Tech firms back two Senate Commerce Republicans

With the seats of Republican Sens. John Sununu of New Hampshire and Gordon Smith of Oregon on the line Tuesday, media and technology heavyweights such as Google, Cisco and Time Warner Inc. are opening their wallets in an effort to keep these members of the powerful Senate Commerce Committee in office for another term.

Comment on this article in The Forum.Both lawmakers have taken pro-business stances on a range of communications issues, which may explain why so many companies want them around in the 111th Congress. In 2006, each voted for passage of a massive telecommunications deregulation bill that was approved by the panel but stalled in the full Senate. Sununu faces a tight race against former Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen while Smith is battling Jeff Merkley, the Democratic speaker of the state House of Representatives.

FEC filings covering the third quarter of the year indicate the senators are benefiting from a last-minute push by tech players, with PAC donations totaling $20,000 to each candidate. During the 2007-2008 election cycle, Sununu raked in at least $160,000 from tech-related PACs while Smith received at least $180,000 over the same period, according to FEC reports. Individual contributions from executives, lobbyists and company employees would push those totals even higher.

"Anytime an industry finds a friend on the committee that regulates it, the industry will want to do whatever it can to keep that friend around," said Massie Ritsch of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. "Incumbents are known quantities," he said, adding these companies already have invested considerable time and money in forging relationships with them.

Since 2007, the most generous tech contributors to Sununu were the Consumer Electronics Association, Google, Microsoft and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, which each gave $9,000, followed by Time Warner and its cable affiliate, which kicked in $8,000. For Smith, top benefactors were Comcast, the nation's largest cable provider, and NCTA, which gave $10,000 each, the maximum covering a general election and primary, followed by Cisco and T-Mobile, which donated $9,000.

A cable industry spokesman declined to comment on the motivations for the industry's generosity.

Google could be a factor in both races -- the search engine giant, which did not form a PAC until late 2006, contributed $4,000 to Sununu and $2,000 to Smith during the third quarter of 2008. Since 2007, it has given $9,000 in PAC donations to the New Hampshire senator and $7,000 to the Oregonian. If one or both senators prevail Tuesday, they'll remember the companies that helped them eek out their victories, Ritsch said, adding: "Your true friends -- the ones you'll feel most indebted to -- are the ones who are with you in the toughest times."