Banker Plan Would Fund Super-PACs to Sway Senate Races
By Robert Schmidt and Phil Mattingly on September 05, 2012
A banking trade group is preparing to set up a political fund that would allow members to funnel money anonymously to pro-industry candidates in the final months of the U.S. elections.
The American Bankers Association board is set to vote tomorrow on a plan to create a nonprofit that would donate to super-political action committees, or super-PACs, that can spend unlimited amounts on TV ads and other campaign activities.
ABA officials, during a conference call yesterday to brief member firms, said they intend to raise several million dollars in the next few weeks and concentrate their contributions on six to 12 fiercely contested U.S. Senate races. Attempts in the Republican-controlled House to roll back regulation of the financial industry, particularly the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, have so far run aground in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
The ABA’s effort comes only two months before elections for president and Congress. Craig Holman, a lobbyist for Public Citizen, which tracks the influence of money on politics, said donations from the nonprofit could affect some races.
<snip>
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-09-04/banker-plan-would-fund-super-pacs-to-sway-u-dot-s-dot-senate-elections
