PORK BARREL POLITICS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1998:

Manitoba “is offering Ducks
Unlimited up to $1 million over the next five
years to subsidize operations at its Canadian
headquarters,” Canadian Press reported on
March 18, “amid rumors it was planning to
relocate.” The headquarters, built in 1994 on
a former protected wetland with the help of $2
million from the Western Diversification
Fund, has reportedly become a political and
fundraising liability to Ducks Unlimited.
Word of the possible move reached the
Manitoba government via an anonymous letter
in a DU envelope.

The North Carolina State Board
of Elections ruled on April 4 that Farmers
for Fairness, representing mega-scale hog
producers, illegally operated as an unregistered
political action committee in trying to
defeat Republican state representatives Cindy
Watson and Bobby Ray Hall, leaders in trying
to curtail hog factory pollution. The
Board of Elections did not recommend penalties
against Farmers for Fairness, however,
and agreed to probe charges by Farmers for
Fairness political consultant Carter Wrenn
and Goldsboro Milling executive Nick Miller
that Republican state house speaker Harold
Brubaker allowed Watson and Hall to push
tough environmental bills because in his view
the hog producers hadn’t donated enough
money to the Republicans during the 1996
election campaign. Republican state representatives
John Nichols and Robert Grady supported
Wrenn and Miller. Brubaker denied
the allegations, claiming Nichols and Grady
were merely disgruntled became they didn’t
get the committee assignments they wanted.
The U.S. Public Interest Research
G r o u p on April 8 revealed that 228 political
action committees representing mining, timber,
real estate, petrochemical, and agribusiness
interests, united under the umbrellas of
the National Endangered Species Reform
Coalition, Endangered Species Coordinating
Council, and Grassroots ESA Coali
t i o n, have together given more than $100
million to Congressional candidates since
1989 in their drive to weaken the Endangered
Species Act. The ESA has been up for renewal
since 1991. Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho)
has received the most money, $525,000
through 1997. House Resources Committee
chair Don Young (R-Alaska) topped House
recipients, collecting $471,000. The biggest
donor was the National Association of
Realtors, which gave Congressional candidates
$14.9 million.