Redstate

By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Democrats | Featured Stories — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

It has only just begun (read on):

For the new Democratic bosses in the House, power has quickly translated into money, as many big companies have shifted more of their campaign contributions to the new congressional majority, and away from longtime Republican allies.

The top four House leaders -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, Majority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland and their main lieutenants -- raised a combined $2.24 million in the first quarter of 2007, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. That was more than three times as much as the $697,694 they raised in the first quarter of 2005, the comparable period in the previous two-year election cycle.

With 19 months to go until the 2008 election, Democratic committee chairmen have also seen their campaign coffers swell. For Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel of New York, contributions surged to $761,000 in the first quarter of 2007 from $57,000 two years earlier. Sharp increases were also reported for Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell -- $376,000, up from $112,000; Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank of Massachusetts -- $217,000, up from $39,000; and House Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton -- $227,000, up from $57,000.

Some of the new money came from companies with a stake in the committees' agendas. The political action committee of Allstate Insurance Co., a unit of Allstate Corp., gave $1,000 to Mr. Frank's campaign this year, after bypassing him completely in the previous election cycle. Defense contractor Armor Holdings Inc.'s PAC, which didn't give to Mr. Skelton at all in 2005-06, donated $2,000 to his re-election campaign earlier this year.

As chairman of the financial-services panel, Mr. Frank has "a comprehensive agenda regarding insurance reforms," says Allstate spokesman Michael Trevino. He adds that Allstate is concerned with natural-disaster and terrorism-insurance legislation in front of Mr. Frank's committee this session.

Armor Holdings couldn't be reached for comment.

You know, I don't begrudge the Democrats this. The spoils of victory and all that. But I do hope that we stop acting like the milking of industry for political donations is a one-sided affair and that only Republicans are good at it. Clearly, the other side of the partisan divide does bring some skills to the table in shaking the money tree.