Jonathan Martin on the Hotline blog:
For all the Republican effort in the last decade to append Washington’s corporate lobbying community to the GOP coalition, K Street’s main project, as it were, is, was, and always will be to deliver for clients and companies. To ensure favorable legislation — or to block unhelpful measures — these lobbyists need to be able to access the influential. That is done, among other ways, through campaign contributions. While the business community is more inclined to support Republicans on both philosophical and personal grounds, their professional motivation trumps all.
This is why, as a review of their latest campaign finance filings reveals, House Min Leader Nancy Pelosi and Min Whip Steny Hoyer will both break their all-time fundraising records this cycle, and will do so thanks in no small part to PAC contributions. Both Pelosi and Hoyer have already raised more PAC dollars through the end of September than they did for the entire campaign in 2004, when both held the same leadership positions they do now.