Senior Congressional CU Champion GoesDown

PALATINE, Ill. - (11/03/04) -- In one of the biggest upsets inTuesday's congressional races, Rep. Phil Crane, the longest servingRepublican in the House and a leading champion of the credit taxexemption, narrowly lost his bid for a 19th term. Crane, one of sixmembers of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee to send aletter to President Bush this year supporting the exemption, wasdefeated 51-to-49 by high tech business consultant Melissa Beane,despite the best efforts of the credit union lobby. "He was a realadvocate for us," CUNA's Chief Lobbyist John McKechnie, told TheCredit Union Journal last night. "That's one of the reasons we tooksuch extraordinary measures on his behalf." Maximum allowablecampaign contributions by CUNA to Crane were topped off the lastseven days of the campaign with an independent $80,000 cable TV adcampaign financed by CUNA urging voters to return the 73-year-oldlawmaker to the House. Crane's support for the tax exemption goesall the way back to 1990 when he fought President George H.W.Bush's proposal to repeal the exemption.