Legislative Campaign Committees Awash in Cash

Cash. (CC0 Creative Commons).

Four fundraising committees used by legislative leaders to attract special interest campaign and corporate contributions banked a record $2.9 million during the first half of 2021.

The figure smashed the previous record for cash-on-hand by the four legislative campaign committees at the midpoint of an odd-numbered year, which was nearly $1.6 million in 2019, according to recently filed campaign finance reports.

The committees (see Table below) collectively raised $1.38 million between January and June, which was about $30,000 short of the record $1.41 million raised in the first half of 2011.

Table
Legislative Campaign Committee Fundraising in the First Six Months of 2021

The four committees are cash magnates for Democratic and Republican legislative leaders because they often account for as much as half of the total fundraising and cash-on-hand by all of the legislative candidate committees.

Fundraising was led by the two GOP committees, which shows that special interest money generally flows to power since Republicans control both houses of the legislature by comfortable margins. The Republican Assembly Campaign Committee and the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate accounted for 81 percent of the total cash-on-hand and 66 percent of the total raised by the four committees.

The Republican Assembly Campaign Committee led in fundraising and cash-on-hand pulling in $522,440 and banking $1.43 million as of June 30. The committee’s top contributors – political action committees (PACs) and corporations – each gave $12,000. They were:

Wisconsin Realtors Association’s PAC,

Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation’s PAC

Wisconsin Institute of CPA’s PAC,

GOPAC Elections Fund PAC,

Alliant Energy’s PAC,

Wisconsin Dental Association PAC,

WEC Business Services (corporate),

Forest County Potawatomi (corporate),

Juul (corporate),

Wisconsin Beer Distributors (corporate),

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (corporate),

Wisconsin Insurance Alliance (corporate),

Fincantieri Marinette Marine (corporate),

Charter Communications (corporate),

Alliance of Health Insurers (corporate).

The Committee to Elect a Republican Senate accepted about $382,800 and had about $914,500 in the bank. The committee’s top contributors gave $12,000 each. They were:

Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation’s PAC,

Wisconsin Beer Distributors (corporate),

Alliance of Health Insurers (corporate),

Fincantieri Marinette Marine (corporate),

Charter Communications (corporate),

Wisconsin Chiropractic Association (corporate),

Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (corporate).

The State Senate Democratic Committee accepted $166,695 and banked about $314,780. The committee’s top contributors were:

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers PAC, $12,000,

Wisconsin Realtors Association’s PAC, $7,000,

Wisconsin Laborers District Council PAC, $6,000,

Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance PAC, $6,000.

The Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee raised about $304,860 and had about $243,620 in the bank. The committee’s top contributors were:

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers PAC, $12,000,

Plumbers Local 75 PAC, $7,000,

Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance PAC, $6,000,

WEC Business Services (corporate), $6,000.

Semi-annual and annual fundraising and cash-on-hand for legislative campaign committees have steadily increased in recent years due to sweeping changes in campaign finance law enacted in 2015 by former GOP Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled legislature.

Those changes included allowing the four legislative campaign committees  to create segregated funds and collect contributions of up to $12,000 a year from corporations, trade groups, unions and American Indian tribes. The changes also removed the limits on contributions that individuals may give to LCCs, as well as the limits on the contributions that LCCs can give to candidates or parties. There used to be a $10,000 limit on individual gifts to LCCs.

LCCs are prohibited from using corporate, union and other special interest money from their segregated funds to contribute to candidates or sponsor  independent expenditures, which are electioneering activities, like mailings and broadcast ads that directly tell people how to vote.