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Mar 29, 2005 -- Financing Reform: A Reality Check
By Mark Glaze
A few editorialists have recently noted a study showing that private foundations spent $123 million over 10 years to support efforts to reform the nation's campaign finance laws. (1)
By any standard - except perhaps Washington's - $12.3 million a year is indeed lot of money. But, as it turns out, it's a relative drop in the bucket compared to the money others were spending to lobby Congress, to get elected or to oppose reform.
With apologies to the Harper's Index, here is a Washington reality check:
Amount spent by corporations to lobby the U.S. Congress from 1998-2004: over $8 billion (2)
Amount spent by candidates, parties and outside groups on Election 2004 alone: nearly $4 billion (3)
Amount of soft money raised by the national parties from 1992 - 2002: nearly $1.7 billion (4)
Amount spent by 527 groups, in apparent violation of campaign finance law, in Election 2004: $482 million (5)
Amount the Federal Election Commission spent enforcing (or not) the campaign finance laws from 1996-2005: $342.5 million (6)
Amount received by the National Rifle Association, which filed suit to have the McCain/Feingold law thrown out, from 2000-2002: (two years only) $544.1 million (7)
Amount received by the Heritage Foundation, a campaign finance reform opponent, from 1998 - 2003 (five years only): $234.6 million (8)
Amount received by the CATO Institute, another campaign finance reform opponent, from 1997 -2003 (six years only): $100.4 million (9)
Number of $100,000+ soft money checks written by corporations, unions, foundations, wealthy donors and special interest groups to the political parties to win legislative favors: after passage of McCain/Feingold, 0.
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(1) Cooper, Kent, "Campaign Finance Reform Lobby 1994 to 2004," available (with subscription) at http://www.tray.com/cgi-win/cfg_summary.exe?DoFn=
(2) Clerk of the House and Secretary of the Senate lobbyist filings via Political Money Line http://www.tray.com/cgi-win/lp_summary.exe?DoFn (with > subscription).
(3) IRS 990s via Guidestar http://www.guidestar.org/search/report/docs.jsp (with subscription)
(3) Combined from "2004 Elections Overview: Stats At a Glance, All Candidates" http://www.opensecrets.org/overview/stats.asp?Cycle=2004 ; "'04 Elections Expected to Cost Nearly $4 Billion" http://www.opensecrets.org/pressreleases/2004/04spending.asp
(4) From 1992-2002 from FEC's press release 3/20/2003 http://www.fec.gov/press/press2003/20030320party/20030103party.html. After the 2002 election, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act prohibited national party committees from raising soft money for federal elections.
(5) In "New this Week," http://www.opensecrets.org/527s/527new.asp?cycle=2004
(6) From Annual Reports 1996-2000 http://www.fec.gov/pages/anreport.shtml; Performance and Accountability Report FY 2004 http://www.fec.gov/pages/budget/fy2004/par_2004.pdf; "FY 2005 Budget Request Justification Letter" http://www.fec.gov/pages/budget/fy2005/brj2005/brj_letter.doc.
(7) IRS 990 summaries at http://stealthpacs.org/finance.cfm?Org_ID=6 (free access)
(8) IRS 990s via Guidestar |
