Brokers, Accountants Try to Buy Some Lenience

Big Bucks for Candidates

The CRP said brokers also have given generously to Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.), who is a presumed presidential candidate for 2004, and to Erskine Bowles, the Democrat facing Elizabeth Dole in the Senate race in North Carolina. Because Bowles has been involved in legal wrangling of his own, he may be more sympathetic to the brokerage industry, experts say.

Bowles has been named in a lawsuit filed by Connecticut officials who are probing investments he made while serving as general partner at Forstmann Little. Bowles didn't return calls. A spokesman for Kerry said he doesn't take PAC money, adding that individuals within the securities industry are likely supporting him because many of them are based in Massachusetts and think he's "a stand-up guy."

Rep. Michael Oxley (R., Ohio), chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, also has raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars from the brokerage industry, the CRP said. He has made it clear that he doesn't intend to pursue legislation that would crack down on so-called IPO spinning -- a practice in which brokerages allocate hot IPO shares to executives in order to win investment banking business from their firms. Oxley's office didn't return calls.

Larry Noble, executive director and general counsel at CRP, said brokerages generally donate because they want to make sure they have access to officials when an issue comes up that concerns them. "Sometimes they give because they want something, and sometimes they give because they don't want something. In this case, they don't want further regulation," he said.

Brokerages also have given large donations to incumbent Sen. Max Baucus (D., Mont.), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, the CRP said. Baucus is a fiscal moderate and free trader who angered Democrats by working to produce a $1.3 trillion tax-cut plan that was skewed to upper-income families. Baucus didn't return calls.

In the accounting profession, major contributors to political campaigns include Ernst & Young, Deloitte & Touche and KPMG, the CRP said. These firms and their political action committees have donated heavily to Senate candidate Norm Coleman (R., Minn.), who has a legal background and close ties to the corporate community. KPMG had no comment. The other accounting firms and Coleman didn't return calls.

The industry also is supporting Sen. Michael Enzi (R., Wyo.), according to the CRP. Enzi was among those who pressured Levitt to abort his accounting-reform goals. A spokeswoman for Enzi said he is the only accountant in the Senate and is "a leader on issues that the industry is in agreement with."