 | |
| |
TechnologyDaily Mobile
Who's Funding Whom In Campaign 2004?
by Ted Leventhal
Washington is quiet with Congress away for the August recess, but the technology industry is beginning to make some noise in the 2004 election cycle.
A sample of Federal Election Commission records shows that many well-known tech executives already are financing their favorite presidential and congressional candidates, and the early returns indicate that the sector's campaign spending remains as divided as in the past.
Executives are writing many $2,000 personal checks to the better-known Democrats in the presidential primaries, and many rank-and-file industry workers are writing smaller checks to former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. But executives also are writing several smaller checks to their companies' political action committees, which in turn are donating the money predominantly to Republican congressional candidates.
The regional Bell telecommunications companies lead the giving by telecom and computer industry PACs in spending so far. SBC Communications' PAC is far in front, with $427,732 in donations to individual candidates. Verizon Communications is second at $246,330, BellSouth is third at $220,050, and Microsoft is fourth at $192,500. The Bells' donation ratio is nearly 2-to-1 in favor of Republicans; Microsoft's contributions are more evenly split.
All Politics Is Personal
Personal donations are less predictable. Verizon President Lawrence Babbio gave $1,000 to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., and $2,000 to the re-election campaign of President Bush, but he also gave $1,500 to House Democratic Caucus Chairman Robert Menendez of New Jersey.
Several Sun Microsystems officials also have opened their wallets. John Gage, the firm's chief researcher, wrote two $1,000 checks in March to the presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.; Executive Vice President Gregory Papadopoulos gave $2,000 to presidential contender and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.; and Vice President and Chief Information Officer William Howard wrote 13 $200 checks to Sun's PAC between January and June. In the 2004 election cycle, Sun's PAC has given $10,000 to Democratic candidates and $6,250 to Republicans.
Giving by America Online executives is all over the map. Founder and board member Stephen Case gave $1,000 to his Democratic cousin, Rep. Ed Case of Hawaii; another $2,000 to House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va.; and $2,000 to Bush.
AOL Vice President Susan Brophy gave $1,000 to Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; $500 to Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn.; $1,000 to Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.; $1,000 to the conservative America's Majority Trust, and $5,000 to AOL's PAC, whose contributions are running Republican nearly 2-to-one. AOL Senior Vice President Kathryn Bushkin gave $1,000 to Dean's presidential campaign.
While Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers has a solid Republican reputation, plenty of Democratic supporters abound in the Internet hardware firm. Vice President Mark Chandler gave Gephardt $2,000 and Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., $500 in June. Vice President Susan Bostrom gave $1,000 to Gephardt. Claudia Ceniceros in public relations, attorney Van Dang and Vice President Ammar Hanafi each gave $1,000 to Lieberman. And marketing managers Jane Eisenberg and Susan Jeannero each gave $1,000 to the PAC Emily's List.
Intel Chairman Andrew Grove backed Lieberman for president and the re-election campaign of Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., with $2,000 donations each. Grove also gave 12 $208 checks to Intel's PAC, which has given two-thirds of its funds to Republicans. EMC Chief Financial Officer William Teuber, meanwhile, gave $1,000 to Kerry's presidential campaign, and Christopher Goode, the company's governmental affairs director, gave Bush's campaign $2,000.
Other contributions include: $2,000 to the presidential campaign of Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., from Google CEO Eric Schmidt; $1,000 to Bush's campaign from Yahoo Chairman Terry Semel; and $2,000 to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., from Viacom President Mel Karmazin.
High Industry Praise For Mark Forman
Mark Forman's announcement that he will leave his e-government post at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Friday elicited thanks and praise for his work from officials with Entrust, PeopleSoft and others in the tech industry.
"Mark Forman and OMB deserve great praise for making government more responsive and cost-effective for our nation's citizens," Business Software Alliance President Robert Holleyman said. His group recently named Forman a "cyber champion" for his leadership on tech policy.
Forman, who answered questions from National Journal's Technology Daily via e-mail, is headed to California to join a startup company that is making software for network-based computing. More details will be announced in September. Norman Lorentz, OMB's chief technology officer, will succeed Forman.
Forman said his departure will not slow the deployment of e-government initiatives because many people are driving the initiatives, all but one are on schedule and "best practices" for managing the projects are in place. "Most important, the administration has maintained a strong commitment to all five elements of the President's Management Agenda," Forman said, "and I foresee no backtracking of support for e-gov or any other element."
Forman downplayed congressional threats to cut e-government programs. "We believe that the e-gov fund can be used to accelerate consolidation of duplicative e-gov and IT agency efforts, and that the appropriate level is $45 million," he said. "The appropriators have said that the e-gov fund amount should be much smaller but agree that cross-agency e-gov projects should be funded by consolidating redundant IT projects."
Rep. Tauzin Taps New Telecom Aide
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman W.J. (Billy) Tauzin named Neil Fried to be a new telecommunications counsel for the committee.
Fried is currently an associate with the Washington law firm of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, advising clients on the transition to digital television, open access to cable programming, interactive television and industry deregulation. Fried previously was with the FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau, where he helped implement the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
He starts his new job on Monday.
You've Got Corporate Tension
The internal corporate strain between the merged America Online and Time Warner manifested itself on a Washington, D.C., softball field this month, The Washington Post reported. The annual game between AOL and the Time Warner subsidiary CNN erupted into a brawl on Aug. 4.
The grudge match reportedly turned ugly after CNN White House correspondent John King, rounding second base on a home run by CNN's Howie Lutt, shouted the trademark AOL slogan "You've got mail!" AOL's shortstop "took vigorous exception," the Post reported, and when AOL's center fielder bumped Lutt after the play, the benches cleared.
"If he took it the wrong way, I'm sorry," King explained to the Post's Howard Kurtz, denying that he included a "choice expletive" in his exhortation. "I'm a boy playing softball, not consulting with my PR advisers before I speak."
After the game, the teams apologized to each other for the outburst.
NEW FEATURE
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
