Donors to Party Conventions Spent Over $800 Million on Federal Campaign Contributions and Lobbying Since 2005

By Steve Weissman and Jennifer Sykes, The Campaign Finance Institute. Posted June 19, 2008.

Download this report, including all tables, as pdf.

Senators John McCain and Barack Obama have earned reputations as campaign finance reformers. Lately their rival presidential campaigns have been competing over which is more independent of lobbyists. Yet these same candidates are getting ready to star at party nominating conventions that are largely financed by unlimited contributions from corporate treasuries. These donations have been solicited -- via convention city "host committees" -- by each party's elected officials and fundraisers and their appeals have been accompanied by promises of special access to federal decision-makers.

A new CFI report, the first in-depth study of 2008 convention giving, shows that the more than 100 organizational donors to the host committees have been heavily engaged in the struggle for political influence. Since 2005 they have dispatched nearly $100 million in contributions to federal candidates and parties, mainly through their Political Action Committees (PACs) but also via giving by their executives and other personnel. In the same period, they have spent over $700 million to lobby Congress and the Executive Branch. Now they are drawing directly upon their corporate treasuries to help provide $55 million in private financing to the Democratic convention in Denver and $57 million for the Republican conclave in Minneapolis-St. Paul, which will extend their lobbying reach.

The Federal Election Commission has maintained that there is no reason to reconsider its historical premise that host committee contributions are "motivated by a desire to promote the convention city and not by political considerations."¹ But companies with headquarters in the two host cities or states represent only a minority of convention sponsors. And, whatever their civic interests, the majority of these "local" companies also make very significant federal contributions and/or lobbying expenditures.

Lack of timely disclosure continues to limit public knowledge of convention finances. This report focuses on who has given, or pledged to give, to the conventions. With a few major exceptions, we lack specific knowledge of the amounts of donations. Unlike candidates and parties, host committees are not required to report their contributions or expenditures until 60 days after the nominating conventions are over. Obama and McCain have emphasized the importance of their timely disclosures of political finances, but voluntary host committee disclosure of party convention donations has slipped since 1996 to such a point that it is non-existent for both conventions.

The Federal Political Interests of Organizational Donors to Convention Host Committees. ²

CFI's analysis of 107 organizational donors acknowledged by the host committees for the two conventions reveals that their PACs, executives and other employees contributed a total of $98.2 million to federal candidates and parties from January 1, 2005 through April 30, 2008. Nearly three quarters (73%) of this money came from PACs. The average amount of contributions per corporation (all of the organizations were corporations except for a single labor union) was $953,000. During the same period, this group spent a total of $721.3 million lobbying the federal government on legislation and regulations -- an average of $7 million per company. (The data for contributions and lobbying were provided by the Center for Responsive Politics).

See more stories tagged with: barack obama, john mccain, lobbying, corporate donors, conventions

This report was authored by Steve Weissman, Associate Director for Policy, and Jennifer Sykes, Research Analyst.

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from Politics! Sign up now »