WASHINGTON–CUNA’s political action committee, the Credit Union Legislative Action Council (CULAC), last year set a record for annual contributions raised.
“At the start of the new year we are still making final calculations, but preliminary estimates indicate that we will break a record for contributions, coming in at more than $2.4 million raised nationwide,” said Trey Hawkins, VP-political affairs.
Hawkins said the 2015 total exceeded 2014 contributions by 5% and 2013 contributions by more than 12%.
“In the ‘off’ election year we spent $1.67 million on contributions to candidates that support credit unions,” said Hawkins, noting that contributions were split about evenly between Republicans and Democrats. “And we start this election year with $1.2 million cash on hand.”
CULAC has been ranked as the largest trade association political action committee, and fifth largest PAC nationally, in terms of direct giving to candidates by the Center for Responsive Politics.