Individuals at a law firm founded by Charles H. Keating, Jr., who symbolized how political influence contributed to the collapse of savings and loans in the 1980s, have bundled at least $50,000 to John McCain’s presidential campaign since June, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics has calculated, making the Cincinnati-based firm McCain’s sixth-largest contributor during that period. McCain was among “The Keating Five,” a group of senators who benefited from more than $1 million in campaign contributions connected to Keating and personally intervened with government regulators to allow his S&L to make risky investments that ultimately defrauded thousands of investors and cost taxpayers $3.4 billion.

In amounts ranging from $200 to $2,300, about 30 partners and employees of the legal firm Keating, Muething and Klekamp, as well as their family members, have contributed $50,200 to McCain’s 2008 campaign. All but two of the contributions came in July, and all but three of those July donations were logged on July 31, suggesting they were delivered at the same time. As with any bundle of campaign contributions, it’s difficult to determine which donor was the “bundler,” the person who solicited the contributions on the campaign’s behalf. McCain’s online roster of bundlers, which purports to name any individual bundling $50,000 or more for the campaign, does not associate any of McCain’s major fundraisers with the Keating firm.

One of the firm’s longtime clients, Cincinnati billionaire Carl Lindner Jr., is listed as a McCain bundler who has delivered $50,000 to $100,000 to the campaign, and his son, Carl Lindner III, has bundled $250,000 to $500,000. The Lindners and employees of Keating, Muething and Klekamp had been mostly Mitt Romney supporters during the Republican primary. The law firm’s attorneys contributed more than $40,000 to Romney’s campaign in March 2007.

Charles Keating, who went to prison for defrauding investors, is now 84, according to reports, and appears to be uninvolved in the law firm he helped found more than 50 years ago. The only Keating in the recent bundle of contributions to McCain’s campaign is $1,000 contributor William J. Keating, Jr., who is listed as a partner in the firm and appears to be Charles Keating’s nephew. William J. Keating, Sr., Charles Keating’s brother, was a Republican congressman from Ohio.

A political benefactor and friend of McCain, Charles Keating was chairman of Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which collapsed under the financial weight of highly risky real estate investments. Lincoln was able to make those investments thanks to deregulation of savings and loan associations in the ’80s. Keating’s friends in Congress helped personally fend off a crackdown by regulators that might have prevented the failure of Lincoln and hundreds of other S&Ls. The Senate ethics committee investigated the Keating scandal and reprimanded McCain, the only Republican among the five senators, for his “poor judgment.” McCain has acknowledged as much, and the sting of the scandal led to his sponsorship of campaign finance reforms years later.



For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics.For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: [email protected]

·

Support Accountability Journalism At OpenSecrets.org we offer in-depth, money-in-politics stories in the public interest. Whether you’re reading about 2020 presidential fundraising, conflicts of interest or “dark money” influence, we produce this content with a small, but dedicated team. Every donation we receive from users like you goes directly into promoting high-quality data analysis and investigative journalism that you can trust. Please support our work and keep this resource free. Thank you. Support OpenSecrets ➜

Read more OpenSecrets News & Analysis: