WASHINGTON — CUNA said its political action committee raised almost $2 million last year, enabling it to set aside a little more than $700,000 for the critical second year of the two-year election cycle–a new high.
The $2 million figure represents the most the PAC, known as the CU Legislative Action Counsel, has raised in a single year, and CUNA officials emphasize last year was not an election year. As a result, they expect to raise more than their previous high of $3.75 million for the two-year election cycle, which was accomplished in the last elections of 2005-2006.
The cash build-up comes as CUNA is about to make its biennial tithe to the campaign conduits of the two major political parties, the $15,000 to the National Republican Campaign Committee, Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, Democratic National Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. CUNA traditionally gives each committee the maximum allowable $15,000 each year, a total of $180,000 during the election cycle.
Richard Gose, CUNA political director, said the cash build-up puts the CU lobby group in good shape for the coming elections. “This gives us some flexibility to engage in a number of options going into an election year,” said Gose, of the CUNA PAC, which was the fourth most active trade PAC in the last elections, in terms of contributions to congressional candidates.
Among the things the burgeoning campaign warchest will enable, according to Gose, are contributions to so-called leadership PACs, the supplemental campaign committees operated by key congressional leaders, and independent expenditures, with which a particular interest group can finance its own ads on behalf of a favored candidate, independent of the candidate’s own campaign. CUNA famously helped then-embattled Sen. Joseph Lieberman get reelected in 2004 even after he lost the Democratic primary, by independently spending $235,000 on behalf of the credit union supporter.
Through the first 10 months of last year, CUNA’s PAC ranked ninth in the amount of contributions provided to individual candidates, and third among trade association PACs (the rest of the PACs in front of CUNA represent unions). Of course, one PAC in front of CUNA was the American Bankers Association PAC.
(c) 2008
