Days after U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., launched his campaign for the U.S. Senate last November, he declared that he would no longer accept contributions from corporate political action committees.
“This campaign is powered by people,” he tweeted at the time. “We aren’t accepting any corporate PAC money. We want Vermonters and people across the country to know we are fighting for them.”
But that doesn’t mean Welch is refusing big-dollar donations from industry groups that frequently lobby Congress.
In its quarterly campaign finance report filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission, Welch’s Senate campaign logged numerous multi-thousand-dollar contributions from PACs associated with the medical, agricultural, real estate and retail industries, among others.
Between Jan. 1 and March 31, several such PACs donated the maximum $5,000 to Welch, including the National Association of Realtors, Food Marketing Institute and National Association of Convenience Stores. Other industry groups made similar contributions last quarter.
Such PACs are technically not corporate PACs, according to the FEC. They’re trade associations, defined as “a membership organization of persons engaging in a similar or related line of commerce, organized to promote and improve business conditions in that line of commerce.”
Asked how such trade PACs represent the interests of everyday Vermonters, Welch’s campaign spokesperson, Arianna Jones, said the House member “has been working hard to deliver for Vermonters every day and always puts their interests first.”
The campaign declined to make Welch available for an interview on Monday.
According to its quarterly report, Welch’s campaign brought in a total of $839,375 in campaign contributions in the first quarter of this year. Of that, $612,750 came from individual donors, not political committees.
More than a quarter of Welch’s total, $226,625, came from other political committees, such as PACs.
Industries that have contributed to Welch’s campaign since it launched include:
- Medicine: American Medical Association ($1,000), American Health Care Association ($1,000), American Psychiatric Association ($1,000), American Optometric Association ($5,000), American Dental Association ($5,000), American Ambulance Association ($2,000)
- Real estate: Real Estate Roundtable ($5,000), National Association of Realtors ($5,000)
- Retail/grocers: Retail Industry Leaders Association ($2,000), National Grocers Association ($1,000), Food Marketing Institute ($5,000)
- Travel: American Hotel and Lodging Association ($5,000), U.S. Travel Association ($2,500)
- Agriculture: National Milk Producers ($4,500), Dairy Farmers of America, Inc. ($5,000), Crop Insurance Professionals Association ($2,500)
Though these groups do not represent individual corporations, they are often funded by corporate insiders. For example, donors to the Retail Industry Leaders Association in recent years included employees of Autozone, Tractor Supply, Best Buy, Dollar General, Lowe’s and Target, according to OpenSecrets.org, which tracks the influence of money on politics. The retail leaders association has spent between $2 and $3 million a year on lobbying in recent years, according to the site.
Barnes and Thornburg PAC, an Indianapolis-based lobbying and law firm, sent $1,500 Welch’s way in February.
Welch also received multi-thousand-dollar donations from leadership PACs operated by his congressional colleagues. Political candidates often establish such entities to raise additional money and distribute it to others. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s Follow the North Star Fund and U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono’s Pineapple PAC, for example, each transferred $5,000 to Welch’s campaign.
Welch’s own Maple PAC took $5,000 worth of contributions in recent months from both the National Association of Convenience Stores and the American Cable Association.
When Welch launched his Senate campaign in November, he had a head start on fundraising, carrying over his $2.1 million House campaign account. Though he pledged not to accept corporate PAC donations this election cycle, he did accept such donations in years past. His multi-million-dollar war chest was padded by donations from the likes of General Electric, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Toyota, Ford, Home Depot and more. He received such donations as recently as Sept. 30, 2021.
As of March 31, Welch’s campaign boasts $2.9 million. Since launching his Senate campaign in November, he has raised nearly $1.4 million and spent roughly $544,874.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Welch pledged to refuse corporate contributions to his Senate campaign. But ‘trade associations’ don’t count..