DeWine Race Iffy, as Telcos Funnel Money to Allen
Sen. DeWine (R-Ohio) is in a tough race against Rep. Sherrod Brown (R-Ohio), elected to the House in 1992. Active on telecom, intellectual property, software and piracy, DeWine chairs the Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee. He’s considered slightly friendlier to cable than to Bells, industry sources said. Still, the communications industry is pouring money into his campaign, as it is into that of Sen. Allen (R-Va.). The point is to maintain stability on Judiciary and the Senate Commerce Committee, on which Allen serves, sources said.
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Communications and technology PACs are Allen’s 2nd largest donors, according to Political Moneyline.com. In the 2006 campaign cycle they gave him $266,132 of his $2 million in PAC contributions out of a total of $10.3 million, the group reported. Allen had $6.6 million available to spend as of June 30, the latest filing period. According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) data, Sprint-Nextel was Allen’s largest PAC contributions among communications firms, with $10,500. NAB, NCTA and AT&T each gave him $10,000; Comcast gave $8,000. FEC data aren’t always up to date.
Allen’s seat is deemed relatively safe by most pollsters, though he recently earned some bad press. While giving a speech, Allen spotted an onlooker he recognized as a volunteer working for opponent and former Navy Secy. James Webb. Allen called the man, who is of East Indian descent, “macaca,” a term said by some to refer to a species of monkey and others to be a racial slur. Several industry analysts said they think the episode, for which Allen apologized, will blow over by election day. Webb’s campaign has raised $1.1 million with $107,200 from PACS -- communications firms were not among those listed by PoliticalMoneyline.com.
Sen. DeWine’s race is a toss-up, analyst Jennifer Duffy with the Cook Political Report said: “It’s a tough race. Voters are weary of Republicans and in some way DeWine could become collateral damage.” In mid-July, Zogby Interactive data showed DeWine with an 8.6% lead over Brown. DeWine’s campaign had $6.6 million on hand out of the $7.7 million raised as of the June 30 reporting period. Communications and technology companies were his 4th-largest PAC donors, giving $155,377, according to PoliticalMoneyline.com.
The cable industry liked DeWine more than telcos did, giving him $19,000 compared to cable’s $31,000, FEC reports said. Brown has raised $3.7 million with about $885,000 from PACs, Political Moneyline reported. DeWine, active on first responder issues, has been trying to use that to his advantage as a campaigner. But like Allen, he ran into public relations problems when it came to light that a TV ad of his showing the World Trade Center towers burning was “enhanced,” said DeWine campaign spokesman Brian Seitick.
“It was a graphic representation,” rather than actual footage, Seitick said: “When the senator became aware of it he asked for the image to be changed.” The ads have been yanked, but Seitick wouldn’t comment on whether that was due to bad press, nor would he say whether ads in the works will focus on DeWine’s work on first responder issues in Congress: “We don’t discuss media strategy.” -- Anne Veigle
(Editor’s Note: This is another in an occasional series on political races of interest to our readers.)