If You Drag a Dollar Bill Through Congress, You'll Get …

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Jan 31, 2000 | by Jamie Dettmer

John McCain is in the media crosshairs for recently urging a regulatory agency to take speedy action in a matter that benefited a major contributor to his presidential campaign. However, the Arizona senator isn't the only White House wanna-be who has some questions to answer. The grand money chase that has become U.S. politics relies on long-standing relationships between candidates and generous benefactors, according to a well-detailed book published by the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity.

The Buying of the President 2000 concludes that "all the leading presidential candidates have a long-standing group of career patrons who have sponsored their careers and for whom they have done favors." Although the center's director, Charles Lewis, cautions that the favors are not as blatant as votes-for-cash. The help generally is more subtle than that -- it often comes down to a matter of friendly access and being able to present a case.

Take McCain again. One of his top "career patrons" is the Denver-based U.S. West which benefited from legislation the senator introduced in his capacity as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee that allowed local phone companies such as U.S. West to carry data over long-distance lines. That legislation in the long run admittedly will help consumers as they search for choices in securing high-speed Internet access. But ethics also is about the appearance of propriety. Does the McCain/U.S. West relationship pass the appearance test?

One of the top patrons of Republican front-runner George W. Bush is the Houston-based energy company Enron. During his career he has secured more than $500,000 from Enron employees and their families. The company was one of 26 firms "grandfathered" under a 1991 law from having to comply with Texas' clean-air regulations. In 1997 when Bush signed legislation requiring the grandfathered businesses to reduce their emissions, Enron found only one of its facilities included in the new rules.

On the Democratic side, the accounting firm of Ernst & Young has been among Vice President Al Gore's biggest benefactors -- the company, its employees and families amount to the No. 1 financial supporter of his current presidential bid, contributing so far $122,875. It has lobbied for clients wanting a tax-free Internet and Gore has promised to seek an international agreement to make the Internet "a duty-free zone." The vice president has enjoyed a close relationship with Occidental Petroleum -- a connection first formed by his father. In 1997, the U.S. Energy Department responded to a Gore recommendation that resulted in 47,000 federal acres being sold to Occidental -- the sale tripled the firm's oil reserves.

Wall Street firms and chemical companies are among former senator Bill Bradley's biggest backers. Citigroup employees and their families have given him down the years $454,065; Merrill Lynch, $169,500; and Goldman Sachs, $148,800. And the pattern has continued in this election bid: Goldman Sachs leads the way with $209,500 in contributions from employees and their families through Sept. 30, 1999; followed by Citicorp, $90,450; Lehman Brothers, $87,650; and Merrill Lynch, $74,190.

As Bradley opposed efforts to reduce the unlimited corporate deduction for interest, a proposal designed to reduce leveraged buyouts and corporate takeovers, he also voted to block stockholders being able to sue for fraud.