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SEMI PAC goes 16 for 17 with candidate contributions |
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Jan 23, 2007 at 01:27 PM |
A piece of Maggie Hershey's ISS presentation on SEMI's public policy agenda caught my ear: The trade group's political alliance made contributions to 17 different candidates in the recent Congressional election.
I contacted Maggie for more info, and she sent me the list of candidates, their party affiliation and state, and the amount each candidate received. She also included the following explanation of the activities.
"The PAC giving is bipartisan and focuses on providing support for candidates who support the industry's policy priorities. It's also a tool to develop greater understanding in Washington about the importance of the industry. While the size of the PAC is relatively small, it is a useful tool for us since Washington can be a tough place to get your point across, especially for a niche industry like ours. The PAC gives us more opportunities for face-to-face interaction and a chance to build and strengthen relationships."
Examining the list, I found the 17 to be almost equally divided between Democrats and Republicans, with one Dem. senator (Joe Lieberman, although he's technically an Independent now) and two Rep. senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Mike Enzi of Wyoming, along with seven House candidates from each party. The members come mostly from tech states, with six from California alone.
Maggie told me the $24,000 (in $1000 increments) only went to incumbents, with one pol getting two contributions (Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-CA) and a trio getting three contributions each (Cornyn, and Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-CA, and John Sweeney, R-NY). Didn't end up helping Sweeney though, since he was the only one of the 17 to lose his reelection fight.
Out of curiosity, I checked the voting records of the Gang of 17 on two issues: the December 2006 Tax Relief and Health Care Act (which included the R&D Tax Credit expansion) and the infamous Iraq War resolution from October 2002. As for the votes on the bill including the R&D support, no surprises there: "yeas" across the board, except for Lieberman, who didn't vote. On the Iraq vote, Sen. Cronyn and Rep. McCaul weren't in office, but of the remaining 15, an overwhelming majority voted to authorize the war, with 12 "yeas" and only three---Dem. Reps. Eshoo, Lofgren, and Miller---voting "nay."
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