Industry Gushed Money After Reversal on Drilling

By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 27, 2008; A10

Campaign contributions from oil industry executives to Sen. John McCain
rose dramatically in the last half of June, after the senator from
Arizona made a high-profile split with environmentalists and reversed
his opposition to the federal ban on offshore drilling.

Oil and gas industry executives and employees donated $1.1 million to
McCain last month -- three-quarters of which came after his June 16
speech calling for an end to the ban -- compared with $116,000 in March,
$283,000 in April and $208,000 in May.

McCain said the policy reversal came as a response to rising voter anger
over soaring energy prices. At the time, about three-quarters of voters
responding to a Washington Post-ABC News poll said prices at the pump
were causing them financial hardship, the highest in surveys this decade.

Opening vast stretches of the country's coastline to oil exploration
would help America eliminate its dependence on foreign oil, McCain said.

"We have untapped oil reserves of at least 21 billion barrels in the
United States. But a broad federal moratorium stands in the way of
energy exploration and production," he said. "It is time for the federal
government to lift these restrictions."

McCain delivered the speech before heading to Texas for a series of
fundraisers with energy industry executives, and the day after the
speech he raised $1.3 million at a private luncheon and reception at the
San Antonio Country Club, according to local news accounts.

"The timing was significant," said David Donnelly, the national
campaigns director of the Public Campaign Action Fund, a nonpartisan
campaign finance reform group that conducted the analysis of McCain's
oil industry contributions. "This is a case study of how a candidate can
change a policy position in the interest of raising money."

Brian Rogers, a McCain campaign spokesman, said he considers any
suggestion that McCain weighed fundraising into his calculation on
drilling policy *"completely absurd."* Rogers noted that oil and gas
money in June still accounted for a very small fraction of the $48
million raised by the campaign and by the Republican National Committee
through its Victory Fund.

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And it doesn't rain in Indianapolis in the summertime... :)