The 2008 election and the ICCFA PAC
Current wisdom among political pundits seems to be that the Democrats will increase their majorities in both houses of Congress and most likely win the White House in 2008. It may be tempting to support only Democrats this year, but the ICCFA PAC (I chair the Disbursement Committee) has always supported candidates in both parties, regardless of who is in power at the moment. This strategy has worked well, keeping doors open for us regardless of who wins or loses.
Looking back over the past 20 years, I can’t recall one issue on Capitol Hill that directly involved our industry that did not receive bipartisan attention. So I believe we would be making a big mistake if we supported only one party.
The PAC was organized only about four years ago and is intended to give our members the opportunity to establish more of a presence in national politics. It’s really up to our members to decide how much they want to support it.
While our industry continues to be regulated primarily at the state level, nobody can deny that we will see ongoing efforts to extend federal regulation. When we visited key members of Congress, the one point almost all of them made was that they knew very little about our businesses. That should be a red flag for us, because legislators who understand very little about an industry can propose some very harmful legislation to regulate it. The ICCFA PAC is our vehicle to communicate with congressional members and tell our story.
The Government and Legal Fund
Unlike the PAC, which can receive only personal contributions from our members, the Government and Legal Fund can accept both corporate and personal donations. The fund underwrites a great many projects in our government relations programs.
We recently kicked off the 2007 fundraising campaign, and for the first time sent out solicitations by e-mail in addition to regular mail. We have a dedicated core
of contributors who give generously every year. Our challenge is to motivate many other members who rarely give or who have never given to the fund.
I realize that some will feel as though it is somebody else’s job to contribute, but because we are a relatively small industry, we don’t have the luxury of leaving support of the Government and Legal Fund to “the other guy”; we all need to participate. I have always believed that the more our members know about the issues we face, the more they will want to contribute to the fund.
—Irwin Shipper
Copyright ICCFA 2007
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