Show THE VOICE OF BUSINESS Y Y IThe incumbents incumbents' f. f ri protection act By Richard L. L Lesher President I I i Chamber of Commerce tw of the United States Heres Here's a quick quiz for you 1 Political contributions by business heavily favor the Republican Party True False 2 Big Business spends more freely than Big Labor in political campaigns True False 3 3 Public financing of congressional campaign expenses would reduce the influence of all major special interest groups on American political life True False If you answered true to any of the above questions the following information information information in in- formation will be of special interest to you In 1976 interest groups donated a record million to congressional candidates almost twice the figure for 1974 This money helped the general election candidates for Senate and House seats to spend an estimated 99 million in their campaign efforts The largest money source was the CIOs CIO's network of national and state Committees on Political Education COPEs which joined by other unions contributed a total of 82 million In the same election corporate and business trade association political committees contributed about 7 million some 12 million less than labor Common Cause made a study of where this interest group money went Heres Here's the breakdown 13 million for incumbents running for re election 4 million for challengers 3 million to candidates for a vacant seat 22 million to candidates unsuccessful unsuccessful un successful in the primaries and ard to special election candidates By party affiliation labor organizations gave very heavily to the Democratic side of the aisle over 2 million in the Senate and close to 4 million in the House Senate Republicans received only from labor and House Republicans some A real shocker for many people is the tally taUy of where the business contributions contributions con con- went In the Senate Democrats got 12 million and Republicans 13 million In the House Democrats got about 38 million compared to 43 million for the Republicans Close to a tie in n both cases Two important conclusions can be drawn from this data 1 The influence of business contributions contributions con con- on American elections is often wildly overstated Business gives less in total than labor and the pattern of contributions is la less monolithic 2 The incumbents already enjoy an enormous advantage over challengers In light of this information what would you think of legislation to 1 m increase the advantage of incumbents and 2 a magnify the political power of ci labor relative There is such legislation before the House right now The bill number is HR It would voul 11 limit the amount of money that could be spent on a given race and provide federal matching funds at public expense for campaign contributions That certainly sounds fair enough until you consider a couple of key points First the incumbent gets the advantage advantage advantage ad ad- vantage of constant free publicity by virtue of his office and such important privileges as free postage Consequently Consequently Consequently Con Con- raising extra campaign money is now the only significant means open to a challenger for offsetting off setting these advantages of incumbency in in- And second the legions of organized labor are able to provide many valuable volunteer services to it a candidate other than cash such services as vote the drives telephone banks brochures etc With a ceiling on cash contributions and federal matching funds available the unions could use more of their money to support these related manpower ac So they would win going and coming Thus do the incumbents seek to protect themselves and their friends with public interest legislation Its It's called doing well by doing good |