WASHINGTON – During the two-year election cycle CUNA’s political action committee continued to rank among the most active PACs on Capitol Hill with almost $3 million in contributions to congressional candidates, but this election marked a new role for CUNA during the campaigns in several ways.
For the first time, CUNA made an independent effort to defeat an incumbent member of Congress, Democrat Nancy Boyda, spending almost $200,000 in a successful effort to help elect Republican Lynn Jenkins Tuesday.
The so-called independent expenditure initiative was one of three launched by CUNA in the elections. CUNA spent $150,000 to boost Democrat Judy Baker, who lost a bid for a House seat in Missouri, and almost $140,000 in an unsuccessful effort to boost Iraq war veteran Adam Cote in Maine’s Democratic primary last June.
CUNA, through the Pennsylvania CU Association, also spent $57,000 on independent mailings to boost congressional credit union champion Paul Kanjorski, who won a close race Tuesday. It also spent funds on independent mailings to boost Republican Joe Knollenberg, a CURIA cosponsor who lost a bid for a ninth term.
The $500,000 spent on independent expenditures, so-called because they are required to be separate and independent from the candidate, is by far the most ever spent by CUNA.
Ironically, the first recipient of independent expenditures from CUNA. three-term Republican Rep. Jon Porter of Nevada, who subsequently became a CURIA cosponsor, was defeated Tuesday.
The fate of another major independent expenditure, a $250,000 effort on behalf of Democrat Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, is up in the air. Lieberman introduced the Senate version of CURIA. But Democratic leaders are said to be angry with Lieberman for his support of Republican John McCain and considering stripping him of his seniority on committee assignments when the Democratically controlled Senate reconvenes in February.
