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Home Builders Halt Campaign Funds After Setback
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The association's decision was the subject of ridicule among some veteran lobbyists and trade-group executives yesterday. One long-time association head said via e-mail that the home builders' statement showed the "political instincts of spoiled children." The e-mail continued: "One would think that a savvy staff would have kept them from something that will make them the laughing stock of Washington."
Others cheered the association's choice. "This is what more industries should do," said Cleta Mitchell, an ethics lawyer at Foley & Lardner. "Stop supporting officeholders who don't support their views."
A spokesman for the association declined to elaborate on Catalde's written statement.
Home building has been one of the industries hardest hit by the recent economic slowdown. The credit crunch that began last year, prompted by the subprime mortgage mess, squeezed money available for new home purchases and reduced capital available for home building.
Last month, the Commerce Department reported that sales of new single-family houses nationwide dipped 4.7 percent in December from November. Sales in 2007 plummeted 26.4 percent from 2006, the biggest year-to-year drop since the agency began keeping track in 1963.
Even so, the National Association of Home Builders has remained a potent Washington lobby, and its political donations have been robust.
Its BUILD-PAC is the nation's 17th-largest political action committee as well as the seventh-largest corporate PAC, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. In the current election cycle, BUILD-PAC has collected more than $2 million and dispensed $1.5 million to candidates, 55 percent to Republicans and 45 percent to Democrats.
It still has $826,669 available to spend.
