San Mateo's Siebel Systems major lobbyist

"They see that one of the natural users of their software systems and applications are government," Robert Atkinson told The San Jose Mercury News. Atkinson is director of technology and new-economy research at the Progressive Policy Institute.

With last week's passage of campaign-finance reform legislation, Siebel's PAC could grow even larger in real dollars and in influence. The legislation bans some types of unregulated corporate donations, but does not affect PACs, which donate directly to political parties and candidates under strict guidelines.

Siebel has been selling its software to at least six federal agencies since it developed the PAC in 2001. It has hired a vice president of government affairs, Thomas Gann, who said Siebel wants to help shape policy on issues in the electronic business.

Siebel, like other high-tech companies, would like some of the $52 billion the White House plans to spend in information-technology in fiscal year 2003.

Silicon Valley companies traditionally have stayed away from Washington politics, while labor unions, trade associations and special interest groups wield the largest PACs and lobbying operations.

Companies such as Intel, Oracle and Sun Microsystems spend between $50,000 and $150,000 each two-year election cycle.

Microsoft had the industry's largest PAC in the late 1990s when it was under antitrust scrutiny. It raised nearly $800,000 this year and has contributed more than $430,000.

Although Siebel ranks second to United Parcel Service in the amount of corporate PAC money raised in the current election year, it has distributed only $30,000 so far.

Its PAC appears to favor the GOP, with $20,000 going to the National Republican Congressional Committee, $1,000 each to five Republican members of Congress and $5,000 to Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn. One of Siebel's board members, Marc Racicot, now heads the Republican National Committee.

The nine-year-old company's founder and chief executive Tom Siebel has given chunks of his $3 billion fortune mostly to Republican causes and candidates.