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(AP) - Financial giants now being bailed out by the
government spent millions underwriting the Democratic and
Republican conventions last summer, just weeks before coming to
Washington begging for multibillion-dollar handouts.


      The big donors included AIG, Ford Motor Co., Citigroup, Goldman
Sachs and Freddie Mac.


      In all, major corporations, labor unions and individual
millionaires dumped $118 million into the nominating conventions
for Barack Obama and John McCain, according to reports from the
Campaign Finance Institute and the Center for Responsive Politics.


The private groups compiled the numbers from filings required under
federal law.


      Private financing of the national political conventions is among
the last avenues for corporations, unions and wealthy individuals
to curry favor through big-bucks political contributions. 

Congress
banned the giving of six- and seven-figure donations to the
political parties, offerings known as "soft money," in a 2002 law
that revamped campaign financing in response to concerns that large
sums of money could give donors undue influence and lead to
corruption.


      Together, all the donors spent $61 million on the Democratic
convention and $57 million on the GOP convention.


      -American International Group Inc. gave $1.5 million, split down
the middle between the Democratic convention in Denver and the
Republican convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul. The government now
is providing AIG a $150 billion financial-rescue package.


      -Citigroup, receiving tens of billions in bailout funds, spent
$600,000, including $250,000 for the Democratic convention.


      -Goldman Sachs, the recipient of $10 billion in bailout money,
spent $505,000 on the political conventions, including $255,000 for
the Republican gathering.


      -Bank of America is receiving $15 billion in bailout funds and
its newest acquisition, Merrill Lynch & Co., is getting $10
billion. Bank of America spent $100,000 on the Democratic
convention, none on the Republican.


      The corporate donors also include Freddie Mac, the financially
stricken mortgage housing giant which the government took over in
September along with its sister company, Fannie Mae. 

Freddie Mac
gave $250,000 to each convention. The company is asking for an
injection of $13.8 billion in government aid after posting a huge
quarterly loss.


      Wall Street hedge fund operators got into the act as well. The
GOP convention got $2 million from Raymond Dalio of Bridgewater
Associates. The Democratic convention received $500,000 from James
Chanos of Kynikos Associates.


      The individual donors included billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, whose
fortune has been stung by the plight of Ford Motor Co. and an
economic downturn that has damaged his other investments.


      Kerkorian gave $2 million to help underwrite the Republican
convention and $1.5 million for the Democratic convention. He gave
the money through a foundation that he controls.
      

Ford spent $200,000 on the conventions, divided evenly. Ford
could benefit from the proposed auto industry bailout being worked
out in Washington. Ford wants a $9 billion standby line of credit
in case a competitor fails.


      The Federal Election Commission has continued to allow large
contributions to flow to local committees set up to host the
political conventions, and those host committees promise donors
special access to each party's top leaders.


      Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive
Politics, said that by taking advantage of a false distinction
between a political party and the committees hosting the
conventions, labor unions were able to support the Democratic Party
in a way that hasn't been allowed since the days of soft money,
when labor was among the biggest contributors.
      

The Laborers' International Union provided $1.4 million for the
Democratic convention, and the Service Employees International
Union gave $1.35 million.


      Among the biggest convention contributors, two retailers and a
telecom company split their donations while giving mostly to the
GOP: Target spent $3 million on the Republican convention, $400,000
on the Democratic; Qwest spent $2.9 million to support Republicans,
$841,000 for the Democrats, and Best Buy gave $2.3 million to the
Republican convention, $299,000 to support the Democrats.

Gallery

Oversight panel questions Treasury on bailout plan

Auto rescue bill in peril, opposed by GOP senators

Government unveils plan to rescue Citigroup

Financial giants now being bailed out by the
government spent millions underwriting the Democratic and
Republican conventions last summer, just weeks before coming to
Washington begging for multibillion-dollar handouts.

Before getting handouts, big firms bankrolled conventions

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