McCain strikes oil money

This just in from the Public Campaign Action Fund via the Washington Post: Oil and gas industry executives and employees donated $1.1 million to McCain last month — three-quarters of which came after his June 16 speech calling for an end to the ban — compared with $116,000 in March, $283,000 in April and $208,000 in May.

McCain reversed his previous opposition to offshore drilling immediately before  a series of fundraisers with energy industry executives, and the day after the speech he raised $1.3 million at a private luncheon and reception at the San Antonio Country Club, according to local news accounts.

“The timing was significant,” said David Donnelly, the national campaigns director of the Public Campaign Action Fund, a nonpartisan campaign finance reform group that conducted the analysis of McCain’s oil industry contributions. “This is a case study of how a candidate can change a policy position in the interest of raising money.”

Be sure to check out Follow the Oil Money’s Vote Tracker to reveal the relationship between your representative’s votes on key issues and how much oil money they have received since 2000.

Note: Our online database does not yet include the June “surge” in McCain’s oil money.