Food allies rewarded
Industry PACs donate heavily to defenders in Congress This is the second part of a series on legislative efforts to require more nutritional information on fast foods.
PETER URBAN purban@ctpost.com

The food and beverage industry rewards its defenders in Congress.

It has lavished contributions on the House and Senate sponsors of "cheeseburger" bills that would protect the industry from lawsuits blaming them for America's widening waistlines.

The campaign of U.S. Rep. Ric Keller, R-Fla., received $142,450 over the last three election cycles from political action committees representing the food and restaurant industry, which tracks federal campaign contributions. Keller was the sponsor of a House bill banning "frivolous" lawsuits
against food distributors and restaurants.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., sponsored a similar bill in the Senate, which never was taken up for a vote. He picked up $151,205 over his last two election cycles, according to opensecrets.org.

In the last election cycle, the National Restaurant Association — and 14 other political action committees representing restaurant chains — gave nearly $3.9 million to federal campaigns, of which nearly $3.5 million went to Republicans.

Outback Steakhouse PAC gave 98 percent
  of nearly $605,000 in federal contributions to GOP candidates, along with $200,000 to the Republican Governors Association and $900,000 to support state races.

The restaurant industry lobbies Congress on issues including tax policy, health insurance issues, labor regulations and tort reform. It typically stakes out positions that are supported by Republicans and opposed by Democrats.

More than half of the Republicans in the 108th Congress scored 100 percent on "key votes" the National Restaurant Association monitored. After examining a dozen House votes and seven Senate votes, it gave perfect scores to 148 House Republicans and 36 Senate Republicans.

No Democrat received a perfect score. Among Connecticut's Republican lawmakers Reps. Christopher Shays and Rob Simmons scored highest at 92 percent, followed by Rep. Nancy Johnson at 83 percent.

Among the Democrats, Sen. Joe Lieberman scored 43 percent, Rep. John Larson was at 17 percent, Sen. Chris Dodd at 14 percent, and Rep. RosaDeLauro scored 0 percent.

Shays, who has typically shunned PAC contributions, has
  received only $2,000 since 1997 from the association's political action committee.

He received none from any of more than a dozen PACs representing chains including McDonald's, Wendy's, Outback Steakhouse, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Chili's, KFC, Olive Garden, Arby's and Little Caesar's.

Johnson, a senior member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, has received $71,400 and Simmons $31,500. Lieberman received $7,000, Larson $3,500, and no contributions were made to Dodd or DeLauro.

DeLauro received $500 in 2003
  from the American School Food Service Association PAC, a pro-school nutrition group. ASFSA gave a total of $27,750 to federal candidates in the last election cycle, according to FEC documents.