CPI #3

March 7, 2000
  • Amount of miles 90-year-old great-grandmother Doris `Granny D' Haddock walked per day during her trek across the country to raise attention to the need for campaign finance reform: 10.1
  • Average amount spent per day by frontrunners' presidential campaigns to reimburse corporations for use of their jets: $1,243.2
  • Number of consumer complaints against airlines filed with the U.S. Department of Transportation in 1998: 9,608. 3
  • Number of complaints filed in 1999: 20,495.4
  • Airline industry net profits in 1998, latest year available: $4.9 billion.5
  • Date Senator John McCain dropped measure in a passenger rights bill that would have fined airlines that don't provide reasonable customer service: June 23, 1999.6
  • Peak of soft money contributions to Republican Party by airline industry that year: June.7
  • Average national price per gallon of gas as of March 6, 2000: $1.49.8
  • City miles per gallon a driver can expect from her Ford Explorer, the top-selling SUV in the country: 16. 9
  • Number of years Congress has barred the Transportation Department from requiring higher fuel efficiency for SUVs and light trucks: 4.10
  • Auto industry manufacturers' campaign contributions to federal campaigns from 1996 elections to present: $4.6 million.11

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  1. See Granny D’s web site, www.grannyd.com.
  2. Even though campaigns reimburse companies for use of their jets, it is still a huge value for the candidates, since they pay only the equivalent cost of a plane ticket, instead of covering the cost of operating the jets. See: “Cheap Tickets, Bush, McCain and Corporate Jets,” Money In Politics Alert, February 14, 2000, Vol. 5, No. 37 and “Cheap Tickets II, Bradley, Gore and Corporate Jets,” Money In Politics Alert, February 28, 2000, Vol. 5, No. 38, Center for Responsive Politics.“
  3. DOT Issues Airline Consumer and Disability Complaint Data for 1999,” News Release, U.S. Department of Transportation, February 1, 2000.
  4. ibid.
  5. “Earnings Summary 1938 - 1998: U.S. Scheduled Airlines,” Air Transport Association, www.air-transport.org/public/indstury/26.asp.
  6. Holly Bailey, “Congressional Preview Package,” Center for Responsive Politics, January 24, 2000.
  7. ibid.
  8. “EIA Retail On-Highway Diesel Prices,” U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/ weekly_on_highway_diesel_prices/current/html/diesel.html.
  9. Gary Strauss, “SUVs bleeding at the Gas Pump,” USA Today, March 3, 2000, p. 1A.
  10. Testimony of Wenonah Hauter, “FY 2000 Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations,” before the House Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, February 10, 2000.
  11. Center for Responsive Politics. Reflects PAC, large individual contributions ($200+), and soft money contributions, 1995 through the present. Data for the 2000 election cycle was downloaded on February 1, 2000.