ANALYSIS — Hundreds of PAC people escaped Washington earlier this month for a South Florida resort, huddling over the latest trends in political money and seeking clues about the future of their beleaguered enterprises.

One breakout session, dubbed “Under Siege,” aptly portrayed the angst that hung over the crowd like the shade cast by palm trees over the hotel pool. These folks run the political action committees of corporations and business associations just when a growing contingent of lawmakers is rejecting their donations.

It’s not just the number of members of Congress taking no-PAC pledges (more than 50 so far) that’s a problem, but their party affiliation — almost entirely Democratic. If the trend spreads into the 2020 campaign cycle, it could put corporations and associations in a bind.

That’s because, even as candidates and voters alike malign these PACs, they are unlike their big-money cousin super PACs. Corporate campaign coffers are bastions of bipartisanship. Many of the top PACs connected to businesses and trade groups maintain roughly balanced giving ratios — half to Republicans, half to Democrats — and some of them have enshrined such practices.

“We see some PACs that literally have it written into their bylaws that they will achieve a specific split, whether that’s 50-50 or, for some, it’s 60-40,” said Kristin Brackemyre, senior manager of the PAC and advocacy practice for the Public Affairs Council, which organized the Florida conference where this reporter spoke on a panel about campaign finance news.