Giving Till They're Blue?

It's not unusual for business PACs to split their giving between political parties, especially when their prosperity depends in part on the federal government. For instance, the Eastman-Kodak PAC made 57 percent of its contributions to Democrats and 43 percent to Republicans in 2008. Even AT&T, the top donor to Republicans, sent 38 percent of its donations to Democrats this year. As PACs go, the percentage of contributions that Meuser's company has made to Democrats is still quite small.

Meuser and his company PAC are different entities. So when Meuser fires back in his response ad that he "never gave a dime" to Clinton, it's technically true, but misleading. Compared to the PAC's total giving, however, the Clinton contribution does amount to small change.

Meuser for Congress Ad:
"Chris Hackett's Hypocrisy"

Meuser: I'm Dan Meuser, and I approve this message because the voters deserve to know the truth.

Announcer: Chris Hackett's hypocrisy has reached new heights. Hackett is running a negative smear campaign while the facts are 80 percent of Hackett's donations go to Democrats. And, Chris Hackett is simply not telling the truth about Dan Meuser. Dan never gave a dime to Hillary Clinton. In fact, 90 percent of Dan's contributions go to Republicans. And, Dan has been recognized by national Republican organizations for his efforts. Dan Meuser, a conservative we can trust.

80 Percent of Very Little
Meuser turns things around on Hackett, holding that Hackett has made 80 percent of his donations to Democrats.

That's close, but not accurate. Counting federal, state and some local donations, we figure that 60 percent of Hackett's money has gone to Demorats, not 80 percent. And more importantly, it's 60 percent of a fairly small number. Hackett is not a frequent donor: Pennsylvania state campaign finance records show he made contributions totaling less than $2,500 over the last five years, all to Republicans, and CRP shows only a $2,300 donation – to himself. But local records in Luzerne County, Pa., show that in 2006 Hackett did donate $5,000 to "Friends of Skrepenak and Vonderheid," supporting the campaigns of two Democratic candidates for county commissioner. Hackett told a local blogger that he also donated another $2,000 to Vonderheid's political efforts.

The catch? Hackett supported Vonderheid's campaign because Vonderheid was a former colleague of his from the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce, he said. The other catch? Dan Meuser also donated $1,000 to "Friends of Skrepenak and Vonderheid" on the same day that Hackett made his contribution.

In his ad, Hackett used dollar figures to make it sound like Meuser had been a virtual Democratic sugar daddy, even though the money amounted to little compared with his total contributions. Meuser, in turn, used a percentage figure to make Hackett appear to be a Democrat in GOP duds, when Hackett's total giving is modest and all his Democratic dollars went to an old colleague who was running for county commissioner – and who received money from Meuser, as well. In neither case are the donations as significant or as ideologically driven as the candidates imply.

Certainly both sets of donations are a bit out of the ordinary. Massie Ritsch at CRP told FactCheck.org that "most campaign contributors are very partisan; they rarely cross over and give money in any significant proportion to the other side." We leave it to our readers, and to the Republican voters in the 10th congressional district, to say how much money, if any, Republicans should give to Democratic candidates. Our point here is that these ads juggle the statistics and don't necessarily reflect any liberal motivation by either candidate. Given their similar, Republican rank-and-file positions on illegal immigration, abortion, education, taxes, gay marriage and Iraq, perhaps these two couldn't find anything else to fight about.

Republished with permission from factcheck.org

Sources
The Frontrunner. "PA10: GOP Rivals Spend Over $1 Million on TV Ads," 14 Apr. 2008.

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