To Understand Politics, Follow The money

A little bit of history ... political reporters have a long-standing means for tracking political influence. The rule-of-thumb is simply: follow the money. A few years ago, in an attempt to lessen the influence of money on national elections, laws were passed that allowed for the establishment of Political Action Committees ... commonly referred to simply as PAC's. Now this doesn't have much to do with state-level fundraising, like the immense war chest Governor Barnes has built up by putting pressure on businesses to give to his campaign.

But it does have a lot to do with campaigns for Congress and the United States Senate. According to Federal Election Commission records, 10 out of the top 12 largest PAC's in America are dominant liberal. The Labor union PAC's and the Trial Lawyers' PAC are among the largest, and among the strongest supporters of liberal candidates. Then there is the famed EMILY'S List, the largest of the PAC funds. Emily stands for "Early Money Is Like Yeast" and this PAC gives 100% of its money to selected Democrats.

90% of the trial lawyer's money goes to Democrats; 93% from the National Education Association union goes to Democrats; the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund gives 100% to Democrats; the National Abortion Rights Action League gives 100% to Democrats. One of my disappointments with today's media folks is their failure to report where the money is coming from for high-dollar campaigns.

But this year there is another one creeping into the Democrat picture which, in my judgement, is a story in the making. One of the big contributors to Democrat Congressional candidates is a thing called HILLPAC. This PAC gave more than a half-million dollars to Democrat candidates in the 18 months leading up to June 30. HILLPAC gave twice as much to Democrat candidates as Senate Majority Leader Tom Dashle. Now, HILLPAC is the fund-raising machine of Senator Hillary Clinton. And who do you think Hillary is going to give a call when the Democratic National Convention starts selecting a candidate for President in a few months? As the old-line, hard-working reporters used to say: follow the money.

This is Gordon Sawyer, from a window on historic Green Street.