From the American Banker (my emphasis and some reparagraphing):
Frustrated by a lack of political power and fed up with blindly donating to politicians who consistently vote against the industry's interests, a handful of leaders are determined to shake things up.They explain how this will work:
They have formed the industry's first SuperPAC — dubbed Friends of Traditional Banking — that is designed to target the industry's enemies and support its friends in Congress.
"It comes back to the old philosophy of walking softly and carrying a big stick," says Howard Headlee, the president and chief executive officer of the Utah Bankers Association. "But we've got no big stick. And we should. We have the capacity to have one, we just aren't organized [sic]." ...
"Congress isn't afraid of bankers," adds Roger Beverage, the president and CEO of the Oklahoma Bankers Association. "They don't think we'll do anything to kick them out of office. We are trying to change that perception."
Unlike traditional banking PACs, which target hundreds of House and Senate races, the SuperPAC instead is focusing on making a big difference in just a handful of close elections.
"BankPAC [the industry's non-super PAC] is much broader and covers lots of different candidates. This is much more surgical," Packard says.Needless to say, a million dollars will swamp most House races.
"If someone says I am going to give your opponent $5,000 or $10,000, you might say, 'Yea, okay.' But if you say the bankers are going to put in $100,000 or $500,000 or $1 million into your opponent's campaign, that starts to draw some attention.
That "fed up with blindly donating" comment above likely means Dems. The goal will be to pick off the hard-core bank-reform outliers, and frighten the rest.
I'm not sure another comment is needed; the story is pretty self-explanatory.
GP
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