McCain interceded for donors, data show
Boston Globe
By Anne E. Kornblut and Walter V. Robinson
Globe Staff | January 9, 2000
WASHINGTON - Senator John McCain raised nearly $90,000 from broadcast and telecommunications companies in four instances shortly before or after he interceded on their behalf with federal regulators in 1998 and 1999, according to campaign records reviewed yesterday.
Aides released about 500 letters that McCain has written as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee since 1997, and it appeared last night that only 15 involved contributors to his campaigns. McCain, who has built his presidential candidacy around denunciations of special-interest money in Washington, said yesterday that his only concern was to protect consumers.
But in several cases, according to federal campaign finance records that were matched against the letters, the correspondence to the Federal Communications Commission, which McCain's committee oversees, coincided with substantial fund-raising efforts by the companies that stood to benefit from his actions.
In one case, officials of BellSouth Corp. donated $16,750 to the Arizona senator at a fund-raiser on May 6, 1998. Four months later, McCain asked the FCC in a letter to give ''serious consideration'' to allowing BellSouth to enter the long-distance market.
Although McCain has long favored the so-called Baby Bells, he also wrote to the FCC on behalf of AT&T, Sprint, and MCI Worldcom in June 1998. Two weeks later, Sprint officers donated $2,000. In October 1998, McCain raised another $25,800 from AT&T officials at a fund-raiser.
The records show that McCain also interceded on behalf of two major satellite television companies, Echostar and DirecTV, in an effort to help them win permission to carry local broadcast signals. Echostar's chairman raised about $25,000 for McCain in a period between two McCain letters on his behalf.
(Continued here.)
By Anne E. Kornblut and Walter V. Robinson
Globe Staff | January 9, 2000
WASHINGTON - Senator John McCain raised nearly $90,000 from broadcast and telecommunications companies in four instances shortly before or after he interceded on their behalf with federal regulators in 1998 and 1999, according to campaign records reviewed yesterday.
Aides released about 500 letters that McCain has written as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee since 1997, and it appeared last night that only 15 involved contributors to his campaigns. McCain, who has built his presidential candidacy around denunciations of special-interest money in Washington, said yesterday that his only concern was to protect consumers.
But in several cases, according to federal campaign finance records that were matched against the letters, the correspondence to the Federal Communications Commission, which McCain's committee oversees, coincided with substantial fund-raising efforts by the companies that stood to benefit from his actions.
In one case, officials of BellSouth Corp. donated $16,750 to the Arizona senator at a fund-raiser on May 6, 1998. Four months later, McCain asked the FCC in a letter to give ''serious consideration'' to allowing BellSouth to enter the long-distance market.
Although McCain has long favored the so-called Baby Bells, he also wrote to the FCC on behalf of AT&T, Sprint, and MCI Worldcom in June 1998. Two weeks later, Sprint officers donated $2,000. In October 1998, McCain raised another $25,800 from AT&T officials at a fund-raiser.
The records show that McCain also interceded on behalf of two major satellite television companies, Echostar and DirecTV, in an effort to help them win permission to carry local broadcast signals. Echostar's chairman raised about $25,000 for McCain in a period between two McCain letters on his behalf.
(Continued here.)
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