We Are Raising PAC Money in a New Environment

This week I had the opportunity to speak to approximately 700 sales reps for one of my clients – a small bio/tech pharmaceutical company that is foreign owned.  My job, of course, was to convince them that contributing to their PAC was something they should do immediately.
Two things stood out to me, and had to be addressed.

The first, of course, was the partisanship and polarization of the Congress which in many cases was directly reflected by the people in the room.  I arrived the day before and had the chance to talk with many of the attendees prior to my presentation.  A common refrain was, “the PAC gives to too many candidates of the wrong party.”  It came from people who are members of both parties.  This proved once again to me the value of knowing your audience before you speak.  I took special pains to make sure that when I asked people to contribute to the PAC.  I explained that it was less of a political contribution than it was a business investment in the political future of the company and industry.  Both Democrats and Republicans have supported the company on a number of its major, future defining issues.  It was less important that they like everyone that the PAC supports than it is that they recognize that the people the PAC contributes to support the company and vote positively on the issues that will define their future.

Secondly, I pointed out that the political environment has significantly changed, and that leadership in the House can no longer bring their own members to the floor in support of policy positions that leadership is advocating.  Speaker Boehner won his Speakership with 12 Republicans voting either against him or abstaining–bringing him within 6 votes of being forced to a second ballot.  Two thirds of his own conference, including his own Majority Leader, voted against him on the Bush tax compromise.  Many others voted against him on the Hurricane Sandy relief bill now working its way through Congress.  The leadership strategy that many PACs–especially smaller PACs–have taken over the past 25 years is no longer a viable strategy.  Now EVERY member of the house is important, and the way has been cleared for them to vote however they would like to regardless of the Leadership’s position.

One of the most famous lines from the movie “Jaws” is, “we are going to need a bigger boat.”  Now we can also say, “we are going to need a bigger PAC.”