Ron Klein, the Florida Democrat who unseated Ways and Means veteran Clay Shaw ($5,000) and old-timers and new comers retiring campaign debt. They were: Tim Mahoney, the Republican who jumped into the race after Florida’s Mark Foley withdrew ($5,000); Barron Hill, the old credit union friend who failed to regain his Indiana House seat ($5,000) and Heath Shuler, the North Carolina Democrat and former NFL quarterback who upset eight-term Republican Charles Taylor ($1,000). CUNA also contributed $5,000 to Henry Bonilla, the incumbent Republican in Texas who is in one of two House races being run-off this month. CUNA also reported in the final days of the campaign it spent another $74,900 on independent mailings on behalf of Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, capping off an unprecedented $235,000 independent campaign that helped Lieberman overcome an upset in the primary to hold on to his seat. During the 2005-2006 elections CUNA contributed more than $2 million to candidates in the House and Senate, another $180,000 to both major parties, and more than $310,000 in so-called independent expenditures, that must be conducted independently of the candidates, putting firmly among the best-financed interest groups.