Westar revises rules on political contributions

? A utility company has revised its policies for making political donations after a fund-raising controversy involving Republican leaders in the House.

The board at Westar Energy of Topeka passed a resolution last month prohibiting corporate contributions for any political candidate and specifying that donations by executives and employees must be strictly voluntary.

Recently disclosed company e-mails detailed a plan for Westar and its top executives to give $56,000 to Republican congressional campaigns last year “to get a seat at the table” of a House-Senate conference committee. House members of the committee supported a regulatory exemption sought by Westar.

“Right now, we have $11,500 in immediate needs for a group of candidates associated with Tom DeLay, Billy Tauzin, Joe Barton and Sen. Richard Shelby,” a Westar e-mail said.

The biggest donation was $25,000 by the company to a political action committee affiliated with DeLay, then the House Whip, now the majority leader.

The Westar resolution says the company shall not make corporate contributions to state or federal candidates, even where state law may permit such contributions. The new federal campaign law bars them.

An internal investigation by the company found that at least some officers felt pressured to contribute.

Under the new policy, “officers may occasionally be encouraged by peer officers to contribute to political candidates,” but the decision to contribute “is strictly voluntary, and refusal to contribute shall not affect an officer’s terms of employment.

“Under no circumstances will corporate facilities or administrative personnel be used in connection with any such efforts,” the resolutions states.

The resolution said that Westar officers might not serve on employee political action committees that are being re-established, although the company’s manager of government affairs will serve as an adviser.

“We just don’t contemplate corporate donations for candidates,” Westar spokesman Jim Ludwig said. “The upshot of the policy is that the employee political action committee will be the vehicle through which contributions are made.”

An advocacy group founded by Ralph Nader saw Westar’s policy change as positive.

“This will prevent the kind of quid pro quo that the executives had been doing,” said Craig Holman, the campaign finance lobbyist at Public Citizen.