IAB Scores in Midterm Elections

Key privacy lawmaker Rick Boucher is out, and several recipients of IAB PAC cash were re-elected Tuesday.

freduptonThis week’s midterm elections could have significant ramifications for the online ad industry when it comes to pending privacy legislation and other issues. And, when it comes to campaign donations, the online ad industry’s most prominent trade group picked several winners. Of the 17 legislators the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Political Action Committee has given campaign contributions to since 2009, 11 were re-elected.

Among the IAB’s best bets this year was a September donation of $1,500 to the re-election campaign of Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan. The Republican (pictured above) is reportedly vying for the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee; comprehensive privacy legislation was introduced in the Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet earlier this year. Upton chaired that subcommittee from 2001 to 2006 and is a current member.

Following the November 2 elections, Republicans will take control of the House, meaning committee chairmanships will be transferred to GOP lawmakers. Though Rep. Joe Barton of Texas is the committee’s ranking member, Capitol Hill insiders believe he may not be handed the position.

Throughout the year, the IAB’s lobbying arm parsed out its money selectively, giving primarily to lawmakers who play key roles in crafting and moving legislation affecting consumer privacy, behavioral targeting, industry competition, and broader advertising and marketing related issues.

The 11 Federal legislators on the receiving end of IAB PAC cash in 2009 and 2010 who won re-election on Tuesday are Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), Rep. Chris Murphy (D-CT), Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY), Rep. Fred Upton (R – MI), and Rep. Ed Whitfield (R – KY).

Just two IAB funding recipients lost in 2010 – both in upsets. First came Rep. Michael Castle of Delaware, who lost in the Republican primary to the now-famous tea partier Christine O’Donnell, who went on to lose on Tuesday. Perhaps even more significant for the IAB and online ad industry concerns, however, was the loss of 14-term incumbent Democrat, Rep. Rick Boucher in his bid to hold on to his once-safe seat representing Virginia.

Boucher chairs the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, and floated a draft online privacy bill in May. That draft was largely met with negativity, both from industry players and privacy advocates, and was soon followed by a bill proposed by Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois, who, by the way, won his re-election bid. In addition to Upton, Stearns and Dingell sit on the technology and Internet subcommittee.

Though the IAB PAC funded Boucher’s re-election campaign in two separate donations in 2009 and 2010 totaling $1,500 – including one for $500 made this September – the organization did not appear to be his biggest fan.

“Why does Rep. Boucher want to imprison the Internet economy?” asked IAB President Randall Rothenberg in a January 11 op-ed in beltway publication The Hill. He suggested Boucher’s impending privacy bill “promises to erode the burgeoning field of e-commerce, harm ad-supported news and entertainment media, and destroy the tens of thousands of small businesses in all 50 states that have come to depend on interactive technologies for marketing, retailing, and customer connectivity.”

The IAB also gave money in the past two years to four lawmakers who were not up for re-election this year, all Senators: Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), and Mark Warner (D-VA).

IAB PAC Donations to Lawmakers, January-September 2010
Recipient Amount Key Committee Assignment/s
Boucher for Congress Committee (Rep. Rick Boucher, D-VA) $500 Communications, Technology, and the Internet Subcommittee
Castle Campaign Fund (Michael Castle, R-DE) $1,000 House Financial Services Committee
John D. Dingell for Congress (D-MI) $1,000 House Energy and Commerce Committee
Gillibrand for Senate PAC (Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY) $2,500 Senate Domestic and Foreign Marketing Subcommittee
Nelson 2012 (Ben Nelson (D-NE) $1,000 Senate Domestic and Foreign Marketing, Inspection, and Plant and Animal Health
Friends of Cliff Stearns (R-FL) $1,000 House Communications, Technology, and the Internet Subcommittee
Committee to Re-Elect Ed Towns (D-NY) $1,000 House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
Upton for All of Us (Rep. Fred Upton, R-MI) $1,500 House Communications, Technology, and the Internet Subcommittee
Friends of Mark Warner (D-VA) $1,000 Senate Commerce Committee
Whitfield for Congress Committee (Rep. Ed Whitfield, R – KY) $750 House Energy and Commerce Committee, Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection Subcommittee
Wyden for Senate (Ron Wyden, D-OR) $4,900 Senate Int’l Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness Subcommittee
Total Campaign Contributions in 2010 $16,150 N/A
Source: FEC reports analyzed by ClickZ News

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