April 17, 2012
U.S.

Wind industry blows campaign cash toward GOP

By ALEX GUILLEN, Politico, www.politico.com 16 April 2012

Wind industry campaign donations are blowing toward Republicans, including presidential front-runner Mitt Romney.

Romney’s campaign got a $2,500 donation from Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, during the first quarter of this year – a period in which more than 60 percent of the trade group’s campaign contributions went to GOP candidates and parties, according to new Federal Election Commission filings.

Bode has given to Republican White House hopefuls before. She gave $4,600 to John McCain’s campaign in 2008, when she was CEO of the American Clean Skies Foundation, a natural gas advocacy group.

This time around, Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) was the biggest winner in AWEA donations, landing $7,500 from the group’s WindPAC.

Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Dean Heller of Nevada and Olympia Snowe of Maine all received $5,000.

Reichert and Grassley are leading efforts among Republicans in their respective chambers to extend the production tax credit for wind, which expires at the end of 2012.

WindPAC’s donations to Snowe’s campaign were made before she announced in February she would not seek reelection.

Other GOP recipients include Reps. Rick Berg of North Dakota and Tim Griffin of Arkansas, as well as the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

Democrats on the whole landed $17,500 from WindPAC in the first quarter. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid accounted for $5,000 of that.

The ratio of giving in this year’s first quarter flipped from the same period in 2008, when Democrats received 60 percent of WindPAC’s donations.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/04/17/wind-industry-blows-campaign-cash-toward-gop/