WASHINGTON - CUNA was out writing campaign contributions of $38,000 just days after the elections, having already spent more than $3.5 million on the mid-term elections.
CUNA's campaign financing in the just-completed elections-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-put it firmly among the best-financed interest groups.
While those numbers trail such influential political groups as Emily's List, the pro-choice women's lobby, which spent more than $40 million; and labor groups like the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Service Employees Union, which both spent more than $30 million, it ranks up there with the most powerful trade associations, those representing the Realtors, the auto dealers and the trial lawyers. Most importantly, it puts CUNA squarely in the same league as the American Bankers Association, its chief rival on Capitol Hill.
In the days since the elections that tilted control of Congress to 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 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 $230,000 independent campaign that helped Lieberman overcome an upset in the primary to hold on to his seat.
