Candidates are swearing off corporate PAC money. It's making incumbents nervous.
This year a wave of new candidates have run for office on a pledge to swear off money from corporate political action committees (PACs). It’s become a relatively effective way to signal to voters that you’re serious about taking on campaign finance reform, beginning with your own race. Across the political spectrum, Democrats, Republicans, and independents say that the influence of big money in politics is among the biggest threats to American democracy.
Conor Lamb, the moderate Democrat who won a special election in April swore off corporate PACs in his race, as did Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the left-wing challenger who won her Congressional primary in June.
Another candidate who swore off corporate PACs this summer was Ayanna Pressley, beating out a ten-term Democratic incumbent, Michael Capuano — who is considered one of the most progressive legislators in Congress. On policy issues Pressley struggled to find areas in which she could position herself to the left of Capuano, but when it came to swearing off corporate PACs, she found an opportunity to create some distance.
Capuano is part of the 78-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, a subset of House Democrats who band together to collectively organize for more progressive legislation. I wanted to see how many other members of the CPC take corporate PAC money. (Members also take PAC money from labor unions and ideological groups like Emily’s List and J Street, but corporate PAC money is considered a more corrupting influence.)
The answer? Nearly all!
I also wanted to see what percentage of the CPC’s fundraising haul came from small-dollar donors (donations of $200 or less) so I looked at the data sorted out by PAC contributions, small-dollar contributions, and large-dollar contributions. Perhaps unsurprisingly, not many legislators in the CPC rely much on small-dollar donations.
I teamed up with my editor at the Intercept, Ryan Grim, and we looked at how progressives in Congress are grappling with this new political pressure to give up, and defend, their corporate PAC fundraising.
Aware of the shifting tide of public opinion, already 2020 presidential hopefuls like Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, and Kirsten Gillibrand have come out this year to say they’ll no longer accept corporate PAC contributions. Despite corporate PAC money actually accounting for a relatively small slice of the big money sloshing around our political system, you can expect this to be a major issue for candidates, especially progressive candidates, in the next few years.
My story with Ryan is here.