Last year was not a regular election year, but you couldn't tellit by looking at the political contributions made by CULAC — CUNA'spolitical action arm.

CULAC contributed more than $1.7 million to House and Senateincumbents and challengers, according to Federal ElectionCommission records.

Among all political action committees, CULAC ranked ninth intotal contributions, making it the largest among the financialservices PACs.

NAFCU operates a much smaller PAC and it contributed $177,000 toHouse and Senate candidates.

But credit union issues were hot last year, said Chad Adams,NAFCU's director of political affairs, citing regulatory overhaulproposals, as well as tax, data security and housinglegislation.

And many of those issues are still pending before Congress.

“We tend to contribute in the neighborhood of $3 million,” TreyHawkins, CUNA's vice president of political affairs, said. “It'spretty straightforward. We tend to identify a pro-credit unioncandidate in every race.”

For both PACs, that may mean supporting an incumbent or someonerunning in an open seat.

NAFCU and CULAC are bipartisan in their giving. CULACcontributed 54% of its money to Republicans and 46% to Democrats,according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which keeps trackof such giving. NAFCU contributed 53% of its money to Republicansand 47% to Democrats.

Ironically, both PACs contributed to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah),chairman of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee. Subsequently,Hatch announced his retirement and even more recently he attackedthe credit union industry — questioning whether the tax exemptionafforded credit unions is outdated.

CULAC contributed $5,000 to Hatch's reelection committee andNAFCU contributed $2,500 to the senator's political actioncommittee.

Hawkins said that in deciding which candidates to support, CULACattempts to ensure that a candidate is knowledgeable and supportiveof credit union issues. In addition, CULAC tries to make ajudgement about whether a particular candidate is “politicallyviable” in order to ensure that the committee is “investing thefunds wisely and not throwing it away.”

NAFCU places a priority on giving to House and Senate leaders.“You've got to feed the people at the top because they drivepolicies,” Adams said.

Then, NAFCU identifies credit union advocates. “To keep a seatat the table, we want to support people who support credit unions,”he said. “We really want to support credit union champions.”

And, NAFCU targets members of key committees, such as the SenateBanking and House Financial Services Committees. With tax overhaullegislation having been considered last year, NAFCU also targetedmembers on the Senate Finance Committee.

While NAFCU targets its contributions on particularcongressional committees, CULAC takes a broader view bycontributing to more than 300 candidates each election cycle.

Still, CULAC is strategic in making its contributions. Forinstance, CULAC last year contributed $9,000 to the reelectioneffort of Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), chairman of the tax-writingHouse Ways and Means Committee.

And CULAC made contributions to members of Congress in positionsto help credit unions, sending money to several members of theHouse Financial Services Committee, including its ranking Democrat,Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).

NAFCU also supported Waters, who Adams said supports creditunions and speaks regularly at NAFCU conferences.

Both committees also made hefty contributions to the campaignarms of each party in the two chambers of Congress. Thosecommittees then distribute the funds to candidates in particularlycompetitive races.

Adams said attending fundraising events that require a campaigncontribution is essential to ensuring “face time” with a member.And he said a campaign contribution can help groups such as NAFCUdevelop relationships with new members of Congress.

Hawkins said he is not concerned that the electorate appears tobe particularly volatile this year. “There's more opportunity forus to play,” he said.

CULAC raises money through payroll deductions made by creditunion employees, Hawkins said. He added he is proud that CULAC issupported by a wide range of people, with many people contributingbetween $70 and $80 to the political action committee.

Adams said NAFCU does not use payroll deductions as often, butadded he would like the trade group to increase the practice.Instead, NAFCU relies more on direct outreach, including directmail and phone calls. And the association has held both silent andlive auctions to support its PAC.

With the support of state leagues, CULAC's state affiliatessupport candidates for state legislatures. That allows the stateleagues to build relationships with candidates who may run for theHouse or Senate in the future.

And CULAC's bylaws state that it cannot contribute to anycandidate that is not supported by a state league.

Hawkins said during this election year, CULAC will also continueits practice of making independent expenditures on behalf ofparticular candidates. In such cases, under federal law, there canbe no coordination between CULAC and the candidate.

Most often, CULAC has produced ads supporting a candidate.

Despite the large contributions made by the two political actionarms of the credit union industry, CULAC and NAFCU did not depletetheir war chests.

At the end of the year, CULAC had some $1.4 million on hand andthe committee will continue to raise money throughout the year. Thesame is true for NAFCU, which had almost $469,000 on hand at theend of 2017.

And both committees will continue their fundraising throughoutthe year to enable them to make campaign contributions leading upto the November election.