Blackburn's leadership role brings surge in PAC giving The Queen of Mean Again Shows
Contempt for Middle-Class Americans
Written by
Bill Theobald
GANNETT WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON — Rep. Marsha Blackburn's donations from special-interest groups skyrocketed during the last election cycle as she assumed a leadership role on a powerful House committee.
Blackburn, a Republican member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee,
received $939,544 from political action committees over the past two years,
according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.
That's 38 times what she received from PACs during her first election campaign in
2002. Back then, most of her contributions came from individuals. More than half of
her recent contributions came from PACs, including many with issues before the
Energy and Commerce Committee.
More special-interest dollars are headed her way. Blackburn has scheduled at least nine fundraisers in Washington over the next two months, in addition to two held
last month, according to the Sunlight Foundation's Political Party Time website.
Three of the nine are billed as dinners with five guests who are expected to donate
$500-$2,000 each. Such aggressive fundraising may seem strange given that Blackburn, of Brentwood , won 72 percent of the vote in last year's election, doesn't face re-election until 2012 and started the year with $849,056 in her campaign account.
But her fundraising is standard for a lawmaker seeking to advance in Congress
in these respects:
Her large campaign bank account creates a strong disincentive for anyone to run
against her. Republicans now control the House, and Blackburn is vice chairman of the Energy and Commerce subcommittee that handles commerce, manufacturing and trade. That makes her attractive to donors from the health-care, communications, finance and
insurance industries, among others.
Blackburn can use the money she raises Advertisement through her campaign committee and a separate leadership committee, Wedge PAC, to curry favor through donations to other Republican House members andcandidates, and to party committees.
She defends donations
Blackburn said her early fundraising is a way to be prepared.
"You never know what the next election cycle is going to look like," she said.
Her PAC contributions, she said, represent donations from constituents who work for
those companies.
"We have so many constituents who work for corporations, and those constituents will
ask for a contribution from that PAC to my election," she said.
Memphis-based FedEx has been Blackburn's largest donor during her House
career, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington watchdog
group. The next-largest donors are AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications, the
American Bankers Association, and the National Cable & Telecommunications
Association.
Blackburn said those who object to PAC contributions usually favor public financing
of elections. "I think it is important for individuals to be able to contribute their time, their effort, their energy, their money to help those that share their philosophy of government, their philosophy of free enterprise in the private sector," Blackburn said.
She declined to discuss her political aspirations.
"It's not my job to chart my path. That's God's job," she said.
Blackburn's path probably won't take her beyond the House, at least for now. Tennessee has two popular GOP senators and a new Republican governor.
Campaign finance reform advocates say Blackburn's PAC donations show how
special-interest groups improperly gain influence with lawmakers.
"It's a sorry state of affairs when we say that this is the way the system works," said
Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist with Public Citizen, a Washington consumer
advocacy group that favors public financing of elections. "This is the classic case of
influence-peddling."
Blackburn's campaign committee raised nearly $1.6 million during 2009-10. Of
that, $858,544 came from PACs. Her biggest backers were PACs representing
health care ($249,817) and communications/technology ($105,250),
according to an analysis by Congressional Quarterly.
In addition, Wedge PAC raised $146,839 over the two-year cycle, with $81,000
coming from PACs.
Blackburn's Wedge PAC leadership committee and her campaign committee
donated a combined $274,225 in 2009 and 2010 to candidates and party
committees, including $148,500 to the National Republican Congressional
Committee. The NRCC supports the campaigns of GOP House candidates
around the country.
When Blackburn first ran for Congress, she raised $24,665 from PACs, out of a total of $648,824.
Businesses back billls
Legislation Blackburn has introduced reflects the interests of many of her PAC
donors.
Three bills she introduced in January have a long list of GOP co-sponsors and backing
from many in the business community. One is a proposed substitute for the health-
care reform law enacted last year, another would block the Environmental Protection
Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and the third would block the
Federal Communications Commission from regulating the Internet.
These are the first major bills Blackburn has introduced during her eight years in
the House that are likely to receive committee hearings and could come up for
final votes in the GOP-controlled chamber.
Strategy isn't unusual
Blackburn's fundraising strategy isn't unusual. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, who came
to the House the same year as Blackburn and is now in leadership, received about
$1 million in PAC contributions over the past two years and gave nearly $1 million
to House candidates and party committees.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., another member of Blackburn's class and a Democratic House leader, raised $1.3 million from PACs in 2009-10 and doled out about $2 million to candidate and party committees.
The Sunlight Foundation's list of 11 Blackburn fundraisers from January to
March isn't comprehensive because the group gets its information from invitations
anonymously forwarded by lobbyists and others, said Nancy Watzman, a consultant
with the foundation. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Chattanooga, is the only
other member of the 11-member Tennessee congressional delegation with
events this year listed on the site.
Blackburn's first event was a Jan. 19 lunch at The Capitol Hill Club, a Republican-run
venue blocks from the Capitol. The suggested contribution was $1,000 a PAC
or $500 a person. "Co-hosting" the event cost $2,000 a PAC or $1,000 a person. Six
of Blackburn's nine remaining events are scheduled in March.
Holman, with Public Citizen, said Blackburn's campaign fundraising is "potentially corrupting."
"If they give you money, it is very, very difficult to say no to these contributors,"
Holman said. "This a potential problem. It needs to be watched."
One of Blackburn's largest donors, AT&T, declined a reporter's request for comment on its contributions, but not before contacting Blackburn's office to alert staffers to the request.
Contact Bill Theobald at
http://www.blogger.com/goog_2103558846
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