From the Open Secrets blog Capital Eye, the Federal Election Commission put out a release showing a 1.3% increase in the number of registered political action committees over the last seven months. The best part of this release by the FEC is a long chart detailing PAC registrations from 1974 to the present. I broke down this down into some cool charts below:

As Massie Ritch points out at Capital Eye, corporate PACs outpaced others, particularly labor PACs, by quite a bit. That wasn’t always the case:

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New campaign finance data — covering both the Congressional and Presidential races — is now available from the Center for Responsive Politics. Here are some of the highlights:

Barack Obama and John McCain’s top contributing industries look awfully similar . . .

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has given the most money to other candidates and lawmakers through his leadership PAC or candidate committee, according to our updated candidate-to-candidate section. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who’s in a tight re-election battle, collected the most from other lawmakers at nearly $351,900.

The percentage of money coming from donors giving $200 or less to Barack Obama’s presidential bid has increased by two points, from 45 percent to 47 percent, according to our updated presidential donor demographics page. We’ve also updated our donor demographics pages for members of Congress.

The National Association of Realtors’s PAC has given more money to candidates than any other PAC so far this election cycle, according to our updated PAC database. The group has given $2.3 million so far, 59 percent of which has gone to Democrats. Sixteen of the top 20 PACs have favored Democrats with their contributions. We’ve also updated contributions from PACs to individual members of Congress.

In addition, CRP has  updated their 527s database, Donor Lookup for members of Congress and presidential candidates, and our ZIP code lookup.

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So what will this really mean? OpenSecret.org has the answer.

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Last week, the National Association of Home Builders announced that it was suspending PAC contributions to members of Congress because of the failure to obtain a tax-break provision they desperately wanted. (I’m sure that they aren’t too happy about the bashing they’re taking over the mortgage meltdown.) This action isn’t being treated with open arms by other lobbyists and industry shops. Why, you ask? Well, because the NAHB is explicitly stating that their PAC contributions are tied to votes by members of Congress. Straight from the horse’s mouth: contributions buy votes. Listen to these lobbyists try to distance themselves from NAHB (via The Hill):

“It’s not going to make a damn bit of difference,” said one senior business lobbyist, who said that the $10,000 limits on contributions to candidates’ campaigns were too low for such a threat to have any bite.

A spokesman for the National Association of Realtors, Mary Trupo, said her group had no opinion about the NAHB’s move except that “it’s not a tactic that we would take.” She added, “We continue to support members who have been supportive of the housing sector.”

“I’m embarrassed by what the homebuilders did,” said one lobbyist, who characterized the NAHB’s move as “inappropriate behavior.”

Of course, acknowledging fact in Washington is often "inappropriate behavior".

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The National Association of Home Builders, acting like a spurned lover, has announced that it’s suspending its PAC contributions to all members of Congress. The Home Builders are a big contributor to members and congressional candidates, and spends heavy on lobbying. This could get interesting.

What caused the trouble? The Hill reports that the association’s lobbying efforts failed to get a particular tax break provision (a provision that would help companies with losses to trim prior year tax bills) included in the economic stimulus package. Calling the step "extraordinary," the Home Builders’ president said they were disappointed in both Congress and the Bush Administration for "not adequately addressed the underlying economic issues that would help to stabilize the housing sector and keep the economy moving forward."

In other words, as far as the Home Builders are concerned, Congress will be sleeping on the couch "until further notice."

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Today’s mail brought an envelope with a pair of fundraiser fliers, both of which were originally faxed out on November 9, 2006–a scant two days after the election (what, these slackers took Wednesday off?) to Washington lobbyists, association heads, and other special interest folks all over town. The one above, from Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., will be held at the offices of O’Connor and Hannan, a firm that represents the likes of Exxon Mobil, General Electric and Lockheed Martin, to name but a few. The flyer asks $500 for individual contributions, $1,000 from PACs to attend the event.

Burr next faces the voters of North Carolina in 2010.

Like Burr, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., won’t have to run again for his seat until 2010. But he’s still holding a breakfast fundraiser at Old Ebbitt Grill (a favorite of both Ulysses S. Grant and Warren G. Harding, according the restaurant’s Web site), this time to raise money for the White Mountain PAC, Gregg’s leadership PAC. The price of admission: $500 for individuals, $1,000 for PACs.

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