Lobbyists try to build good political will with charitable gifts

NEW YORK - They do not seem the most likely classical music patrons: Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin.

But together, these defense contractors are donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to the symphony orchestra in Johnstown, Pa., underwriting performances of Mozart and Wagner in this struggling former steel town. A defense lobbying firm, the PMA Group, even sprang for a champagne reception at the symphony's opera festival last month.

The companies say they are being generous corporate citizens. But the orchestra is also a beloved cause of US Representative John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, whose congressional committee hands out lucrative defense contracts, and whose wife, Joyce, is a major booster of the symphony.

"She just loves knowing that we have an orchestra that is the quality of a larger city orchestra," the symphony executive director, Patricia Hofscher, said of Joyce Murtha. "Her friends have come here and been impressed by the quality of the orchestra in a geographic and economic region that, let's face it, are not on the beaten path."

For the first time, corporations and their lobbyists are being required to disclose donations they make to the favorite causes of House and Senate members, and a review of thousands of pages of records shows the extent - and lavishness - of this once-hidden practice.

During the first six months of 2008, lobbyists, corporations, and interest groups gave about $13 million to charities and nonprofit organizations on behalf of members of the House and Senate.

The donations came from numerous companies with interests before the Congress, such as Wal-Mart, the Ford Motor Co., Kraft Foods, and Pfizer, and were received by charities connected to more than 200 House and Senate members.

Among the recipients were the Baca Foundation, established by Representative Joe Baca, a California Democrat, to help low-income families in his congressional district; the James E. Clyburn Research and Scholarship Foundation, named for the South Carolina Democrat and majority whip; and the Richard G. Lugar Center for Renewable Energy, founded in honor of the Indiana senator, a Republican.

In interviews, donors said they were supporting worthy causes, such as scholarships, research, and museums. But several also acknowledged that charitable giving is a way to build good will with lawmakers, whose decisions can have a huge effect on their business.

In addition, with new restrictions on the access lobbyists have to lawmakers, the practice provides the lobbyists a way to publicly support - and, sometimes, mingle with - the members of Congress and their staffs.

"It's a very personal way to curry favor with powerful lawmakers," said Keith Ashdown, the chief investigator for Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group. "It's also a lobbying tactic that is not completely understood or even known by the public."

Clyburn, the third-most powerful lawmaker in the House, has a scholarship fund bearing his name, which took in nearly $90,000 in donations during the first half of 2008, with contributions from energy, pharmaceutical, and transportation companies that have business before Congress.

Among the donors to the James E. Clyburn Research and Scholarship Foundation is the Nuclear Energy Institute, the trade association representing the nuclear industry, which gave $10,000 during that period, on top of previous donations of about $20,000 in recent years, according to an association spokesman.

"Congressman Clyburn has never been shy to say he supports nuclear power," said Hannah Simone, senior director of governmental affairs for the institute.

Two months before the $10,000 donation in June, Clyburn appeared before a gathering of the nation's energy marketers and said he would urge his colleagues on the Hill to encourage greater use of nuclear power in the energy bill Congress was considering at the time.

Kristie Greco, a spokeswoman for Clyburn, said that the congressman created the foundation 20 years ago to provide students the opportunity to go to college, and he does not solicit donations personally.

Greco also noted that Clyburn's support of the nuclear industry is not unusual. "South Carolina is a big nuclear state," she said.