CUNA's political action committee has more than $700,000 in its coffers and NAFCU's PAC has more than $144,500, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission last month.CUNA's Credit Union Legislative Affairs Council had $708,714 in its coffers, according to a report filed in mid-September, which contains data through August. In August, CULAC raised $127,390 and so far this year has raised $926,077.In August, CULAC gave $48,345 to federal candidates and committees and this year has given $735,845.Among the recipients of its contributions were: Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), a former presidential candidate and a supporter of abolishing the Federal Reserve. He is the No. 6 Republican on the House Financial Services Committees and received $2,500 from CULAC; Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) who won a special election for a seat in the San Francisco area and received $5,000 from CULAC; Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas). the ranking Republican on the House Financial Services subcommittee that oversees credit unions received $2,000; and CULAC contributed $5,000 to Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.), who is seeking his party's nomination for an open U.S. Senate seat.By contrast, during the first eight months of 2007, CULAC had raised $920,800 and made $1.01 million in contributions. At the end of August 2007, it had $308,006 in its coffers.NAFCU's National Association of Federal Credit Unions Political Action Committee had $144,566 in its coffers at the end of the August. It raised $9,160 in August and $81,735 during the first eight months of 2009. It made $87,322 worth of contributions during the first eight months of this year but made no donations in August.Among the candidates who have received contributions from the PAC this year are: Meek, who also received $5,000; Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who is seeking the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate; Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), who is likely to have a tough re-election race, received $5,000; and Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the former No. 2 Republican leader who is now seeking an open U.S. Senate seat and received $1,000.It is impossible to compare NAFCU's fund raising and spending with the same period in 2007 because at that time it only made quarterly reports to the FEC and did not offer a month-by-month breakdown.According to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, 17 political action committees tied to credit unions have donated $653,580 to federal candidates this year-61% to Democrats and 39% to Republicans-according to the center.CUNA's and NAFCU's PACs were by far the largest givers , with the PACs of CUNA Mutual and Wescom Credit Union the third and fourth largest donors, giving $17,641 and $13,400, respectively, to federal candidates.–[email protected]