This category of posts will take a deeper look at contributions from companies and entities. I hope to point out what entities are lobbying for at the statehouse, which politicians those entities contribute to, and whether those politicians vote in line with the company's interests. I'm beginning this discussion with a look into Associated General Contractors of Iowa PAC (AGCI), a group that I previously showed is the #1 company/entity contributor to Republican candidates and the #8 company/entity contributor to Democratic candidates. In a somewhat bi-partisan manner, AGCI has given $870,000 to Republican candidates and $650,000 to Democratic candidates.

What is Associated General Contractors of Iowa PAC?

AGCI is an organization of contractors in the construction industry, and their members are mostly local construction businesses. AGCI has 5 lobbyists at the state capitol. In the last legislative session, AGCI lobbied for 13 bills and against 5 bills. The most interesting of these is HF767, a bill with something for everyone to hate. For Republicans, the bill created a new tax (Interestingly, Iowans for Tax Relief chose not to lobby against the bill). For Democrats, the tax that was created was on electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles. The tax revenue generated goes to the Road Use Tax Fund, which funds road construction projects. This is probably why AGCI lobbied for the bill, which passed both houses and was signed by the governor. So let's take a look at the legislators who voted for the bill and see which ones accepted money from AGCI.

State Senators

The following senators voted for the bill. Names in bold received contributions from AGCI. Kevin Kinney and Herman Quirmbach were the only Democrats who voted for the bill. Of the 34 senators who voted for the bill, 27 had received contributions from AGCI.

Behn
Breitbach
Brown
Carlin
Chapman
Costello
Cournoyer
Dawson
Edler
Feenstra
Garrett
Greene
Guth
Johnson
Kapucian
Kinney
Koelker
Kraayenbrink
Lofgren
Miller-Meeks
Nunn
Quirmbach
Rozenboom
Schneider
Schultz
Segebart
Shipley
Sinclair
Smith, R.
Sweeney
Whiting
Whitver
Zaun
Zumbach

State Representatives

The following representatives voted for the bill. Names in bold accepted contributions from AGCI. The house vote was more bipartisan than the senate vote, so party affiliation is in parentheses after Representatives' names. Of the 78 representatives who voted for the bill, 60 had received contributions from AGCI.

Anderson (D)
Bacon (R)
Baxter (R)
Bearinger (D)
Bergan (R)
Best (R)
Bloomingdale (R)
Bossman (R)
Breckenridge (D)
Brink (R)
Brown-Powers (D)
Carlson (R)
Cohoon (D)
Deyoe (R)
Dolecheck (R)
Ehlert (D)
Fisher (R)
Forbes (D)
Fry (R)
Gaskill (D)
Gassman (R)
Gerhold (R)
Grassley (R)
Gustafson (R)
Hagenow (R)
Hall (D)
Hanusa (R)
Hein (R)
Hinson (R)
Hite (R)
Holt (R)
Huseman (R)
Isenhart (D)
Jacobsen (R)
James (D)
Jeneary (R)
Jones (R)
Judge (D)
Kaufmann (R)
Kerr (R)
Klein (R)
Konfrst (D)
Kressig (D)
Kurtz (D)
Landon (R)
Lohse (R)
Lundgren (R)
Maxwell (R)
McConkey (D)
Meyer, A. (R)
Meyer, B. (D)
Mitchell (R)
Mohr (R)
Mommsen (R)
Moore (R)
Nielsen (D)
Oldson (D)
Osmundson (R)
Paustian (R)
Prichard (D)
Running-Marquardt (D)
Salmon (R)
Sexton (R)
Sieck (R)
Smith, R. (D)
Sorensen (R)
Staed (D)
Sunde (D)
Thompson (R)
Thorup (R)
Upmeyer, Spkr. (R)
Wheeler (R)
Williams (D)
Wills (R)
Windschitl (R)
Wolfe (D)
Worthan (R)
Zumbach (R)

So What?

The point of this is not to attack AGCI, which is simply doing its job and advocating on behalf of it's members. The point is that the people's voice is lost when money is speech. Our politicians are supposed to stand up for the public interest, not the interests of a few powerful entities. But it turns out, when one of the top donors to both parties talks, legislators listen. Republicans who are against taxation lost their voice at the statehouse. Democrats who care about climate change lost their voice at the statehouse. Bad legislation happens when the dollar means more than the People.

Cover image attribution

This image was edited by me from creative commons source images:

"Tax Bill"by 401(K) 2013 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

"compositor-4"by cdorobek is licensed under CC BY 2.0