WAC/PAC—
AWCl’s Political Arm
The Wall and Ceiling Political Action Committee May Not be
the Largest PAC Around But It is Seeing Its Best Year
P
olitical Action Committees—more
commonly referred to as PACs—
are in the news.
The flare-up over PAC funds between Democratic presidential opponents Fritz Mondale and Gary Hart
has emphasized one aspect of the
problem. While Mondale and Hart
contested the use of PAC money, some
126 sponsors have endorsed a PAClimitation bill in Congress.
Despite all this anti-PAC activity
and the heated debate that accompanies it, WAC/PAC—the AWCIsponsored political action committee—
is seeing its best year since its formation nearly a decade ago, according to
Robert F. Watkins, WAC/PAC
Chairman.
“We have created a number of
special ‘clubs’ within the WAC/PAC
structure,” said Watkins, and these,
along with an active and involved
Board of Executive Trustees, are giving WAC/PAC a better image and
more importance to AWCI’s U.S.
members.
“Any member who donates at least
$1,000 annually becomes a member of
our Congressional Club and is entitled
to a number of privileges, including the
right to wear a beautiful solid gold
lapel button with the WAC/PAC logo.
“We accept contributions of any
amount, however, and our growth rate
has been made possible by the increasing number of AWCI members who
are sending personal contributions to
WAC/PAC.”
Although small, WAC/PAC has
“made its mark” in Washington. Four
AWCI presidents—Ray Boyd, Vern
Raymer, Jim Biddle, and Bob Whittle
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—have been guests at the White
House, the first three of them having
met with the President personally during their terms of office.
AWCI’s Executive Vice President,
Joe Baker, has served on a minimum
of 35 “steering committees,” the official campaign groups who are designated by Senate and House of Representatives candidates to head up their
fund-raising efforts.
WAC/PAC was approved by the
AWCI convention in Mexico City in
1972 but did not actually become an
official arm of AWCI until 1974. Its
growth has been small, but continuing,
and during the past three, 2-year election cycles, WAC/PAC has given away
nearly $100,000 to pro-free enterprise
candidates. The largest donation so far
was $10,000 ($5,000 for the primary
and $5,000 for the general election) to
United States Senator Orrin Hatch (R,
Utah) in his reelection bid in 1980.
Hatch’s construction industry fund
raising was coordinated by Joe Baker
and the total from construction came
to over $85,000 (not including approximately $100,000 raised by the
Associated Builders and Contractors).
Prior Approval Problem
When the current Federal Election
law was drafted, then-Congressman
Wayne Hays (D, Ohio)—of Elizabeth
Ray fame—drafted and got included
in the bill a small and seemingly insignificant requirement that trade
associations with corporate members
must seek “prior approval” from
those members before they can solicit
their members to donate to their
association’s PAC.
AWCI and other trade associations
have long claimed this to be a violation of the freedom of speech accorded in the 1st Amendment, and a law
suit brought by the American Bakers’
Association was joined by AWCI
several years ago. The suit was thrown
out as not being properly written, and
no effort to bring it back has been
made.
AWCI contends it has a right to
communicate with its members on any
subject without legal restrictions, but
the law says otherwise and consequently AWCI and WAC/PAC must
ask AWCI’s members to annually
grant approval to WAC/PAC to send
them solicitation information.
Such approval is not easy to come
by, as one can imagine. Recently the
Federal Election Commission ruled
that approvals may be obtained in advance of the actual year, and AWCI
is now seeking prior approval for a
5-year period.
Candidate Criteria
WAC/PAC’s Board of Executive
Trustees has created and approved a
set of criteria which staff must follow
in selecting candidates to receive
WAC/PAC’s assistance. WAC/PAC
may not donate to two opposing candidates in any election. Candidates
who are incumbents must have a
voting record which favors free enterprise, and non-incumbents must be on
record in favor of free enterprise. And
a candidate must have a “chance” of
Construction Dimensions/August 1984
WAC/PAC’s BOARD OF EXECUTIVE TRUSTEES, 1984:
Robert F. Watkins,
Chairman
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Carmen Paterniti,
Vice Chairman
Far Hills, New Jersey
James J. Rose,
Secretary
North Hollywood, California
Joe M. Baker, Jr.,
Treasurer
Washington, D.C.
James E. Biddle
Buffalo, New York
T. Gilley Hickman
Dallas, Texas
William A. Marek
Houston, Texas
William C. Scott
Houston, Texas
Robert Wies
St. Louis, Missouri
Philip Zinn
Detroit, Michigan
winning his election. WAC/PAC’s
Board realizes that there are occasional
“dark horses” who make it to the
finish line fast, but with the small
treasury WAC/PAC has, such dark
horses must get a unanimous endorsement of the WAC/PAC Board in
order to receive donations.
Legislative Fund
Although Federal law allows AWCI
to underwrite the costs of administering WAC/PAC, the WAC/PAC
Board of Executive Trustees does not
feel it is fair for WAC/PAC to be
underwritten with AWCI funds
because of AWCI’s large Canadian
membership.
For this reason, a special administrative fund has been created. Originally called the “AWCI Political
Education Fund,” the name was
changed by AWCI’s Board of Directors to “AWCI Legislative Fund”.
Corporate donations are acceptable
here and these monies are used to
underwrite WAC/PAC’s activities,
thereby freeing WAC/PAC’s “hard”
dollars to go to candidates to assist
Construction Dimensions/August 1984
them in their campaigns.
While non-Americans may contribute to the Legislative Fund, U.S.
law precludes anyone but American
nationals from making donations to
WAC/PAC.
At the AWCI convention in San
Antonio, WAC/PAC raffled off a
fully-equipped El Dorado Cadillac
with 250 tickets being sold for $200
each. The enthusiasm was so high that
after the 250th ticket was sold, many
potential buyers had to be turned
away. The raffle resulted in $50,00
being added to the WAC/PAC
treasury (minus, of course, whatever
costs won’t be underwritten by the
Legislative Fund). The winner of the
car, W.T. (Tom) Stroud of Nashville,
was presented his keys to the car at the
AWCI banquet during the convention.
CONTRIBUTORS OF LESS THAN $1,000
TO WAC/PAC FOR CALENDAR YEAR 1983
Mr. & Mrs. Joe Baker, Jr.
Val Barnard
Ora Blaw
Ray Boyd
Ronald Brady
Aaron Brown
Joe Carpenter
Bill Carroll
David Cassidy
J. Mark Leasing Co.—
James Cassidy
Chris Christians
A. Earl Conrad
Thomas Donnelly
Burton Fisher
$ 500.00
400.00
200.00
200.00
500.00
200.00
100.00
200.00
100.00
300.00
300.00
100.00
300.00
200.00
Robert Florence
Brent Funk
Joseph Giamboi
Leonard Greedy
P. Kenneth Hampshire
Allen Kemble
Nathan Kimmel
Robert Knight
Noel Laffan
Jere Luckey
Daniel McGlone
Thomas McGlone
J. Munroe McNulty
John Macioce
William Martin
100.00
200.00
500.00
225.00
300.00
200.00
200.00
125.00
100.00
100.00
100.00
100.00
400.00
200.00
250.00
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THESE CONTRACTORS CONTRIBUTED, $1000 OR MORE
IN 1983 AND/OR IN 1984
T. Gilley Hickman*
Jimmie Crane
James Biddle*
William Marek
William Scott*
C.A. LaFon
Robert Watkins*
Jim Wies
P. Kenneth Hampshire
Ray Boyd
Robert Whittle
Robert Wies*
Philip Zinn
Ronald Brady
J.W. Christians
Robert Mitchell
John Poellinger
Donald Siptak
Bruce Miller
*Denotes at least $1,000 contribution both years
Dennis Meuwissen
Robert Mitchell
Robert Moosbrugger
Gary Mulcahy
Robert Negwer
Carmen Paterniti
Robert Pierce
John Poellinger
Philip Ramey
Vernon Raymer
Richard Reitter II
Al J. Ricca
James Rose
Norma Rose
James Rutherford
Richard Schuemann
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200.00
200.00
300.00
200.00
250.00
100.00
100.00
200.00
350.00
200.00
200.00
500.00
50.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
McNeill Stokes
Tom Stroud
George Weis Company
James Wies
Francis Wojehowski
Unaccounted Receipts
100.00
100.00
100.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
CONTRIBUTORS OF LESS THAN
$1,000
FOR CALENDAR YEAR 1984
Vito Arsena
Joe M. Baker, Jr.
Bob Barker
Val Barnard
William Barney
William Bell
John Bennett
200.00
600.00
200.00
400.00
400.00
200.00
200.00
Terry Benton
Jack Bialy
R.W. Blenkinsop
Andrew Bodnar
John Bouma
Michael Boyd
Patrick Boyd
Ertis Bradley
Aaron Brown
H.L. Bruce, Jr.
James Brunneman
Joe Canterbury
Bill Carroll
Joe Carpenter
David Cassidy
James Mark Cassidy
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
400.00
400.00
200.00
Construction Dimensions/August 1984
Donald Chambers
Nancy Childress
Ginny Childress
C.J. Coakley
Thomas Colasanto
Chip Crane
Donny Crane
Jimmie Crane
Johnny Crane
Frank Crider
Robert Dake
A.A. Davis
Daniel Davis
Robert Delahoussaye
Frank Deluccia
Lawrence Dodd
Thomas Donnelly
Richard Duke
B.J. Elkins
R.E. Farrell
Joseph Feldner
Laurance Femald
Charles Figari
Bob Florence
Wayne Fortenberry
F.T. Equipment
Weldon Gainer
Joseph Giamboi
Leonard Greedy
Georgie Hampshire
Gerald Hardcom
J.T. Harrison
R.F. Hayward
Robert Heimerl
John Hoffman
Paul Hoffman
Ben Hogancamp
C. William Homa
Fred Hormuth
“Houston Bunch”
Jim Howell
David Johnson
Clay Johnston
Ray Jurischk
Roger Kamper
Harold Keller
Allen Kemble
Nathan Kimmel
Glenn King
Nelson King
Kostel Building
Jim Kowis
Anthony Landi
John Larsen
Len Lawson
Robert Lederer, Jr.
Gerald Lee
Herbert Lemke
Leonard Liddle
Ann Marie McAvoy
200.00
200.00
200.00
400.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
700.00
700.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
400.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
400.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
400.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
100.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
400.00
200.00
200.00
650.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
400.00
200.00
200.00
400.00
Construction Dimensions/August 1984
Charles McAvoy
Michael McCain
Thomas McCartney
Elizabeth McCormack
Daniel McGlone
J. Munroe McNulty
Terence Mann
Ralph S. Marek
R. Stan Marek
Lloyd Martin
Richard Martin
Jim Masteroni
Jean Mateson
Donald Mehrer
Morris Mehrer
Dennis Meuwissen
Richard Muns
“Murco Clan”
O.J. Murphy
Roy Neu
James Nichols
Odin Nielsen
Bill Nigh
Nigh Construction Co.
Leon Parent
Carmen Paterniti
Jean Pepin
Theodore Peterson
Margaret Phillips
Robert Pierce
E.M. Ratliff
Vernon Raymer
Bernice Reger
Richard Reitter
Pat Reu
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
800.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
400.00
600.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
400.00
400.00
100.00
100.00
200.00
400.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
300.00
200.00
400.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
Ray Rogers
James Rose
Harry Rourke
James Rutherford
Norman Sawyer
John Schalk
Richard Schuemann
Bill Sealy
Jim Sharp
Dan Sheehan, Jr.
Bill Shields
Robert Steel
Stuart Stein
Ena Stiffler
H.R. Storbeck
William Stroud
Albert Sutherland
Edward Tasset
Val Taylor
Fred Treadway
Elina Valenzula
Robert Van Harken
Harry Vernetti
Darrell Wade
Gene Warren
George Wentworth
Lloyd White
John Whittle
Robert Whittle
Francis Wojohowski
Chet Wood
Steven Wyse
Howard Yawn, Jr.
Arthur Young
Roland Young
200.00
400.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
200.00
400.00
200.00
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