Page 14
THE BATTALION
WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 1981
Features
New ‘animal’ created to heal campaign money abu
st
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The politic
al clout once enjoyed by wealthy
“fat cat” contributors in smoke-
filled rooms, is now being wielded
in board rooms, club houses and
union halls around the nation.
The reform laws enacted after
the Watergate scandel to cure
campaign spending abuses have
created what critics such as Com
mon Cause call a new and danger
ous political monster — the Poli
tical Action Committee, or
“PAC.”
The millions of dollars indi
vidual contributors used to give to
candidates — sometimes in return
for ambassadorships or a favorable
antitrust decision — were out
lawed. Individual contributions
were limited to $1,000.
But at the same time a new
political animal was created,
allowing the unions, big business,
trade associations, and ideological
groups like the National Rifle
Association and anti-abortion
groups to get into the action in a
major way.
Numbering more than 2,500,
PACs raised and spent more than
$130 million in the 1980 election.
The Federal Election Commis
sion has not yet compiled final
spending figures from last fall’s
election, but it is widely believed
that for the first time PACs gave
more to congressional candidates
than individual contributors.
PACs were also active in the
presidential race, giving nearly $2
million to candidates in the pri
maries.
The Republican and Democra
tic National Committees have
PACs. Ronald Reagan used one to
keep his political activities going
between the 1976 and 1980 elec
tions. Sen. Edward Kennedy and
former Vice President Walter
Mondale recently organized
PACs, some say in anticipation of
1984 presidential bids.
But there is a major difference
between the new PACs and the
old fat cats. Contributions by
PACs are legal and are all reported
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“PACs really ought to be called
Purchase the American Congress'
because that's what they're going to
be doing in a few years," says Rep.
David Obey, D-Wis., who for several
years has sponsored legislation to curb
the power of these committees.
on the public record. The fat cats
did not have to report their contri
butions, which were legal except
when they used corporate funds.
PAC money does not come from
corporate funds or union dues, but
from contributions by individual
members to the corporate or un
ion PACs, which give the money
to candidates.
And while $5,000 from any one
PAC may not seem like much, 20
or 30 different PACs can all give
their money to one candidate.
Common Cause and other re
form groups have been highly cri
tical of PACs, charging that these
contributions are a subtle form of
buying influence in Congress. De
fenders maintain PACs are just a
constitutional exercise of free
speech.
A look at the campaign records
of the FEC show clearly that PACs
give their money to members of
Congress who influence their turf.
Some examples:
—Sen. John Tower, R-Texas,
now chairman of the Senate
Armed Services Committee, re
ceived contributions to his 1978
campaign from PACs of Grumman
Corp., General Dynamics,
Hughes Aircraft, Lockheed Air
craft, McDonnell Douglas, North
rop, Rockwell International and
United Technologies — all major
defense contractors.
—Sen. Jake Garn, R-Utah,
chairman of the Senate Banking
Committee, got contributions
from the American Bankers Asso
ciation, Chase Manhattan, Citi
corp, First America Bank, and
Household Finance.
These examples were picked at
random, but a pattern of similar
contributions can be found in
almost all the other House and
Senate committee chairmen and
ranking minority members. And
to a lesser extent, members of
these committees get contribu
tions from the interests they legis
late.
Common Cause is outspoken in
its criticism of PACs, which it
wants abolished in favor of public
financing of congressional elec
tions.
“Our representative govern
ment is rapidly becoming a gov
ernment of the PACs, by the
PACs and for the PACs,” David
Cohen, president of Common
Cause, said. He said PAC contri
butions to members of Congress
buys access and enables special in
terest groups to influence legisla
tion.
“It’s a system that benefits spe
cial interest and buries solutions
to our most pressing public prob
lems — inflation, energy and
health care,” Cohen said.
A lot of the controversy sur
rounding PACs has arisen simply
because they have changed the
way America does its political
business.
By the end of 1974 there were
less than 600 PACs. Labor still
dominated. But by 1980 there
were more than 2,500 PACs,
1,250 of them tied to corporations,
and only 332 connected with
labor.
But most of all, the PAC phe
nomena was a question of Repub
licans and big business learning to
play the game that the unions and
liberals had used for years.
After the defeat of six liberal
senators in the 1980 elections,
ultra-conservative PACs like the
Committee for the Survival of a
Free Congress, Gun Owners of
America and the political wings of
the Moral Majority and the anti
abortion movement said it was
their money that did the job.
“PACs really ought to be called
Purchase the American Congress’
because that’s what they’re going
to be doing in a few years,” says
Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., who
for several years has sponsored
legislation to curb the power of
these committees.
“It is critical to the integrity of
the democratic process that a limit
be put on the amount of PAC con
tributions, he said.
Obey uses himself as an exam
ple of how PACs operate. He said
that although he has been a spon
sor of every major eduoij
money bill in recent years, tle)i
tional Education Association
its contribution to his campaijt
75 percent when he voted apj
its pet project, creation of a|
partment of Education.
“I don’t think people contiili
to me because I’m such a
statesman,” Obey said. “He
voter) wants to know whal
going to do for the widget inditi
or the widget workers. Do
really think when a congress
sees that lobbyist in his olo
doesn’t see the gleam of PACi
lars in his eyes?”
On the other side of the P
fight in Congress is Rep
Frenzel, R-Minn., whosaidill
been a positive force in pots
because it has been emplai
heaviest by the politici
rebuilding their strength
In addition, he said itgetsc
people involved in the
process.
To the “reformers" Freu
says: “Once you get rid oil
PACs, once you force theosi
direct mail out of sight, once
limit individual contribution:
you will have to use taxpn
money to elect the same bund
bandits.”
Farm co-ops growing in popularity
United Press International
CINCINNATTI — They are as
old as the Mayflower Compact.
They are as big as Sunkist.
They are so popular that five out
of every six farmers belong.
“They” are farm cooperatives.
The co-ops are growing in num
bers and in clout.
“Farmers have a saying about
their cooperative,” says Bill
Swank, executive vice president
of the Ohio Farm Bureau. “We’ve
paid for a lot of companies, but we
own this one.”
Many farmers used to think that
both ends of their stick were short
— overcharged for supplies they
had to buy, underpaid for the pro
duce they sold.
“Simply put,” says Swank, “alot
of farmers felt they were being rip
ped off. So, they formed coopera
tives to survive. I suppose farmers
today could exist without coopera
tives, but I’m not sure they
would.”
In America, farm cooperatives
date back to the pilgrims. Their
Mayflower Compact — 1 sharing
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the labor and its fruits — probably
helped them survive.
Today, there are more than
7,500 farm cooperatives in the
country. Many are a whole lot
more than a dusty silo where a few
dirt farmers stash their corn.
When you buy a Sunkist
orange, you’re helping a coopera
tive’s product.
Spread some Land O’ Lakes
butter and you’re spreading
money through that Minnesota-
based cooperative.
Those well-advertised Ocean
Spray cranberries? Another
cooperative venture.
Most cooperatives, of course,
are not as big as Sunkist. But the
trend is to make cooperatives as
large as possible. And sometimes,
as encompassing as possible. s
The Ohio Farm Bureau’s
cooperative (Landmark), for ex
ample, not only sells the farmer
seeds and fertilizer and buys back
his grain, it also sells him gasoline,
oil, tires and batteries.
All this to give the farmer a
choice from the goods and prices
offered by private companies.
“The main value of a coopera
tive is that it provides this com
petitive factor and is a bellwether
for good, competitive business,”
says Swank. “Without a coopera
tive, a farmer tends to feel there is
collusion among other business
people — that their profits are un
duly high and that the prices they
pay to farmers are unduly low.
“But when farmers have their
own cooperative, they have a pret
ty strong feeling about just what it
costs to, say, deliver a sack of ferti-
izer or a bushel of grain, because
heir bwii outfit is also doing it.”
With the growth of coopera-
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the five day plan is preferred. Each meal is served in the Commons.
Fees for each session are payable to the Controller of Accounts, Fiscal
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fives, however, has come tlr
that co-ops may have beM
their own enemy — perhaps
ing with bureaucratic softness
making them similar to the
businesses they were tryingtoi
cumvent.
“Some critics feel farmers
not to be in this kind ofbusints
Swank said. “But we thinko(i!
just an extension of the job of fc
ing. What’s the difference
tween farmers having their
fertilizer made and Sears
Roebuck having their own
ducts made? I don’t thii
cooperative can get too
would be too big if it fc
purpose — to help the farmer
Swank, of course, is a beliei
in big farm cooperatives beeai
his Landmark operation isto
gest co-op in Ohio. It dii«
million worth of business
100,000 fanners last year.
But a more unbiased fam
pert also agrees that bi|
better.
“My feeling is, yes, it’sanffl
sity for farm cooperatives tol
larger simply because prist
companies are getting kp
says Dr. Donald G. Chafin,c[ti
man of Wilmington
lege’s agriculture department
“And, co-ops have been for#
to grow in order to be
handle sufficient volumes tob
overhead costs in line with
petition from private business
“I don’t think that hurts thes
ginal intent of co-ops. I thii
just an economic fact of life
business has to be sufficiet
large to be economical.”
What about the small-scalet
mer? Do co-ops still help hm ;
“Yes, because the little gu;
doesn’t have sufficient volume
benefit from the lower prices'1
the bigger farmer could get fe
large-scale buying at a pri'i
firm,” answers Chafin.
favorably on co-ops because
think they’ve really been be#
cial to farmers on all levels.”
Says Swank, “The little fenfl
is helped a lot more than hurl
cooperatives. We enduphelpi
the little farmer get what
needs, while some private (»
panics just want to do busir
with the big guy and forget I
little guy.”
Chafin, however, points out
area of weakness he has noted
some cooperatives.
“Just like any business, iferx
aren’t managed efficiently,
costs are going to go out offf
trol,” he says. “Sometimes the!
moval of a big profit incea
causes a lack of cost-controls
“For example, in the
crunch of the early 70s, somt'
ops got into the oil refining 1*
ness to try to guarantee
members a source of fuel. I
they also got locked into a t
cost of operation. They have to
careful of getting trapped "1
really all they are trying to di
help.”
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