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National Journal's Under the Influence

Thursday, April 23, 2009 10:00 AM

The corporations, unions and trade associations that represented the top 20 PAC contributors to federal candidates from both major parties last year poured a combined $22 million into lobbying efforts from January through March -- an increase of nearly 20 percent over the same period in 2008.

High-stakes legislation intended to calm the roiling American economy and a proposed change to labor laws prompted the nation's most generous political contributors to redouble efforts to lobby the lawmakers whose elections they helped to finance, a CongressDaily analysis of first-quarter lobbying disclosure filings shows. (To see chart, click here to access story on NJ.com)

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the list of top 20 PAC donors to House and Senate candidates in 2007 and 2008 includes the political arms of the National Association of Realtors, technology giant Honeywell International, the Service Employees International Union, and the National Beer Wholesalers Association.

The Realtors, whose PAC was the biggest donor to federal candidates in the last cycle, spent a whopping $5.7 million in its lobbying efforts over the first three months of 2009.

That figure, an 82 percent increase over the amount spent over same period last year, tops the $4 million that the Realtors' PAC shelled out to candidates in 2007 and 2008.

The Realtors' booming voice of influence echoed on Capitol Hill last month, when the group notched a long-sought win by obtaining a provision in the FY09 omnibus appropriations bill that banned banks from entering the real estate business.

Labor unions, which doled out dollars to Democratic congressional candidates in anticipation of major battles over healthcare and card-check legislation, were among the groups with hefty first-quarter lobbying expenditures.

The International Association of Fire Fighters, the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry, and SEIU each increased their spending efforts to lobby Congress by 39 percent or more compared to early 2008.

A spokesman from a labor organization that gave heavily to Democratic candidates said the stepped-up lobbying efforts are meant not only to sway votes on key issues, but to keep tabs on the members that the union supported during the last election cycle.

"We're going to hold them accountable," said the spokesman, "so that come election time we have a very clear idea of where they stood on issues that matter to our members."

Mike Johnson, a lobbyist for the beer wholesalers, said high congressional turnover fueled a busy first quarter for his organization, which lobbied Congress on card-check legislation over the last few months in addition to its perennial food safety and regulation issues.

Major shifts in membership on Capitol Hill have made this quarter "more intense, just because of the effort to get to know all these new faces in Congress," he said.

The eight-figure sum spent on lobbying by the top 20 campaign donor groups pales in comparison to the amounts spent by some of the biggest residents of Gucci Gulch.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce alone brushed the $10 million mark in lobbying expenditures during the first quarter, and defense and medical interest groups rack up millions in lobbying expenses every year.

But good-government advocates say the heavy focus on lobbying by the richest PACs demonstrates how powerful interests are hoping to catch and hold the attention of candidates from the political cradle to the grave.

                                                                                                   -- Carrie Dann

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