Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) is shown in his office in this August 2004 photo. He's long been a powerful booster of defense industry giants like Lockheed Martin, and Lockheed has helped him back through bundled donations. Members get bundles of lobbyist cash

Hawaii Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye has long been a powerful booster of defense industry giants like Lockheed Martin, repeatedly helping out the $40 billion company throughout his long career in Congress.

But the relationship has been far from a one-way street.


A lobbyist for Lockheed Martin has bundled scores of smaller donations, directing tens of thousands of dollars into Inouye’s campaign war chest, according to his latest campaign finance reports.

Inouye’s situation is hardly unique. Even as President Barack Obama vows to take on special interests, lobbyists continue to bundle millions in donations for lawmakers, often when they have a direct stake in the lawmakers’ policy portfolio. Tourism interests are bundling thousands for Missouri Republican Rep. Roy Blunt, who represents the tourist mecca of Branson. A Wal-Mart lobbyist is piling together money for Arkansas Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s reelection bid, and environmental interests are bundling checks for California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer’s campaign.

The continued practice of lobbyist donation bundling shows that Obama’s pledge to take on lobbyists and special interests in Washington is one promise that’s been almost nearly impossible to keep.

In 2009 alone, lobbyists and corporate political action committees bundled at least $4.6 million for Senate campaigns, according to a review of the latest Federal Election Commission reports. This is the first full year candidates have been forced to disclose their bundlers, so there are no comparable data from previous years.

Inouye’s office declined to comment about the $42,000 that lobbyist Lawrence Duncan of Lockheed Martin pulled in for the senator in the last six months of 2009, and a Lockheed spokesman did not respond to an inquiry seeking comment.

The relationship between bundling and bills remains close for many of the top Senate candidates in 2010.

For instance, Blunt, who is seeking the GOP Senate nomination in Missouri, has for years pushed bills supported by the travel and tourism industry. He has sponsored a tax deduction for spouses tagging along on business-related trips and a separate bill to promote international travel to the United States.

While Blunt sponsored such measures, a variety of hotel and travel corporations, including Marriott and Hilton, helped lead the way in bundling donations for the congressman. In the first six months of last year, Blunt reported $310,000 in bundled donations — the most of any Senate candidate in that time span.

Rich Chrismer, a Blunt campaign spokesman, touted the campaign’s ability to pull in donations from individual donors and across all 114 counties in Missouri.

“Roy Blunt represents Branson and a state that is heavily dependent on tourism, so, of course, he is going to support the hospitality industry and seek incentives to double the number of business travelers to Missouri,” Chrismer said.

But government watchdogs think such relationships are a bit too cozy.

“If these bundlers were just pals or fans of the candidate/member, doing it because they believed in their message, it wouldn’t be nearly as problematic,” said Sheila Krumholz, executive director for the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics. “But these are professionals, with specific strings attached to their highly valued fundraising services, be they legislative or personal favors, or simply chits they can hold until they need to call in a favor.”

On average, House candidates have to raise some $1.4 million while their Senate counterparts raise $8.5 million for their respective races, according to tallies kept by the Center for Responsive Politics.

In 2007, Congress attempted to place new transparency rules on donations, and last year the FEC wrote guidelines requiring campaigns to disclose which individuals and groups bundle more than $16,000 for them while working as registered lobbyists.

The new disclosures help shed light on why members of Congress may focus attention on particular causes.

“They are not bundling this cash for altruistic reasons: They want to get the senators’ attention and interest,” said Steve Ellis, vice president of the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense. “Earmarks and bundling are key cogs keeping the pay-to-play merry-go-round turning in Washington.”

In many cases, the relationship of corporate bundlers to senators comes naturally.

Wal-Mart is the biggest private employer in Arkansas, and $27,400 of the $100,000 Lincoln received in bundled contributions came from a lobbyist for the retail giant. Lincoln, a centrist facing a tough reelection battle, has previously been accused by the left for doing the bidding of Wal-Mart by fighting a bill that would make it easier to unionize.

“Sen. Lincoln is proud to have [Wal-Mart’s] support and to work on behalf of the more than 40,000 employees in Arkansas and the hundreds of thousands of customers who live and work in Arkansas,” said campaign spokeswoman Katie Laning Niebaum. Speaking of the new disclosure requirements on bundling, the spokeswoman said: “She supported these changes because, regardless of her fundraising totals, Sen. Lincoln knows that she is accountable to the voters of Arkansas alone.”

On the left, Boxer, chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has long been a crusader for environmental issues, and one of the activist groups, the League of Conservation Voters’ PAC, bundled $22,500 to her campaign last year. A spokeswoman for Boxer declined to comment.

Even newcomers to Washington have pulled the levers of lobbyists to help their fundraising. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), a relative unknown who was selected last year to fill the seat vacated by now-Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, received $163,000 in bundled donations from lobbyists last year, including more than $91,000 from one lobbyist whose firm represents big banks and other clients. A spokesman for Bennet’s campaign declined to comment.

Out of all sitting senators, New York Democrat Chuck Schumer — who has a staggering $19 million in cash on hand — led all senators in bundled lobbyist donations: nearly $575,000 from interests on Wall Street, like the New York Stock Exchange PAC, as well as from life insurers and other corporate interests. A spokesman declined to comment.

Not far behind Schumer is the Senate’s top Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada, who reported $337,900 from corporate PACs such as airlines and railways, as well as from Democratic lobbyists Tony Podesta, Linda Daschle and Paul DiNino. Reid has $8.7 million in cash in his campaign account — putting him in the top tier of all candidates up this cycle.

Jon Summers, spokesman for Reid, said what is “most important about this issue is transparency, and Sen. Reid is being as transparent as possible.”

Even candidates not from Washington have turned to lobbyists to help pull in cash: Florida Republican Gov. Charlie Crist reported $286,474 from mostly Florida-based lobbyists in the past year.

Andrea Saul, spokeswoman for Crist, said their campaign is “grateful for the broad fundraising support” they’ve received and that Crist is the “only candidate in this race that has taken on special interests and worked to root out corruption in Florida.”

At this point, it doesn’t seem like either party is willing to give up the easy money. Lobbyists and PACs bundled $1.5 million for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee received $742,050 in bundled donations.

“I think the only one who has taken on special interests is President Obama — I don’t think Congress has any desire to,” said Melanie Sloan, head of the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.