Cut-Off Date for Contributions
The cut-off date of August 31, 1998 for contributions was necessary to produce this study in a timely and useful fashion.  According to Federal Election Commission guidelines, contributions from PACs for the month ending August 31 have to be reported by September 20.  Likewise, contributions through September 30, are not be uniformly available until October 20 which was too close to election day for this study to be produced and still be relevant.

Selection of Top Union PACs
There are numerous ways to gauge the size and power of Top Union PACs.  Different criteria may have yielded different lists of the Top 20 Union PACs.  For this study, the Top 20 selected led in Total Political Disbursements through July 31 of this election cycle.

• Total Political Disbursements: this criterion was used because it demonstrates the overall power of the PAC.  Included in this figure are contributions to local unions for political purposes, contributions to other PACs and party committees, such as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Republican National Senatorial Committee, and non-federal contributions to state level candidates.  The focus, however, of this study was  federal candidates; thus after the Top 20 were selected, the study analyzed (1) contributions to federal candidates (line 23 of FEC Form 3X), (2) independent expenditures to federal candidates (line 24) and (3) other disbursements made to federal candidates such as recount costs (line 29).  The study, for obvious accuracy reasons, also took into account all refunds and returned contributions by deducting these amounts from recipients' totals.

 
• Cut-Off Date of July 31 for Selection of Top 20 Union PACs: a date was necessary to begin analysis.  July 31 was recent enough to give an accurate picture of this cycle's trends, yet it provided enough time to complete the research.  Further, the difference in Total Political Disbursements between union #20, United Steelworkers of America, and unions #21 and #22, International Association of Fire Fighters and Seafarers International Union of North America, respectively, was almost $60,000.  Thus, the likelihood of any PAC falling out of the Top 20 from July 31 to August 31 was slim.

Because there are strong similarities in the patterns among the Top 20, it is not unreasonable to assume that the conclusions and trends drawn from this study would be similar to those of most other union and labor organization PACs.

Selection of Federal Candidates
This study focused on federal candidates, U.S. House and U.S. Senate, who will be on the November 3 ballot.  Thus, candidates who may have made a Top 20 list but retired, lost a special election, such as Eric Serna (NM-3) and Eric Vitaliano (NY-13), or lost a primary or run-off election, such as Nate Coulter (AR-Sen.), were not included because, although they received large amounts from the Top 20 Union PACs, they are no longer running for office.

Somewhat of an exception to this criterion are Senators seeking reelection in 2000 or 2002.  Since they are still running for office, this study looked at their contributions.  Although several Senators from both parties did accept contributions this cycle for future cycle campaigns, only Sen. Edward Kennedy (MA) made the list of Top 20 Senate Recipients.

Further, this study focused on federal as opposed to state candidates in order to obtain an accurate indication of activity.  Some, but not all, federal union and labor organization PACs give money to state candidates, but all give to federal candidates.  Some employ other mechanisms to contribute to state candidates.  Thus, to compare state level giving of these federal PACs would be arbitrary and inaccurate without additional extensive research.

To return to the index of The Top 20 from the Top 20 study click here.