Since he took office in January 2023, Gov. Jim Pillen has hosted, at the Governor’s Mansion, the Governor’s Industry Roundtable program, a series of discussions with business and industry leaders designed to provide insight into policy debates, preview elections and offer those individuals access to the governor.
Those discussions, however, come with a cost — at least $10,000 to be precise. That is the minimum amount those who are invited to join the roundtables are asked to contribute to Pillen’s campaign committee.
While the contribution requirement and the overt politicization of the mansion is eyebrow-raising, conducting the roundtables at the mansion, and raising as much campaign money as possible, is legal under state and federal election law.
Specifically, in 2012, the Nebraska Supreme Court found the state’s Campaign Finance Limitation Act unconstitutional, removing its lid on campaign spending. And a 1991 advisory opinion determined that, since the mansion functions as the governor’s personal as well as official residence, fundraisers can be held there, as long as no state funds or state employees are involved.
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But both former and current Republican and Democratic elected officials and longtime political observers surveyed by the Journal Star say they are unaware of any similar fundraisers to Pillen’s roundtable program in Nebraska in recent history.
The Pillen campaign fundraising has been, to say the least, a success. It’s impossible to determine the origin of any specific contribution from the roundtable from disclosure filings, and the campaign refused to provide a list of those invited into the program.
But the the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission has tracked more than 270 contributions of $10,000 or more from 138 different sources. The Pillen campaign has raised more than $1.7 million in the nearly two years since he took office, $1.27 million of that in donations of $10,000 or more.
Garnering that cash as admission to the roundtable program gives the appearance of “pay-to-play,” effectively forcing the invited business leaders, lobbyists and issue activists to pony up at least $10,000 to get the ear of the governor and, perhaps, impact his policies and decisions.
That pay-to-play model is, obviously, available only to well-connected wealthy individuals and corporations, raising concerns that elected officials are most available to those with the deepest pockets.
Similarly, it also makes it appear that Pillen is using his public position for personal gain, leading Common Cause Nebraska to call the mansion fundraising an “abuse of office.”
Again, the Roundtable Program, using the Governor’s Mansion and raising campaign cash in unlimited amounts is legal. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t create ethical issues or the appearance that the chosen, wealthy and well-connected have purchase.
And it is yet another illustration of the pernicious influence the flood of millions in campaign cash is having on governance and politics at the state level.