Cory Booker, other Democratic presidential candidates shun corporate PAC money, but does it matter?

[brooklynite]

Newark Star-Ledger

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Cory Booker says he “won’t take a dime from corporate PACs." Neither will U.S. Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York or any other 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.

It’s an easy promise to make. Corporate PACs don’t give much money to presidential candidates.

Such donations accounted for just $2.7 million of the $4.5 billion raised by those running for president in the last three elections, according to a NJ Advance Media analysis of Federal Election Commission data.

“All these candidates are beating their chests about not taking corporate PAC contributions,” said former FEC Chairman Michael Toner, chief counsel to George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign. “They weren’t going to get them in the first place."

A refusal to accept corporate PAC money was a major plank of many House Democratic campaigns in the 2018 midterm elections when the party regained the majority. Candidates taking the pledge included freshmen Reps. Andy Kim, D-3rd Dist., and Tom Malinowski, D-7th Dist., both of whom ousted Republican incumbents while pledging to overhaul campaign finance and ethics laws.