For Rep. Richard Neal, Corporate Cash Reigns Supreme

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Back in 2010, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal had his eye on a coveted perch: the powerful chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee. The chair of that committee, Rep. Charles Bernard Rangel, had just stepped down amid an ethics scandal and the press was focusing on Neal as one of the frontrunners to take his place.

But Neal’s ambition drew condemnation from some, including The Boston Globe’s editorial board, after he held a $5,000-a-head “weekend on Cape Cod” that summer with corporate interests seeking to influence the tax-writing committee the Springfield Democrat was hoping to lead.

“In seeking to become one of Washington’s top dealmakers, Neal shouldn’t also accede to the capital’s money culture,” the Globe opinion piece read. “He shouldn’t sell access to himself. The trading of influence for campaign contributions rightly outrages the public; and while no congressman can operate in a vacuum, Neal must avoid the fund-raising excesses that are open to top D.C. powerbrokers.”

Neal didn’t take the advice.

A Shoestring analysis of campaign-finance data from the money-in-politics watchdog group OpenSecrets shows that since his re-election in 2010, only two other members of the U.S. House have taken more money from corporate political action committees than Neal. Neal has raised $12,770,228 during that time period from corporate PACs — organizations representing big businesses that can give $5,000 to a candidate for both the primary and general elections each cycle. That represents 65% of the $19,815,449 Neal raised in total during the time period.

Only Maryland Democrat Rep. Steny Hoyer and California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy raised more corporate PAC money than Neal during those years. And the two of them served as House majority leader and House speaker, respectively.

It’s a yearly trend that’s playing out yet again in this election cycle. In 2023 and 2024, Neal has raised $2.4 million, 57% of which came from PACs representing businesses. Only five other congressional candidates have raised a larger percentage of their campaign cash from corporate PACs this cycle.

A campaign spokesperson for Neal did not return emails requesting an interview last week. When reached by phone Thursday, the spokesperson, Joshua Karp, said he would get back to The Shoestring with a comment. He never did.

With less than two months to go before the general election, when he’ll face independent candidate Nadia Milleron, Neal continues to raise massive amounts of corporate cash. Business PACs that have given maximum donations to Neal’s campaign represent a long list of industries with business before the House Ways and Means Committee, which he chaired from 2019 to 2023 and where he remains the top Democrat on the committee.

OpenSecrets has identified the finance, insurance, and real estate industries as the top sectors giving corporate PAC money to his campaign this election cycle. Other industries at the top of that list include health, business, communications/electronics, and construction interests.

Many of Neal’s political positions often align with those industries’ that give to him. Neal, for example, is a longtime skeptic of Medicare for All legislation. He even went so far as to tell fellow Democrats in 2019 that he didn’t want to hear the phrase “Medicare for All” during a hearing he held on that bill, according to reporting from The Intercept.

Campaign finance data show that this election cycle, Neal has received large donations from corporate PACs representing many of biggest interests in the pharmaceutical, health care, and insurance industries that would stand to lose out under Medicare for All: Cigna Healthcare, Humana, Endo Pharmaceuticals, UnitedHealthcare Group, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Elevance Health, CVS Health, Novo Nordisk, Johnson & Johnson, and others.

The insurance industry in particular has backed Neal the most during his career in the House, OpenSecrets data reveal. Since he first took office in 1989, that industry has given him nearly $3.5 million. Including money from both PACs and individual donors with ties to corporations, the company that has given to Neal the most during his career is Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, which is based in Springfield. The firm has given him $472,357 during his time in office. 

Other top donors to Neal during his career include Fidelity Investments ($300,800), the weapons manufacturer RTX Corp. — formerly known as Raytheon Technologies ($215,000) — MetLife Inc. ($173,650), the National Association of Realtors ($169,990), the National Association of Insurance & Financial Advisors ($166,250), New York Life Insurance ($148,250, and Blue Cross Blue Shield ($136,350).

That campaign cash has allowed Neal to build an electoral juggernaut that has successfully fended off progressive challengers in recent years. Those candidates have been able to raise far less than Neal and his corporate backers.

In 2018, for example, Neal faced Democratic Springfield attorney and civil rights advocate Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, who was only able to raise $146,046. That cycle, Neal raised $3.5 million and spent $3.2 million, Federal Election Commission data show. Neal won 79% of the vote.

In 2020, then-Holyoke mayor Alex Morse challenged Neal. Neal raised $5 million to beat back Morse’s challenge, pulling in more corporate PAC money that cycle than any other candidate for the U.S. House. Morse, meanwhile, raised $2.2 million, nearly all of it from individual donations. Neal won that Democratic primary race with 59% of the vote amid what Morse described as a homophobic smear campaign and meddling from the state Democratic Party. 

This election cycle, Neal didn’t face a challenger in the Democratic primary election. Instead, in the general election he’ll face Milleron — an attorney who has worked as a farmer locally and has advocated for aviation safety after her 24-year-old daughter Samya Stumo was killed in a Boeing Max airline crash in 2019. She’s running as an independent.

In an interview with The Shoestring, Milleron said that it’s incredibly difficult for candidates to challenge Neal given how full his campaign coffers are with corporate cash. She said that she has to run ads to introduce herself to voters but that a media market buy in the Springfield area costs $57,000 for one month. That’s about all she can afford, she said.

“I am not taking any corporate contributions, so that makes it super difficult because it costs $57,000 a month just to do one third of the district in terms of television ads,” she said.

FEC records show that Milleron has pulled in just $74,854 during this election cycle, all of which has come from individual donors. Milleron has received maximum donations from a handful of prominent figures from outside the state, including the actor Danny DeVito and the political activist Ralph Nader, who is her uncle. 

However, because the last FEC filing date was in July and the next isn’t until October, Milleron said those figures don’t represent the totality of what she has raised. She said she is now over $100,000 in total receipts but will likely have to raise at least $500,000 to ensure that the entire district hears about her campaign — a threshold she expects she’ll cross before election day.

“It is possible to do this,” she said of defeating Neal. “It’s just hard, but we’re trying to make it happen. And we’re trying to make it happen by word of mouth.”

Milleron alleged that Neal’s acceptance of corporate cash has influenced his positions on important local issues. She questioned, for example, how the money he has taken from General Electric has swayed his stance on GE’s $576 million cleanup of the Housatonic River, which includes a plan some environmentalists unsuccessfully challenged to put toxic sediment in a landfill in Lee. OpenSecrets data show that GE’s PAC has given Neal $95,500 over his career and that individuals tied to the company have given another $27,250.

“You can just track decision after decision, vote after vote, that Richard Neal is pro-corporate,” she said.

Milleron called herself “the non-genocide candidate,” noting that Neal has taken money from the powerful pro-Israel lobbying organization the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. FEC records show that AIPAC has given Neal $8,504 this cycle. OpenSecrets data show that pro-Israel lobbying groups have given Neal $89,300 since 1990.

It’s still unclear whether Milleron will get to debate Neal on those issues. In a press release on Sept. 9, her campaign said that she has reached out to him to schedule a debate ahead of the Nov. 5 election. She has yet to hear a response.

“He just won’t answer,” she said.

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