After having dropped off for a month, CUNA's Credit Union Legislative Action Council is again on the list of top of the top 20 donors to federal candidates, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Since January 2009, the beginning of the current campaign cycle, CULAC has given $1.2 million to federal candidates, 59% to Democrats and 40% to Republicans.
CULAC is No. 20 on the list compiled by the center, a Washington-based research and advocacy organization. The only other financial services PAC to make the list was the American Bankers Association, which was the eighth largest giver. It contributed $1.5 million to federal candidates, 57% to Republicans and 43% to Democrats.
CULAC has plenty of money left to contribute to campaigns during the rest of the year. At the end of April, it had $1 million in its coffers, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission.
In April, the PAC raised $128,348, and it has raised $1.7 million since January 2009.
In April, CULAC gave $118,400 to federal candidates and committees and has given $1.6 million to federal candidates and committees since January 2009.
It gave money to the leadership PAC run by House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) and also to the campaigns of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who was involved in the early negotiations on efforts to draft legislation to overhaul financial regulation.
The PAC also looked ahead and gave money to Rand Paul, who recently won the GOP nomination for Senate in Kentucky, and Mark Critz, a Democrat who won a special election for a House seat in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
CULAC also plans to give $5,000 to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln, who is facing a June 8 runoff against Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter for the Democratic nomination for the Senate. The PAC gave her $3,500 for her primary campaign.
NAFCU's PAC, the National Association of Federal Credit Unions Political Action Committee, had $247,189 in its coffers at the end of April, according to its FEC report.
In April, the PAC raised $12,250 and it has raised $260,609 since January 2009. It also gave $3,982 to federal candidates and committees, totaling $163,916 to federal candidates and committees since January 2009.
Among the recipients of its contributions were Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), a member of the Senate Banking Committee who has strongly backed many legislative initiatives favorable to credit unions, and Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), who chairs the House Financial Services subcommittee that oversees credit unions and other financial institutions. Each received $1,000 from the PAC.
The PAC also gave an in-kind contribution of $1,482 worth of food and beverages at a fundraiser for Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.), a credit union supporter on the House Financial Services Committee.
--cmarx@cutimes.com
