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Sophistication in Corporate Pac Contributions

Demobilizing the Opposition

Lehigh University

This research examines the extent to which highly funded corporate political action committees' (PACs') contributions reflect concerns associated with PAC leaders. Four airline and three rail company PACs' contributions to House candidates in the 1980 election are analyzed. Results reveal that, contrary to past findings regarding highly funded association PACs, the contributions of these corporate PACs reflect priorities generally associated with PAC leaders. In particular, these PACs made larger contributions to candidates who were likely to oppose them than they did to candidates who were among their expected supporters in an apparent attempt to demobilize opposition. These findings are especially important because, although highly funded corporate PACs constitute a small portion of all PACs, they account for a substantial portion of total PAC contributions and therefore have important ramifications for the nature of PAC influence.

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