by Ciara O'Neill | 2018-06-07

The United States is one of only two countries in the world that permits private, for-profit bail operations… and where there’s profit, there’s political spending.

In recent years, the bail bond industry, a decentralized ecosystem of companies and agents increasingly underwritten by major multinational insurance companies, has been flexing its muscle to oppose reform attempts; for example, Maryland recently tried to ban cash bail but ultimately settled for a reduction after well-funded pushback from the industry.

In this report, funded by the Rockefeller Family Fund, the National Institute on Money in Politics looks at how the sprawling bail bond industry has sought to influence state-level politics from 2009 through 2017.

Findings include:

The industry spent $6.4 million lobbying state lawmakers, and an additional $1.8 million in direct contributions to state campaigns.



California and Florida, perennial top targets for industries involved in criminal justice, accounted for 36 percent of all dollars contributed by the bail bond industry and 47 percent of all its lobbying spending.



The trade group American Bail Coalition was the top spender in the industry, shelling out more than $1.5 million since 2009, mostly on lobbying.



The bail bond industry gave more state-level contributions in 2017 than it had in any other odd-year election.

Figure 1: Bail Bond Industry Political Spending, By Type, 2009-2017

Note: The number of states in which the Institute collected data on money spent lobbying doubled in 2012, therefore lobbying data prior to 2012 is excluded from this chart to avoid the appearance of an arbitrary spike in spending.

The private prison industry figures prominently into the equation, see Private Prisons: Principally Profit-Oriented and Politically Pliable.

Contributions From the Bail Bond Industry

Since 2009, the bail bond industry has directly contributed $1.8 million to state campaigns. The top contributor was Two Jinn Corporation DBA Aladdin Bail Bonds, which operates in seven states. The trade group American Bail Coalition and its member companies spent a total of $174,950 on state campaigns.

Table 1: Top Contributors, Bail Bond Industry, 2009-2017 Contributor Total Two Jinn Corporation DBA Aladdin Bail Bonds $193,850 North Carolina Bail Agents Association $148,300 Accredited Surety & Casualty $107,132 Lexington National Insurance $100,652 Mississippi Bail Agents Association $98,500 All-Pro Bail Bonds $85,000 American Bail Coalition $56,500 Georgia Association of Professional Bondsmen $55,000 AIA Surety* $42,035 Palmetto Surety Corp* $39,500

*Member companies of the American Bail Coalition

Unlike private prisons and prison service companies, the bail bond industry gives more to candidates than to party committees: 77 percent of its contributions since 2009 have gone directly to candidates.

Table 2: Bail Bond Industry Contributions, by Political Party, 2009-2017 Recipient Type Republican Democratic Total Candidates $860,619 $522,542 $1,383,161 Party Committees $81,850 $132,895 $214,745 $942,469 $655,437 $1,597,906

California and Florida were the top two state recipients of bail industry contributions, accounting for 36 percent of all dollars given since 2009. The industry gave politically in 29 states, averaging almost $63,000 per state.

Figure 2: Bail Bond Industry Contributions, Top 2 States, 2009-2017 https://public.tableau.com/profile/nimsp#!/vizhome/BailbondIndustryContributionsTop2States2009-2017/Dashboard1

The bail bond industry was strategic and successful in its giving: 72 percent of its candidate contributions went to incumbents and 80 percent to candidates who won their race.

In another contrast to both prison and prison service companies, the bail bond industry was much more focused on giving to legislative candidates; more than 80 percent of all its candidate contributions went to candidates for state house or senate, and these same types of candidates also dominated the top individual recipients.

Table 3: Bail Bond Industry Contributions, Top Candidate Recipients, 2009–2017 State Candidate Party Office Status Total California Curt C. Hagman Republican Assembly District 60/55 Won* $37,400 Texas Kevin P. Eltife Republican Senate District 1 Won $31,750 California Steve Cooley Republican Attorney General Lost $26,100 North Carolina Justin P. Burr Republican House District 67 Won* $24,000 Maryland Bobby A. Zirkin Democratic Senate District 11 Won* $22,100 Maryland Joseph F. Vallario, Jr. Democratic House District 27A/23B Won* $22,000 California John A. Perez Democratic Assembly District 53/

Comptroller Won/

Lost $18,000 Texas Charlie I. Uresti Democratic Senate District 19 Won* $17,560 Florida Bill McCollum Republican Governor Lost $15,800 California Anthony Rendon Democratic Assembly District 63 Won $15,625

*Won across multiple years

In general, the bail bond industry did not spend on ballot measures. The one exception was in 2014, when three companies — Two Jinn Corporation DBA Aladdin Bail Bonds, Lexington National Insurance, and Albert Ramirez Bail Bonds — gave a total of $75,900 to oppose Proposition 47 in California, which reduced certain drug and property offenses from a felony to a misdemeanor sentence. Proposition 47 passed.

Lobbying Spending

Since 2009, the bail bond industry spent $6.4 million lobbying in 10 of the 20 states where the Institute has data. The industry also hired 329 lobbyists across 33 states during this time period.

Table 4: Bail Industry Lobbying, Top Targeted States, 2009-2017 State Total California $1,590,293 Florida $1,405,000 New York $1,266,053 Texas $760,001 Colorado $610,608 Connecticut $236,066 Washington $225,673 Oregon $120,000 Wisconsin $111,000 Massachusetts $30,000

The trade group American Bail Coalition was the top lobbying spender, spending half again as much as the next highest, Accredited Surety & Casualty. The bulk of this $1.5 million was spent in California and New York.

Table 5: Bail Industry Top Lobbying Spenders, 2009-2017 Spender Total American Bail Coalition $1,480,061 Accredited Surety & Casualty $976,804 Two Jinn Corporation $794,241 BondFactor Co $785,000 Financial Casualty & Services $610,001 Lexington National Insurance $291,738 Golden State Bail Agents Association $281,740 Professional Bail Agents of Colorado $205,829 Professional Bondsmen of Texas $150,000 California Bail Agents Association $127,700

Figure 3: Bail Bond Industry Political Spending, 2009-2017

Appendix A: Companies Examined in the Report

To view a listing of bail bond companies that gave during the time period covered in this report, click here.

Appendix B: Bail Bond Client/Lobbyist List

The list of lobbyists was compiled by downloading the Institute’s 50-state list of state-registered lobbyists (available at http://www.followthemoney.org/lobbyist-link) and identifying clients coded as bail bond industry. The resulting dataset is summarized in the table below; the full file can be downloaded here.