BY PAUL BARTON
Enquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Rep. John Boehner has raised more than $3 million for the 1998 elections, with the total still growing as of Wednesday.
The figure comes from adding the money Mr. Boehner, R-West Chester, has raised for his own re-election race, money for his special fund that helps other Republican candidates and money for other election activities of the Republican Party.
The breakdown:
- $1 million for the Freedom Project, Mr. Boehner's political action committee that raises money for other GOP candidates.
So far it has given more than $500,000 to 63 of the 84
congressional races that national Republican leaders consider a priority.
- $1.04 million for Friends of John Boehner, Mr. Boehner's re-election fund. Mr. Boehner is expected to win re-election easily over John W. Griffin of Miamisburg. He has given $65,000 of that money to other GOP candidates nationwide, a spokesman said.
- At least $1 million in so-called "soft money" for national Republican activities, including "Operation Breakout" a special nationwide advertising campaign designed to provide a stretch-run boost to GOP candidates.
Soft money refers to contributions, unregulated in size, that are solicited from wealthy individuals and large corporations.
Mr. Boehner, the fourth-ranking member of the House GOP leadership, trumpeted his breaking of the $1 million barrier for the Freedom Project this week with a statement issued Wednesday that said the PAC had "entered an elite tier of political fund-raising organizations."
The Freedom Project is one of scores of so-called "leadership PACs" -- political action committees set up by prominent members of Congress that can collect money from many of same donors that also give to their personal re-election accounts.
It is common for key members of Congress to use their leadership PACs to distribute money to other candidates of their party.
In turn, Mr. Boehner and others who operate leadership PACs can gain clout with other members of Congress by giving to their races.
"The power attracts the money," Paul Hendrie, spokesman for the watchdog Center for Responsive Politics, said of how the Freedom Project and similar PACs are able to raise so much.
The Center for Responsive Politics found 46 firms and associations that had given both to Mr. Boehner's personal fund and the Freedom Project.
They included Brown & Williamson, U.S. Tobacco, AT&T, Union Pacific, BankAmerica Corp., Glaxo Wellcome Inc., Chevron, the National Association of Realtors, the National Retail Federation and RJR Nabisco.
