By Marc Korman.
Comptroller Peter Franchot recently held a fundraiser in the lobby of the Chevy Chase Bank building in Bethesda. Alex Boyle, Vice Chairman of Chevy Chase, kicked off the event by welcoming everyone to the Chevy Chase Bank building, but then corrected himself to welcome everyone to the Capitol One Building. Montgomery politicians are going to miss more than Chevy Chase Bank’s lobby now that it is being bought by Capital One.
Capital One announced in early December that it was buying Chevy Chase Bank. Over time, Chevy Chase’s ubiquitous branches and ATMs will be converted to Capital One locations. We do not know yet if there will be branches that close, ATMs that disappear, or layoffs. But there is no question that the acquisition by Capital One will bring major changes to the forty year old regional institution.
One of those changes will be political. Chevy Chase Bank is one of seven individual banks with a registered state political action committee in Maryland. There are also PACs for the Banking industry and Mortgage Bankers in general. But of the individual bank PACs, none have been better to Montgomery County politicos than Chevy Chase Bank.
During the 2006 and 2008 cycles, the PAC made $37,200 in donations, $22,700 of which was to Montgomery politicians. That includes over $5,000 to Howard Denis, over $4,000 to George Leventhal and Doug Duncan, and $2,500 to Steve Silverman. Hans Riemer even scored $250, the only non-office holder to receive a donation.
The other individual banks with state PACs in Maryland are Bank of America, BB&T, First Mariner, Mercantile, M&T, and Provident. But none are based in Montgomery County like Chevy Chase is and they have been nowhere near as generous to Montgomery politicians. During the 2006 and 2008 cycles, Bank of America’s state PAC gave $12,350 to Montgomery candidates, First Mariner gave $4,000, Provident gave $2,500, and the others gave nothing.
Here is a complete breakdown of the individual bank donations to Montgomery politicians between December of 2004 and December of 2008.
Chevy Chase MD PAC
Delegate Kumar Barve-$250
Councilman Howard Denis-$5,200
County Executive Doug Duncan-$4,500
Delegate Brian Feldman-$500
Delegate Brian Frosh-$250
Senator Rob Garagiola-$2,000
Delegate Sheila Hixson-$500
Councilman Mike Knapp-$500
County Executive Ike Leggett-$2,000
Councilman George Leventhal-$4,250
Council Challenger Hans Riemer-$250
Councilman Steve Silverman-$2,500
Total Donations in Maryland: $37,200
Total Donations in Montgomery County: $22,700
Bank of America MD PAC
Delegate Kumar Barve-$750
Delegate Bill Bronrott-$100
Delegate Sheila Dixon-$1,750
Comptroller Peter Franchot-$5,000
Attorney General Doug Gansler-$1,500
Senator Rob Garagiola-$1,100
Delegate Susan Lee-$250
Councilman George Leventhal-$700
Delegate Roger Manno-$250
Delegate Herman Taylor-$950
Total Donations in Maryland: $56,435
Total Donations in Montgomery County: $12,350
First Mariner Bank
Comptroller Peter Franchot-$4,000
Total Donations in Maryland: $6,800
Total Donations in Montgomery County: $4,000
Provident
Doug Duncan: $2,500
Total Donations in Maryland: $16,060
Total Donations in Montgomery County: $2,500
Branch Banking and Trust Company MD PAC
Total Donations in Maryland: $3,500
Total Donations in Montgomery County: 0