McCain supported pricing amid donation, report says
WASHINGTON – Sen. John McCain pressed a cable company’s case for pricing changes with regulators at the same time a tax-exempt group he has worked with solicited $200,000 in contributions from the company.
Help from McCain included giving the CEO of Cablevision Systems Corp. the opportunity to testify before his Senate committee, writing a letter of support to the Federal Communication Commission and asking other cable firms to back so-called a la carte pricing.
McCain expressed interest in exploring the a la carte option for years before Cablevision advocated it, but he didn’t take a position with regulators until after the firm’s first donation came in.
The pricing plan, opposed by most of the cable industry, would let customers pick channels they want rather than buy fixed-price packages. Supporters such as McCain and Cablevision say it would lower prices for consumers, but congressional and private studies concluded it could make cable more expensive.
McCain’s help in 2003 and 2004 was sandwiched around two donations of $100,000 each from Cablevision to the Reform Institute, a tax-exempt group that touts Mc- Cain’s views and has showcased him at events since his unsuccessful 2000 presidential campaign.
The group also pays $110,000 a year to McCain’s chief political adviser, Rick Davis, who ran the senator’s 2000 presidential campaign. Cablevision’s money accounted for 15 percent of the institute’s fund raising in 2003, according to its most recent tax filing.
The Arizona Republican said he saw nothing wrong with the group raising money from a firm whose issue he championed because the donations didn’t go to his re-election campaign. Data offered by his office show he’s supported a la carte pricing since at least 1998, before Cablevision advocated it.
“If it was a PAC (political action committee) or if it was somehow connected to any campaign of mine, I would say to you, that’s a legitimate appearance of conflict of interest. But it’s not,” McCain told the Associated Press.