Campaign Cash With Strings

Facing a credible challenge from within his own party ranks, U.S. Rep. David Davis, R-Tenn., has been a busy little money-raising bee.
By March, he had already socked away more than $430,000 in his campaign war chest – almost half of it from political action committees, lobbyists and businesses seeking regulatory favors from Congress.
Cynics will shrug their shoulders and chalk this up to business as usual in Washington. Not so with Phil Roe. The Johnson City mayor, who is challenging Davis in the Aug. 7 Republican primary, has promised to shut down the spigot of special interest funds. Specifically, Roe said he won’t take PAC money or accept contributions from lobbyists or special interests.
Roe made his pledge on the same day that Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, again vowed to reject special interest, PAC and lobbyists’ money in his campaign. The Democratic National Committee has joined Obama in this pledge.
“They [special interests] will not fund my party or run my White House,” Obama promised an audience in Bristol.
Roe, correctly, asserts that staunching the flow of special interest money should not be solely a Democratic issue. Republicans, too, should be concerned about the appearance that groups are attempting to buy influence over the legislative process.
“David Davis has never met a PAC dollar he won’t chase,” Roe said in a prepared statement. “It really goes to the heart and soul of what you’re about as a servant of the people.”
As of March 31, Roe, a recently retired obstetrician and gynecologist, had raised slightly more than $130,000 – all of it from individual donors, except for $9,900 of his own money.
Davis’ contributor sheet, in contrast, reads like a Who’s Who list of those seeking regulatory breaks and other favors from Congress. His financial backers include industry players with a vested interest in stopping or dramatically altering climate change legislation, health care reform and mortgage lending reform.
One big contributor, BAE Systems, is a defense contractor that sought an earmark from Davis, who serves on the Homeland Security Committee. Was the $11,000 contribution quid pro quo for an earmarking job well done?
We also note that Davis, a respiratory therapist who founded a home health care company, took $7,500 from the tobacco industry. Was he thinking about the lung disease patients who rely on his company for home oxygen and other services as he was pocketing tobacco’s tainted cash?
Davis was elected to represent East Tennessee’s 1st District, but some of his donors don’t have even the slightest ties to the Volunteer State. The Florida Sugar Cane League, which gave Davis $1,000, is but one example.
Interested readers can find additional details about Davis’ and Roe’s finances at OpenSecrets.org. The Web site is the work of the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research organization that has been tracking money in politics for 25 years. The information comes from federal financial disclosure reports filed by the candidates.
Asked about Roe’s pledge to eschew PAC funding, Davis changed the subject.
“It’s funny that he said he won’t accept money when he asked for earmarks,” Davis said, apparently making reference to a request for federal funding for a Johnson City transportation project. Making such a request would have been within the scope of Roe’s duties as mayor.
Importantly, Davis has made no pledge to push away from the special interest money trough.
With his stance on special interest money, Roe is distinguishing himself from the one-term incumbent. Roe has made it clear he will serve the interests of his constituents. It’s equally clear who Davis is serving.