Richard Neal, the powerful Democratic chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, raised more money for his PAC in the second half of last year than in any other six-month period since the congressman first formed the fundraising vehicle in 2006.
The Madison PAC, Neal’s leadership PAC, reported raising $418,000 in its year-end FEC report, which it filed on Jan. 31. Of the 106 donations it received, 90 came from PACs associated with corporations or business trade associations.
Leadership PACs allow donors who may be seeking to curry influence with a lawmaker to make donations to members of Congress after they have already maxed out to their campaigns. For example, the PAC of Rock Holdings Inc., which owns Rocket Mortgage and several other companies, donated the per-cycle legal maximum of $10,000 to Neal’s campaign through three donations from May to September 2021, but it legally gave an additional $5,000 to Neal on Dec. 23 by way of The Madison PAC.
