Having the ability to disburse aid is important to winning clout with the government.
For the startups, this was a chance to win valuable clout for their projects.
Presidential candidates have used these PACs to contribute money to elected officials in order to gain clout and possibly win endorsements.
The US and the Sadrists have been, at best, highly suspicious of each other since the cleric's followers won political clout in Iraq by capturing 40 seats in parliament in national elections two years ago.
As Dream On had won them clout in Hollywood, they aimed to pitch one of their ideas to NBC; Insomnia Cafe, about six friends who live and work in New York City, was pitched as a seven-page treatment to the network in December 1993.
National health systems use their clout to win big discounts.
But it didn't win back its negotiating clout.
Federal urban spending fell sharply in the eighties, and Detroit simply did not have the political clout to win most of it back.
The moral seems to be that China's economic clout can win it commercial acquiescence, but that when it comes to arm-wrestling over matters of national security, America still has the muscle.
For a quarter of a century, Mr. Moss worked for the senator and for black South Carolinians, using Mr. Thurmond's clout to win sewer grants for black hamlets and grants for black colleges and small businesses.
