WILKES BARRE, Penn. – A flood of campaign funding from outside the district, most of it from Washington-based interest groups, helped boost credit union congressional champion Paul Kanjorski last week in his closest race in years.
In the final days of the campaign, Kanjorski was backed by $834,000 of independents ads by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and $889,000 by the National Association of Realtors, as well as last-minute contributions from WesCorp FCU, Visa USA, Citibank, Harrah’s Entertainment and others, according to Federal Election Commission reports.
Ironically, the Realtors group, which ran one of the biggest political operations in the country, spending $12 million on congressional races, was also spending millions to support lawmakers on the other side of the aisle, like Republican Reps. Christopher Shays and Joseph Knollenberg, who lost last week.
The Pennsylvania CU Association also spent $57,000 for independent mailings in the final weeks of the campaign on behalf of the 12-term congressman. Kanjorski has established himself as the most reliable congressional ally for credit unions by sponsoring HR 1151, the landmark CU Membership Access Act, and more recently, the CU Regulatory Improvements Act, better known as CURIA.
The spending by the outside groups helped forces on behalf of the credit union champion outspend his Republican opponent Lou Barletta by almost $5 million to $1 million, a healthy cushion in an election Kanjorski only won by 52% to 48%.
The vast majority of Barletta’s financing came from inside the district, with minor assistance, just $18,633, coming from the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, and $32,000 from Team America, a group supporting immigration reform, which both ran negative ads against Kanjorski.
More than 95% of the funds on behalf of Kanjorski came from interests, like the Realtors, with business before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises, which Kanjorski chairs, or from the national Democratic Party apparatus.
