Schumer out on the campaign (money) trail
WASHINGTON - With little fanfare, Sen. Charles Schumer Sunday will hold his annual fundraiser at Yankee Stadium for IMPACT, his leadership political action committee, raking in bucks that he'll later give to Democrats in need.
It will be the latest in a series of fundraisers held this year by the senior Democratic senator from New York, all with no publicity and at least five of them sponsored by lobbyists in Washington or New York.
While Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Carolyn Maloney have drawn most of the attention in their expected battle over New York's junior Senate seat in next year's Democratic primary, Schumer has been quietly doing what he always does - raising money.
A growing war chest
Schumer has no announced opponent in either next year's primary or general election, but in the first half of this year he collected almost $5 million, filings for the Friends of Schumer campaign committee show.
In the last three months alone, Schumer raised twice as much as Gillibrand did ($3.3 million to $1.5 million).
Schumer now has stockpiled $14.9 million in the bank for his re-election bid next year for a third term in the Senate.
That's enough, said David Birdsell, dean of the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College, to either intimidate or battle any credible challenger.
Schumer spokesman Brian Fallon declined to say how many fundraisers Schumer has held or who sponsored them.
But Fallon said, "The vast majority of his fundraisers do not involve lobbyists." And, he added, Schumer acts independently of his contributors.
Birdsell said Schumer draws much interest-group funding because he is a top Senate Democrat who sits on influential committees crafting the overhauls of financial regulation, immigration and health care.
Records show Schumer also welcomes money from lobbyists, unlike President Barack Obama, who banned donations from them and vowed to diminish their role in Washington.
Bundles of cash
Last week, Schumer filed his first report under a new ethics law on how much PACs or lobbyists had collected from others to give to him, a practice called bundling. In it, he said six "bundlers" gave him a total of $292,075 this year.
The biggest bundler was the Greater New York Hospital Association, a lobbying group that contributed $131,700.
Meanwhile, lobbyists sponsored at least five Schumer fundraisers, according to invitations posted on the Web site politicalpartytime.org, run by Party Time, a project of the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan nonprofit that promotes government transparency.
Schumer's March 10 re-election kickoff at Johnny's Half Shell on Capitol Hill, for example, was underwritten by lobbying giant Van Scoyoc Associates, which paid $1,270 for catering costs, records show and a firm spokesman confirmed. The $65,000 donated to Schumer from March 9 to 11 all came from lobbyists and PACs.
And the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics found that Schumer raised the third most money in Congress ($137,100) from health care interests in the first quarter. But the center also issued a recent report saying Schumer is bucking his health care donors by backing a government health plan, or "public option," to compete with private insurers.
Fallon said, "Anyone needing proof of the senator's independence can note that throughout the health care reform battle, he has been the leading proponent of a public option that the health care industry hates."
Sunday, Schumer is raising money for his leadership PAC called IMPACT. For $5,000, donors get a tour of the new Yankee Stadium and a seat for the game against the Oakland A's.
In the past decade, Schumer has used IMPACT to give more than $1 million to Democrats. This year, Schumer already tried to put his stamp on a key race: IMPACT gave the maximum amount it can to Gillibrand, $5,000 for the primary, $5,000 for the general election.
But records show he hedged, waiting until four days after Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) dropped his primary challenge to Gillibrand before giving her general election funds.
Correction:
An article on Sen. Charles Schumer's campaign fundraising incorrectly identified a nonpartisan nonprofit website that posts political fundraiser invitations. The site is Party Time,
politicalpartytime.org, a project of the Sunlight Foundation.
