Telecom, Media Cash Bolsters Tough Ayotte, Johnson Re-election Bids
Telecom and media industry money is flowing to incumbents in the competitive Senate Commerce Committee member re-election races, according to the latest Federal Election Commission records. Money favors the incumbents generally, whether the seats are safe or not, especially benefiting the coffers of Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D. Telecom-affiliated unions are backing Democratic challengers.
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Sens. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., are the two Commerce members facing what are believed to be the toughest re-election campaigns, running against Democratic New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan and former Sen. Russ Feingold, respectively. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., is widely considered to have the edge in his re-election campaign, according to most polling, but Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander, his Democratic challenger, is creating competitive pressure and not always far behind in the polling. The other five Senate Commerce members seeking re-election aren't considered as at risk.
“I think the answer is not much impact, in any direction,” Blunt told us of the influence that telecom interest may play in fundraising. Several incumbent Senate Commerce members in races this year told us telecom policy is important but perhaps not a decisive factor for voters (see 1608170032).
Ayotte had $7.08 million on hand, some coming from telecom and media interests overseen by the Commerce Committee. The political action committees of Comcast, NCTA, Microsoft, Intel and Google cut Ayotte checks for $5,000 this cycle. Comcast and Microsoft PACs also donated $2,500, the same offered by Charter Communications, CTA, Facebook, Cox Enterprises, 21st Century Fox and the American Cable Association. Amazon, iHeartMedia, Motorola Solutions, Sinclair, Viacom and the Verizon-owned Yahoo all gave $2,000. Intel’s PAC donated $4,850. Those PACs writing $3,000 checks included T-Mobile and NAB and those giving $1,000 checks included AT&T, U.S. Cellular, XO Communications and USTelecom, which separately donated $500.
The PACs also favored Johnson, who had $5.76 million in cash on hand as of the latest records. He scored $5,000 from those affiliated with NCTA and Charter Communications. NCTA’s PAC donated another $1,000 and Charter’s another $1,500. Comcast’s gave $2,500, $1,500 and $1,000 separately. Microsoft’s offered $3,500 and those connected with NAB, Cox Enterprises, AT&T and Verizon all gave $3,000, and those from Facebook, Amazon and NAB gave $2,500 each. PACs giving $2,000 included AT&T, CenturyLink, Cox Enterprises, USTelecom, CTIA, NAB and Oracle, plus $1,000 from those belonging to AT&T, NTCA and Viacom.
Individual telecom and media industry donors also favored Johnson and Ayotte. Ayotte’s records show donations of $2,700 from Hubbard Broadcasting executives Stanley and Karen Hubbard, Comcast Senior Executive Vice President David Cohen, Viacom's Philippe Dauman and Thomas Dooley and MPAA Manager-State Government Affairs Anna Henderson. Johnson, too, scored money from Stanley Hubbard -- $5,200 -- and $5,400 each from Liberty Media President Greg Maffei and BBG Communications President Gregorio Galicot.
But the unions are favoring the challengers to Johnson and Ayotte.
The Communications Workers of America PAC gave $5,000 to Hassan, Ayotte’s challenger, and another $5,000 to Feingold, Johnson’s opponent. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers PAC gave two donations of $5,000 to Hassan, who has $6.88 million on hand, and one of $5,000 to Feingold, who has $7.07 million on hand. The Writers Guild of America, West PAC also gave Feingold $5,000. Familiar names in the space also showed up in Feingold’s records. Barnstable Broadcasting CEO Albert Kaneb gave Feingold two donations of $2,700 each. DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeff Katzenberg donated, as did Aeris Communications executive Harry Plant and former Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.
The unions also favored Kander in Missouri. His records show four CWA PAC donations totaling $6,600 and several IBEW PAC donations of $1,000 each. Blunt, who has $6.63 million cash on hand compared with Kander’s $3.76 million, received donations from all major heavyweight stakeholders throughout tech, telecom and media industry sectors, with several of those PACs repeatedly giving to Blunt, including many donations of thousands of dollars from the PACs of Charter, NCTA and NAB. PACs affiliated with AT&T, Cisco, Comcast, CTA, Google, Nexstar, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular and Verizon all gave Blunt thousands. Individual donors include Sinclair executives like Duncan Smith, Schurz Communications Senior Adviser Marci Burdick and Salem Communication CEO Edward Atsinger.
Thune, as chief of Commerce, has an array of funds from all these PACs and more in telecom, tech and media. Thune had $12.5 million on hand as of the latest records and is considered favored against his opponent Jay Williams. He had more PAC donations in this space than those in competitive races, and individual donations from a wide range of active figures, including Google CEO Sundar Pichai and lobbyist Susan Molinari, GCI CEO Ronald Duncan, the late TDS CEO LeRoy Carlson, Sinclair executives, Comcast’s Cohen, Mediacom CEO Rocco Commisso, NAB Chief Operating Officer Chris Ornelas, Schurz’s Burdick, AT&T executives including John Stankey, Jim Cicconi, Tim McKone and Andrew Reinsdorf, former Univision President Local Media Kevin Cuddihy and Oracle Senior Vice President Kenneth Glueck.