October 1990, Page 31, 81

Election Watch

Behind the Congressional Voting Record

By Parker L. Payson

Most votes in Congress are split roughly along party lines. Members of Congress in the president's party usually support the administration's agenda. In 1989, as in the past 40 years, though, there has been one consistent exception. It concerns support for Israel.

Although one of Israel's staunchest allies in the House of Representatives, Mel Levine (D-CA), has warned that "a head-on collision is coming between the Bush administration and the Shamir administration," there is no sign of battle between Israel and members of Congress. In fact, if one looks at the 1989 voting record of the 435 members of the House of Representatives, one will find that 85 percent of votes cast on key Middle East bills supported the Israel line.

This support for what The Nation magazine calls "America's pre-eminent client state" comes from more than goodwill. Behind these votes is over $6.3 million in campaign contributions from 1978 to 1990 to members of the House from 124 pro-Israel political action committees (PACs), plus the support of what has been called Washington's most effective lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). And what does all this money buy?

In 1989, it bought 2,198 yeas over 379 nays for six key Middle East votes (bills 1-6 on page 22) from friendly members of Congress. The above table illustrates the relationship between PAC donations and votes.

Congressmembers who followed the pro-Israel line 9 or 10 out of 10 times received an average of $23,022 from pro-Israel PACs, while those who showed their independence from AIPAC and voted against the Israel lobby 8 out of 10 times received an average of $280 from pro-Israel PACs. No House member voted against the Israel lobby more than 8 of 10 times.

The majority of House members who voted against Israel-lobby preferences more than 50 percent of the time come from areas with high unemployment, where foreign aid is not popular. Not surprisingly, they have received little support from pro-Israel PACs. Taking this money "would make it harder to be constituent-oriented," explained a staffer for Douglas Applegate (D-OH), whose district is feeling the pains of a sagging coal and steel industry.

Many members of Congress, though, are quick to resist the notion that this money buys votes. Sydney Yates (D-IL), who has received $59,450 from pro-Israel PACs, told The Washington Post that pro-Israel PACs "didn't buy any influence with me. They know my record and the things I stand for." He is a textbook example of the kind of representative AIPAC backs. He doesn't need to be persuaded on any issue, even where U.S. and Israeli interests diverge. AIPAC can depend upon him. He can depend on AIPAC.

"The overwhelming importance of pro-Israel PACs is to elect or unelect people, rather than switch votes. PACs buy people, not votes," one congressional aide told the Washington Report. For example, pro-Israel PACs "lost" former Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Charles Percy after he voted in favor of sending arms to Saudi Arabia in 1980, "so they took out a vengeance on him and found a willing alliance with [Senator Paul] Simon, whose vote they didn't have to buy," the aide explained. Pro-Israel PACs gave Simon (D-IL) $301,383 in 1980 to defeat Percy, and they have contributed $180,151 to him in 1989 and 1990 to ensure his re-election.

Simon's case is not unique. Pro-Israel PACs have given money to 361 of the 435 members of the House of Representatives, including 98 percent of the members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The 43 voting members of this committee, who have received a total of $1.6 million from pro-Israel PACs, voted the Israel lobby line, on average, seven times out of ten on the key Middle East issues, 10 percent more than non-members.

Even though these House members claim that their votes are independent of their checkbook, many disagree.

"I have a very dim view of PACs," Andrew Jacobs (D-IN) told the Washington Report. "There is only one way to know that you're not influenced by PACs and only one way for the public to know what you're not influenced by them and that is to not take money from them."

Parker L. Payson is elections editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.