VenturePAC Takes Electoral Hits

VenturePAC, a political action committee managed by the National Venture Capital Association, is one of most bi-partisan business PACs in Washington which is to say that it only gives about two-third of its money to Republican Party candidates. This means that its post-election wounds arent life-threatening, but they sure are noticeable.

According to data compiled from the Federal Election Commission disclosure database, VenturePAC supported a total of 176 federal candidates running for office in the 2005-2006 cycle. Of those, 123 were Republicans, while 52 were Democrats.

This includes some candidates who did not make it out of their party primaries, plus at least one who resigned in shame (Mark Foley). It does not include Senators who received VenturePAC funds, but who are not up for reelection until 2008 (VenturePAC does not support candidates at the state level).

So how did VenturePAC do? Thirty of the 176 candidates lost all Republicans (I’m including Sen. George Allen in that group). Three more remain contested, but look like they will be GOP wins (Fitzpatrick, Pryce &Wilson). For context, VenturePAC only suffered seven losses in 2004.

In terms of money, VenturePAC spent around $120,000 on its losing candidates compared to nearly $580,000 on its winners. It also spent significantly more on GOP-friendly political action committees than it did on Democratic ones.

More analysis on this tomorrow morning, once some more ballots are counted and I’ve recovered from my number-crunching daze.