Funds For Others -- Or Maybe Themselves
By Jackie Koszczuk, CQ Staff Writer
(CQ, April 18) -- Leadership PACs aren't just for leaders anymore. Now
they're set up by ambitious junior members who want to win a plum assignment --
or to supplement their regular campaign funds.
Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., set up his Leadership 2000 political action
committee in 1997 after he got put on the Agriculture and Science committees in
his first term. He has raised $33,823 with a goal of distributing
$150,000 a year to GOP incumbents.
"I don't think it's any big secret that Congressman Foley is eager to get a
seat on the Ways and Means Committee," said Kirk Fordham, his chief of staff.
"And certainly leadership looks favorably on members who help out their
colleagues financially."
Rep. Peter Deutsch, D-Fla., first elected in 1992, raised more than
$140,000 for centrist New Democrats like himself. "I'm at a point in my
career where I don't want to say I'm just another member of Congress," he said.
"I want to influence the direction of the party."
So far, the baby PAC-men have given little to others. Rep. J.C. Watts,
R-Okla., has given away $2,750 of the $168,672 he raised in 1997. And
$54,000 went to a political consulting firm.
Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., gave $8,000 of his $109,000 to fellow
GOPers. He spent $50,000 on overhead and fundraising.
"Members use these to take care of expenses that then don't have to come out
of their regular campaign committees," said Sheila Krumholz, library director of
the Center for Responsive Politics. "It's essentially just a slush fund, but one
that can accept larger contributions than their regular committees."
An individual can give $10,000 per election cycle to a PAC, vs.
$2,000 to a regular campaign. The center found that leadership PACs soared
from $3.9 million in 1994 to $7.4 million in 1996.
© 1998 Congressional Quarterly Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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