When federal politicians come calling on high-tech entrepreneurs for money or votes, they usually don’t target Chicago.
For tech clout, they head straight to San Francisco, San Jose or Seattle. Even their own back yard–Washington, teeming with tech industry lobbyists–is viewed as richer territory than this area.
But that’s changing as the industry evolves into a potent political force capable of pulling off coups such as Tuesday’s passage of a federal bill that lets more foreigners fill U.S. tech jobs.
A scroll through an online database compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics (www.opensecrets.org) suggests that even cash-burning Internet companies are reaching deep into their pockets.
Take Divine Interventures Inc., the Lisle-based Internet incubator that has been counting its pennies since the market for risky ventures went sour in April. Divine is listed as giving $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee in mid-May, five months into its struggle with federal regulators for approval to go public.
Nationwide, the burgeoning tech industry is becoming as big a political contributor as the entertainment and oil and gas industries, the center figures.
The group estimates the computer industry has donated a total of $22 million during the 1999-00 election cycle. That’s nearly triple the amount given during the last presidential election cycle.
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Techies call this awakening the “Bill Gates lesson,” or the Napster knock on the noggin’.
Government matters.
“The investment community thought for the longest time that if they continued to be the superstars of the economy, there would be no way legislators would intervene in their business,” says local entrepreneur Howard Tullman, now CEO of Xceed Inc. in New York. “That’s not the way the world works.”
Tullman knows politics better than most. A longtime Democratic activist, the Tunes.com founder contributed some $56,500 last year to the party and its candidates. He recently hosted a private fundraiser in Chicago for New York Senate candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.
A passion for software and Democratic causes runs in the family. Tullman’s brother, Glen, is CEO of Libertyville’s Allscripts Inc., which offers electronic prescription-writing systems. Allscripts is listed as giving $15,000 to the Democratic committee in February. And Glen Tullman contributed $20,000 since last year to party candidates and committees, according to the center’s database.
A newcomer to the political scene is Chicago venture backer George Garrick, who donated $1,000 last year to George W. Bush when Garrick was CEO of San Francisco’s Flycast Communications Corp. Garrick switched allegiances after paying $25,000 in April to attend an Al Gore fundraising dinner in Silicon Valley. Then he volunteered to host a similar Gore fundraiser here. His well-heeled guest list? Mainly tech entrepreneurs.
There’s no shortage of new economy Democrats in Mayor Richard Daley’s hometown. The center’s data suggest Democrats get most of the computer industry’s money locally (69 percent) and nationally (54 percent).
Among the notable exceptions is venture backer and Art.com founder William Lederer of Minotaur Partners. His contributions to GOP hopefuls include $1,000 to one-time congressional candidate Andrew Hochberg, who was interim CEO at start-up AX.com, now part of Netgov.com, both funded by Minotaur.
Focal Communications Corp. CEO Robert C. Taylor Jr. says he’s a bipartisan giver, though the GOP counterpart to Focal’s $8,000 contribution to a Democratic committee hasn’t shown up yet in filings.
Taylor has been getting calls lately from both parties’ senior policy officials to sound him out on industry issues.
Exactly who’s calling? “I’m new to the political arena, so I’m not sure you’re supposed to say,” Taylor demurs.
Then there’s Lante Corp. Chairman Mark Tebbe, who serves on Bush’s advisory committee on technology issues. The group is led by Michael Dell of Dell Computer Corp., which owns 10 percent of Lante.
How did Tebbe, a registered Independent, end up helping Bush?
“I was asked,” Tebbe says, “and I have a hard time telling Michael Dell `no.'”