Dollars to flow for access at convention
Corporations, special interests, and labor unions are planning lavish parties during the Democratic National Convention in Boston, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars each and gaining direct access to major Democratic Party figures.
The list of contributors ranges from longtime Democratic supporters like the AFL-CIO to emerging Massachusetts industries like biotech firms. Despite new campaign finance regulations, donors continue to face few restrictions about how much they can contribute to the parties, receptions, and concerts that take place during the political conventions.
One of the more sought-after tickets is for a Symphony Hall gala honoring Senator Edward M. Kennedy. It is financed by more than a half-dozen corporations and national labor unions, which are donating $100,000 apiece. The donors, including
Other events include a concert on the final night of the convention whose host is
Steven Weiss, spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based government watchdog group, said the heavy presence of corporate and other special-interest dollars at the convention events shows that "the conventions are now a marketplace of influence-peddling."
"Donors clearly see conventions as a way to try to enhance their relationships with lawmakers," Weiss said. "These same donors face restrictions in what they can contribute to candidates and parties for election activity, but the conventions are an open door to send large amounts of money to something that means a lot to elected and party officials. It's clearly a loophole on [the] limits on what these same organizations can contribute. The donors have obviously become quite adept at maneuvering through this loophole."
As they have at every modern party convention, the gatherings represent an ideal setting for company executives and their lobbyists to glad-hand with Washington powerbrokers. The Republican convention taking place in New York City five weeks later is no different -- and maybe even more lavish, given that the GOP controls Congress and the White House. As in Boston, Washington's Republican lawmakers and Bush administration officials will be eating brunches, attending cocktail parties, luncheons, and dinners and listening to concerts with the leaders and lobbyists from industries that they oversee and regulate.
At the Boston convention, the events sponsored by corporations and other groups fall into one of several general categories: there are parties and receptions, often held to honor a specific lawmaker, such as Senator Kennedy, or to entertain the delegates and others who are coming here. And there are political fund-raisers, held by committees or candidates who are taking advantage of the confluence of donors and politicians who gather at the conventions.
In the political category, Emily's List, a group that raises campaign money for female andidates who support abortion rights, expects to collect $500,000 in donations at a convention week luncheon featuring Senator Clinton and Governor Jennifer Granholm of Michigan.
Among other parties, The Boston Globe has agreed to spend $500,000 for a party on July 24, the Saturday before the convention begins, for the 15,000 members of the media who will cover the political event, said Alfred S. Larkin Jr., senior vice president, general administration and external affairs.
Other parties are part of a long tradition. Senator John Breaux of Louisiana, who has thrown parties at several previous conventions, is expected to host an event at New England Aquarium that organizers say may include a performance by reggae singer Ziggy Marley.
The politicians who are honored at the parties or who otherwise mingle with the interest groups at the various galas deny that the sponsorships influence them.
In a written statement to the Globe, Kennedy dismissed as "ridiculous" the notion that business and labor interests were trying to buy influence with him by helping to finance the Symphony Hall gala honoring his long legislative career.
"I'm proud to serve the people of Massachusetts, and I make no apology for going to bat for them when it serves our state," the senator said.
"A few Massachusetts firms and allies in the labor movement have been kind enough to help underwrite the event. I'm grateful for their generosity, and it's ridiculous to suggest there's any quid pro quo," Kennedy said.
The donations for the Kennedy Symphony gala will go to a group called The Massachusetts Tribute Corp., according to an invitation obtained by the Globe. Each $100,000 sponsor gets 25 tickets and a promise for their guests to have "a private post event reception with Senator Kennedy, recognition in all related printed materials, on-site recognition during the event, and invitations to other events hosted" by the sponsoring committee.
One donor, Raytheon Corp., one of the nation's leading defense contractors, has benefited from Kennedy's help in winning multibillion-dollar deals with the Defense Department. Raytheon's current $1.3 billion contract to build a communications system called DDX for surface warships is facing calls for cutbacks in the US House.
James Fetig, a Raytheon spokesman, bristled at the notion that the company's lavish donations both to Kennedy's symphony soiree and the $1 million it has given to the convention itself raised questions.
"If there were [questions], we wouldn't do it," Fetig said. "There are no issues whatsoever. This is an opportunity for Raytheon to support the Boston community and the arts. Raytheon, we've been in Massachusetts for 83 years, we are proud to be one of the few corporations still based in Massachusetts, and we are pleased to be helping out the committee."
Two other $100,000 donors are
Shirley Norton, a Bank of America spokeswoman, said the bank is honoring a commitment made by Fleet before the April 1 takeover. "It's billed as an event to promote Massachusetts, and I am sure that's why a leading company in that area would believe it appropriate to be a participant," she said.
Another $100,000 donor, the New York-based pharmaceutical firm Bristol-Myers Squibb, has a particularly keen interest in Kennedy's position on the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. As the committee's ranking member, Kennedy has been the Democratic congressional leader in the battle over drug pricing and health-care costs.
Other Massachusetts corporate leaders are taking advantage of having movers and shakers from Capitol Hill and around the country descend on Boston for a week of partying.
Local biotech giant
"It's a nice way to showcase our new facility and who Genzyme is," Piela said.
Executives of virtually every firm with interests in the pharmaceutical industry, including Genzyme, have been upset with Kennedy and several other Democrats for proposing the legalization of importing drugs from cheaper markets, such as Canada.
The Biotechnology Industry Organization, or BIO, the industry's premier trade group, will host an evening cocktail party for Kennedy and US Representative Michael E. Capuano at the Museum of Science on July 28. In addition, BIO will hold a private policy lunch at Genzyme's Cambridge offices for members of Congress and their staffs, said Michael Werner, BIO's policy chief.
"It's an opportunity at an appropriate venue to introduce people to the industry," Werner said. "We can't compete with these blowout parties with the Allman Brothers, and we don't try. We think there's enough attraction for people to find out about what we do."
Some events taking place on the periphery of the convention will be far less showy. For instance, the New York State Democratic Party has tapped New York City-based insurance giant AIG to sponsor an invitation-only lunch at the posh downtown restaurant Locke-Ober on July 28.
AIG spokesman Andrew Silver declined to comment, but Chung Seto, representing the New York State Democratic Party, said the event will be hosted by US Representative Charles B. Rangel a New Yorker who is the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, and will include Senators Clinton and Charles E. Schumer.
"It's a small, intimate lunch hosted by the dean of our delegation, and we asked AIG to help us," Seto said. "It's a service event to thank our service trustees. We have trustees of the party who support us throughout the year."
Most of the large events are not so much about company executives hunkering down over a meal with congressmen but about raising money.
One of the more notable parties in that category will take place at the Park Plaza on July 25, when the Irish American Democrats and the Italian American Democratic Leadership Council, both of which are political action committees, honor Kennedy and other lawmakers.
To get into the party, where politicos will rub shoulders with pop icons Bono and Stephen Stills and comic Al Franken, unions and corporations must cough up $25,000, sponsors are asked to chip in $10,000, and individual tickets go for $150.
Stella O'Leary of the Irish American Democrats said proceeds will go to "the PACs and to promote the candidates in the fall. . . . We, as they say in the ethnic community, have issues."
Sasha Talcott and Yvonne Abraham of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.
