Biz groups reconsidering Md. campaign donations

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Jul 15, 2005 by Dori Berman

With candidates for next year's state elections already on track to raise more money than ever before, the business community is gearing up to play a major fundraising role.

Following Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s blunt exhortation earlier this year that Maryland's business community stop contributing to the campaigns of legislators considered anti-business, business groups have begun raising funds and determining who should receive them.

But while some groups view 2006 as an opportunity to change the dynamics of the legislature and gain influence, different business people and organizations have varying opinions about what constitutes pro-business. And some contributors may struggle to change their contribution patterns and give to candidates who traditionally have had less success.

The Maryland Chamber of Commerce is one organization stepping up efforts to impact the outcome of the 2006 elections. The group's political action committee, however, has languished in the last several years. In 1999, the committee contributed small amounts to at least 35 legislative candidates, according to the state Board of Elections' campaign finance database.

The surprising twist was not how many contributions the committee made, but to whom it contributed. Among the 35, for example, was Del. Dereck Davis, a Prince George's County Democrat who this year sponsored a minimum wage increase, which the chamber vigorously opposed. Since then, the committee has made few contributions.

Attempting to answer the governor's call to get dangerous, the chamber has begun to reinvigorate its PAC for the 2006 election cycle.

Chamber Chairman Terry Neimeyer said the decision to revamp the PAC came after a board member pointed out that the organization has an extensive lobbying program, but does not reward pro-business candidates.

Fundraising efforts have already begun, and the board has set criteria to determine which candidates will receive funds. Legislators receiving a grade of 80 percent or more in the business report card released annually by Maryland Business for Responsive Government will receive funds, while those who fell below 50 percent will not receive money and may see chamber contributions go to their opponents. The board will examine legislators who score between 50 percent and 80 percent on an individual basis.

Of the 141 members of the House of Delegates, 31 have cumulative scores higher than 80 percent and 76 fall below 50 percent. In the Senate, 10 of 47 members have scores above 80 percent while 21 fall below 50 percent.

No Democrats have scores higher than 80 percent. With the new criteria, Davis and others who received from the chamber in the past will not see contributions this time around.

Though we admit it's not the perfect system, it's the only one we've got, so we're using that, Neimeyer said, acknowledging the controversy the scorecard routinely spurs. Some legislators say it's tilted toward one party. But we either use MBRG's report card, or we develop our own. And our resources are stretched thin.

MBRG bases its scores on legislators' votes on 12 bills.

Critics of the scorecard say 12 votes represent too small a sample. The General Assembly considers thousands of bills ever year.

Del. Galen Clagett, a business owner and Democrat from Frederick and Washington counties, argues that while he has voted in favor of bills others consider anti-business, it does not imply he is not in touch with the needs of the state's business community. Clagett has a cumulative MBRG score of 27 percent, but recently formed the House Democratic Business Caucus to work for business interests in the legislature.

Clagett said businesspeople who wish to contribute to political campaigns should research the issues important to them instead of relying on a report compiled by a single organization.

They need to look at it globally; how is the state doing in terms of our position in the country? We're in great shape, he said.

And, while the chamber has set up a system to determine where to lend campaign help, some business groups are likely to maintain their historical giving patterns.

No matter who is in power, Democrats or Republicans, the business money will go to where the power is, said Edwin Bender, executive director of the Institute for Money in State Politics. We've done that analysis across the country and if the Democrats are in control of the legislature, the businesses will give to the Democrats. That's politics and that's the way the system's set up.

Business groups tend to give to incumbents, he said, because incumbents have more power to help them get what they want.

While business interests may heed the governor's call and go to more Republican fundraisers and put on airs of ideological giving, they are at the end of the day pragmatists and they will give to the party in power, Bender said.

The Greater Washington Board of Trade will use its own report card to determine how its PAC will disperse funds.

I think different business organizations use different metrics to evaluate a candidate's worthiness of support, and different business organizations have different issues that they put on the front line, said Len N. Foxwell, the board's director of government relations. Priority issues for Foxwell's organization include higher education, transportation and technology.