PACs play part in aiding hopefuls
Posted on Sunday, June 15, 2008
Among about 150 political action committees in Arkansas, one for a natural gas exploration and production company has given the most so far this election period to Arkansas candidates for state offices. Incumbents were favored.
Houston-based Southwestern Energy Co. PAC reported contributing $ 75, 000.
The recipients included 91 legislative candidates, among them 82 incumbents. One lawmaker not seeking re-election also received a contribution.
Southwestern Energy Company PAC also supported nine non-incumbent legislative candidates, including four spouses of term-limited lawmakers.
PACs have multiplied in Arkansas, but the number fluctuates. There were about 120 in 2004, about 140 in 2005, about 175 in 2006, about 170 in 2007, according to the Arkansas Ethics Commission. Now there are about 150.
Some organizations have more than one. The Arkansas Health Care Association, a lobby for nursing homes, has three, for example.
If a group has multiple PACs, people in that industry may be able to give more, through the separate PACs, to candidates the contributors hope will win elections and to office-holders with whom the contributing industry seeks to curry favor.
But it has to happen collectively. Under state law contributors to PACs can’t earmark the particular dollars they contribute to the PACs to any particular candidates, said Graham Sloan, executive director of the commission.
“I can’t point you to any statutory provision which would prohibit PACs which are somehow ‘related’ from making contributions to the same candidate,” Sloan said.
“It certainly might arouse suspicions, however, if multiple PACs formed by the same entity received contributions from the same contributors and used those funds to make contributions to the same candidates, “ he said.
The listed contributors to the three PACs of the Arkansas Health Care Association this election cycle were Newport Healthcare & Rehab Center, Diversicare Leasing Corp. of Brentwood, Tenn., GGNSC Administrative Services of Fort Smith, Northport Health Services of Tuscaloosa, Ala., and Perennial Healthcare Management of Hunt Valley, Md.
The PAC reports also show that Sen. Irma Hunter Brown, D-Little Rock, and Rep. David Wyatt, D-Batesville, received contributions from two of these PACs and from one of the lobby’s former PACs that closed last year. The contributions totaled $ 5, 000 to Brown for the primary election and $ 5, 500 to Wyatt for the primary election.
One of the PACs, the Arkansas Health Care Senate Public Affairs Committee, reported contributing $ 2, 000 to Wyatt in September 2007 after giving him $ 500 in June 2007. Both were reported for the primary. The contribution limit under state law is $ 2, 000 per candidate per election.
Wyatt, who is running unopposed for the state Senate this year, said he didn’t notice the two contributions exceeded $ 2, 000 until a reporter asked him about it. He said he would send a $ 500 check to the committee.
Jim Cooper of Melbourne, chairman of the Arkansas Health Care Senate Public Affairs Committee, said his staff “ didn’t pick up” on the contributions exceeding $ 2, 000. He said it’s the first time he could recall the committee making such a mistake.
Southwestern Energy’s PAC’s contributions also helped retire campaign debt of Attorney General Dustin McDaniel and former state Rep. Mike Hathorn, who made an unsuccessful 2006 bid for lieutenant governor.
So far this election season, Southwestern Energy’s PAC is giving more than it had at this point last time. From Jan. 1, 2005-March 31, 2006, it reported only $ 28, 800. Those contributions, too, went to lawmakers, nonincumbent legislative candidates, and some to the gubernatorial race.
By the time the last election cycle (Jan. 1, 2005-Dec. 31, 2006 ) was over, the committee’s contributions had risen to $ 81, 650.
This year, some of the contributions were made amid discussions by public officials of whether to raise the state severance tax on natural gas. The company has major natural gas interests in the Fayetteville Shale.
Jeff Dangeau of Fayetteville, chairman of the PAC, declined to say whether the PAC’s lead in contributions this year is related to the severance-tax discussion.
In a legislative session March 31-April 2, the Legislature enacted Gov. Mike Beebe’s plan — an agreement he reached with industry leaders, including Southwestern Energy — to raise the severance tax on natural gas for the first time since 1957 to fund road improvements.
The agreed-upon increase headed off a proposed initiated act by former natural-gas-utility executive Sheffield Nelson of Little Rock, a former Republican nominee for governor. His proposal called for a rate of 7 percent, higher than Beebe’s base rate of 5 percent of the proceeds production companies get on the sale of gas. Rates will be lower for high-cost, new wells, all other new wells and low-producing wells, new or old.
The increase becomes effective Jan. 1. The state projects it will raise $ 20 million in fiscal 2009, rising to $ 101. 5 million in fiscal 2015, then declining.
Dangeau said Southwestern Energy believes “it is our responsibility to be actively involved in our communities, as well as being involved in the political process.” Southwestern Energy is a significant contributor to the state economy, “investing billions of dollars in our state, generating millions of dollars in new state and local taxes, and helping industry to growth thousands of new jobs,” he said. It’s also “contributing to our nation’s energy independence goals by producing domestic natural gas right here in Arkansas,” he said. SOME WHO ACCEPTED Recipients of the PAC’s $ 1, 000 contributions included House Speaker-designate Robbie Wills, D-Conway; state Rep. Lance Reynolds, D-Quitman; state Rep. Eddie Hawkins, D-Vilonia; state Rep. Johnny Hoyt, D-Morrilton; and House Republican leader Johnny Key of Mountain Home. Wills, Reynolds, Hawkins and Hoyt were among nine representatives whose districts are in the Fayetteville Shale who in a letter to legislative colleagues urged support for Beebe’s tax proposal. Key, however, helped lead the opposition.
SMITH DECLINED Rep. Lindsley Smith, D-Fayetteville, is the only state lawmaker seeking re-election who didn’t receive a Southwestern Energy contribution.
She was offered one but politely declined, Dangeau said.
Smith said her policy is to accept only contributions up to $ 100 from individuals and from groups in which she is involved. She said she’s run her campaigns on a lot of $ 25 contributions, facing opposition only in 2006.
NUMBERS 2, 3, 4, 5 No. 2 among Arkansas PACs in contributions from Jan. 1, 2007-March 31, 2008, is the Alltel State Employee PAC at $ 49, 550.
About $ 34, 000 of its contributions went to lawmakers, other legislative candidates and to retire the campaign debts of Lt. Gov. Bill Halter and McDaniel, according to its reports.
It reported a $ 5, 000 contribution to the Committee to Save Arkansas Jobs for “civil justice education / reform campaign,” and a $ 5, 000 contribution to the 2 Votes for Leadership Campaign Committee, which backed a stronger mayor’s office in Little Rock in a special election last year.
Alltel PAC also gave $ 2, 500 to the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce PAC, a total of $ 2, 000 to five judicial candidates, and $ 500 to Pulaski County Sheriff Doc Holladay.
Third on the list was Entergy Corp. ’s PAC, which reported contributions totaling $ 46, 500.
It was followed by the trial lawyers lobby’s PAC, Involved Members PAC Trust, at $ 45, 000 and one of the nursing-home lobby’s PACs, the Arkansas Health Care House Public Affairs Committee, at $ 42, 000.
So far, these PACs’ contributions in part of the 2007-2008 election cycle lag behind those made in all of the 2005-2006 cycle. In the previous cycle, the offices of the state’s seven constitutional officers — governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor and land commissioner — were up for election. That’s not the case this year.
WHY CONTRIBUTE Contributions by PACs affect lawmakers’ votes, Smith said. “That’s the reality,” she said, with the businesses and groups also employing full-time lobbyists. Term-limited state Sen. Jim Hill, D-Nashville, chairman of the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee, said PAC contributions “don’t buy you much. They really just want access [to lawmakers ].” Spokesmen for PACs explain the involvement in terms of conscientious concerns. The Alltel PAC makes contributions because Alltel believes “it’s important to support candidates who share our commitment to improving and enhancing the business climate and the overall economic well-being of the state,” said Alltel spokesman Scott Morris.
Paul Means, government affairs manager for Entergy Arkansas Inc., said members of Entergy’s PAC support candidates because, as employees of a company with major Arkansas business operations, they have an interest in policy decisions of state government.
Matthew Hass, director of government relations for the Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association, said Involved Members PAC Trust contributes “to make sure any person who is injured by the misconduct and negligence of others can get justice in the courtroom, even when taking on the most powerful interests.
“ This is more important now than ever, because the big drug and oil industries, big insurance companies and other large corporations dominate our political process, and thus people cannot depend on the political system to hold corporations accountable,” he said.
Cooper, who also is president of the nursing-home lobby, said it wouldn’t be wise for the lobby to sit on the sidelines and fail to educate candidates.
The nursing-home profession is vital to tens of thousands of elderly Arkansans who cannot care for themselves, he said, and the industry employs more than 23, 000 health-care workers and spends $ 500 million a year in Arkansas.
The Arkansas Health Care Association’s three PACs reported contributing a total of $ 106, 750. At the end of last year, the association closed two other PACs that reported making contributions totaling $ 43, 217 in 2007.
TOP 10 PAC CONTRIBUTORS These are the 10 political action committees that have reported contributing the most money to candidates for Arkansas’ state and local offices and other political committees in the state in the 2007-2008 election cycle: 1. Southwestern Energy Co. Political Action Committee, $ 75, 000. 2. Alltel State Employee Political Action Committee, $ 49, 550. 3. Entergy Corporation Political Action Committee, $ 46, 500. 4. Involved Members Political Action Committee Trust, $ 45, 000. 5. Arkansas Health Care House Public Affairs Committee, $ 42, 000. 6. Arkansas Health Care Public Affairs Committee, $ 39, 750. 6. AT&T Arkansas Employee Political Action Committee, $ 39, 750. 8. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. PAC for Responsible Government, $ 31, 500. 9. Arkansas Pharmacists Political Action Committee, $ 27, 143. 10. The American Electric Power Committee for Responsible Government, $ 27, 000. Source: Political action committee reports in the secretary of state’s office from Jan. 1, 2007-March 31, 2008. The reports are filed quarterly. The next report for April 1-June 30 is due July 15.
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