Political capital

Examining US campaign contributions of the private equity industry in 2006 reveals a sharp leftward slant with 61 percent of the $5,106,800 total donations spent on Democrats, compared with 31 percent dedicated to their Republican opponents.
The chart above lists the top contributors in the industry, from www.opensecrets.org, a site run by the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan, non-profit research group that tracks money in politics. (Where the table names specific firms, in many cases the dollar amounts represent the contributions from individuals within that firm, not the firm itself. The Center makes no distinction between early and later stage investors, referring to both as “venture capital.”)
Of particular note is the geographic spread of both contributors and recipients, which refutes the idea of Silicon Valley as the capital of left-leaning sentiment in private equity. Bain Capital and Apax Partners hardly fit that mold, and represent two of the top ten most generous firms to the Democrats. Reviewing the split within given firms, few are bipartisan, with, for example, executives from Charles Rivers Ventures donating exclusively to Democratic candidates while Sunmark Capital’s team contributes only to the Grand Old Party.
The real anomaly in the data is the National Venture Capital Association, the trade group for the VC industry, with a split of 64 percent to 34 percent in favor of the Republicans.
The NVCA is the only Political Action Committee (PAC) on the list. The reason for the incongruity may be in the differences between the agenda of a lobbying group and the individual members whose interests they represent. Given that the contributions from the firms are actually from individuals within the firm, these donations may grow out of a more complex mix of personal and professional preferences.
The trade association, by definition, is focused solely on industry interests. The NVCA could be devoting resources to those candidates that have already shown a willingness to listen and address their concerns. Given the relatively long tenure of the Republican majority in Congress, those who’ve had the chance to demonstrate that willingness would be those largely within the party in power. The site lists the NVCA as the 16th largest campaign contributor to the outgoing Chairman of the Committee on Financial Services, Michael G. Oxley (R-OH), over the representative’s career.
The gamble is when power shifts, as the ranking Democrat on the Committee, Barney Frank (D-MA), does not list the NVCA among his top twenty contributors (see our interview with Frank on p. 7). However, the consequence of the trade group’s gamble may prove negligible, as the incoming Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was ranked among the top twenty recipients of industry support.