Irvine Rep. Katie Porter has repeatedly attacked her main Democratic challenger in California's 2024 Senate race, Burbank Rep. Adam P. Schiff, for accepting campaign contributions from oil, pharmaceutical, financial and other influential special interests trying to influence federal policy in Washington.
She has bragged about not receiving donations from corporate political action committees, unlike Schiff, who is leading in the polls with former Republican baseball player Steve Garvey heading into Tuesday's primary.
“Representative Schiff may have prosecuted Big Oil before coming to Congress, but when he got to Congress he cashed checks from companies like [British Petroleum] — from fossil fuel companies,” she said in a debate in January.
“I have achieved results on climate during my few years in Congress.”
Schiff, who received $2,000 total from the BP North America Employees Political Action Committee in 2004 and 2006, responded curtly during that discussion. Schiff said he used some of the millions he made over the years to help Porter in her congressional campaigns.
“I gave you this money, Katie Porter, and the only response was thank you, thank you, thank you.”
The Times analyzed campaign finance reports from three election cycles when Porter and Schiff overlapped in Congress to see if the candidates' claims were true. Both were great fundraisers for their campaigns, raising tens of millions of dollars, while also creating political action committees that they used to support other candidates.
Here's what we found:
Defense, technology and pharmaceutical companies donated money to Schiff
Schiff committees reported 377 contributions from corporate political action committees, according to an analysis by The Times. Schiff's congressional campaign committee received 357 contributions, and Frontline USA, his leadership PAC, reported 20 contributions, totaling $636,625 and $75,000, respectively.
Among the PAC's more than 80 corporate donors were defense, technology and communications companies, the industries that provided the most support to the committee.
A PAC representing Comcast Corp. contributed. and NBCUniversal with more than $40,000. Schiff also received money from committees representing Wells Fargo and Amgen, among others, during the House elections.
“I didn't realize how much dirty money I took until I was running against you,” Porter said in the same debate.
“You need to own your record.”
The majority of corporate PAC donations to Frontline USA came from groups representing defense companies, including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman. Frontline has also received donations from political action committees representing Amazon, Universal Music Group, and Centene Corp. -It is a large insurance company.
Schiff donated more than $50,000 to Porter
A Times analysis of Federal Election Commission records found that throughout her election and reelection campaigns for the House, Porter received $54,675 in campaign contributions from Schiff's two committees.
The majority of this money came from individual donors who used Frontline USA as a channel to donate to Porter's campaign. The PAC made more than $33,000 in contributions to Porter's races in 2018, 2020 and 2022.
In May 2020, Schiff texted Porter after a fundraiser about a single donation, according to messages Schiff's campaign shared with the Times.
“Hi Katie, I'm sending you an additional $5,475 from my friends Dick and Lois Gunter. Keep up the great work and see you soon,” Schiff wrote on May 14, 2020.
“Thank you so much Adam. Your (sic) is great! I'm writing a handwritten thank you note to these people,” she wrote days later.
“(I take a lot of handwritten notes and like to acknowledge the source.)”
Frontline USA reported two donations intended for Porter from the couple in May 2020 totaling the amount. The couple also sent $5,600 to Porter's campaign three months ago.
Schiff's campaign estimates the Senate candidate has helped Porter raise nearly $240,000 since she first ran in 2018. Much of that money, according to Schiff's campaign, came from fundraising requests he sent on her behalf and fundraisers he hosted.
It's hard to avoid corporate money in politics
Schiff's company donations, which Porter detests, flow into a much larger pool of cash made up of individual donations. The money is indistinguishable when donated to Porter but reflects how money from corporate special interests can make its way into the accounts of someone who denounces it.
Porter's congressional contests were expensive, and the majority of the millions she raised came from individual contributors. She has refused to accept campaign donations from corporate political action committees throughout her political career. When Schiff ran for Senate last year, he promised not to take money from these groups either.
Likewise, the majority of fundraising by Schiff committees comes from individual contributions. For Frontline USA, contributions to non-political party committees — including corporate political action committees, along with labor, trade and other groups — accounted for 11% and 3% of its total revenue for the 2018 and 2020 election cycles, respectively.
“Part of my job was to help elect Democrats — help them get reelected,” Schiff said of his national fundraising work.
When asked about Schiff's fundraising history, Porter did not see trying to help Democrats as a good justification for taking money from special interests who are actively trying to influence Congress.
After her win in 2018, Porter created her own leadership political committee called Truth to Power PAC, which has raised just over $1 million since its inception. Most of the money came from individual donors, and nearly $630,000 was distributed to candidates across the country who were in competitive races, according to Nathan Click, a senior adviser to Porter.
He did not take money from corporate political action committees.
“Katie didn't have to reach out to the likes of oil or defense contractors or payday lenders to help her fellow Democrats, but Adam did,” Click said.
