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July 1996, pg. 26 PAC Watch
Pro-Israel PAC Contributions Still Sliding Downward in 1996 Cycle
by Richard H. CurtissContributions by pro-Israel PACs to congressional campaigns have continued the dramatic downward spiral that started in the 1994 election cycle, when both collections and disbursements by pro-Israel PACs were about half of the totals for the 1992 campaign. As of March 31, 1996, only seven months before the 1996 general election, 61 active pro-Israel PACs had collected $4,311,564 and had contributed $1,042,686 to candidates for Congress. Of this, $552,437 went to 89 Democrats and $490,249 went to 81 Republicans. By contrast, in the 1993-94 election cycle, 61 active pro-Israel PACs collected $6,084,639 and donated $2,529,573 of this to congressional candidates. Of the funding donated to members of Congress in the 1995-96 cycle, $26,000 was designated specifically for their presidential campaigns. Recipients included Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS) $11,000; Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) $10,000; and Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX) $5,000. An additional $5,000 was donated to the presidential campaign of Gov. Pete Wilson of California. There were three likely explanations for the continuing decline in pro-Israel PAC contributions. Since the signing of the Oslo accord on Sept. 13, 1993, treasurers of pro-Israel PACs have complained about dropping contributions. Earlier in the same year many pro-Israel PACs also were criticized by their own members for the gap between the amounts they raised and the amounts they actually contributed to candidates. More important in the 1996 campaign, however, is a new factor at work. This is the rising tide of public criticism of all PACs and special interests. AIPAC officials fear that serious campaign finance reforms could loosen their iron grip on congressional votes related to aid for Israel and all Middle East matters. These fears apparently have motivated pro-Israel PAC directors to hide the total amount of money they are putting into election campaigns by increasing the “bundling” of privately signed checks to hide the source of pro-Israel donations from the Federal Election Commission and the public. Pro-Israel PAC members are asked to sign checks for amounts of less than $250, which the PAC then makes out to specific candidates. A bundle of such checks then is delivered to a candidate by a pro-Israel PAC officer. The candidate knows that the money is for voting the AIPAC way. But the FEC records only show a number of small checks received by the candidate. (The FEC does not require names of donors of checks for less than $250.) Thus such individual donations orchestrated by pro-Israel PACs, which may aggregate many thousands of dollars, do not show up in tabulations of pro-Israel PAC activity like the ones in this magazine. Nevertheless, the tabulations do show extensive activity by pro-Israel
PACs to re-elect or defeat a number of incumbent members of Congress
who face difficult primary or general election challenges. Below
are tables of the top 1996 recipients, both incumbents and challengers,
of pro-Israel PAC money in both houses of Congress.
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