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Links: Santa Clara County Democratic Party California
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From Club Member Nancy Casey More info on corporate donations For my more politically inspired friends: A good buddy sent this to me. It's a really well organized new website that distills a lot of research around which companies/corporations contributed to which presidential campaign. http://www.choosetheblue.com/main.php
It takes a while to go thru all of this. I did it yesterday. Here's
a Ditto for car manufacturers except for one---namely Japanese owned Toyota. The airlines industry donated far more heavily for the Red campaign than it did for the Blue campaign. Very odd considering how little support they have gotten from the current administration. Very surprising that 2 bankrupt airlines donated heavily to any campaign let alone to the Red campaign---namely US Air and United to the tune of ~$270,000 combined. You have to wonder if their bankruptcy judge knows. Another surprise: For those of us who live in California: PG&E (yep, the bankrupt utility) donated $280,000 with 69% of that going to the Red campaign. How does a bankrupt company get away with that? Does the bankruptcy judge know? I'm guessing he's a Red too. Of the major hotel chains, only one donated heavily to the Blue campaign: namely Hyatt. All of the car rental majors donated primarily for the Red campaign. Computer hardware manufacturers preferred the Blue campaign with 2 major exceptions: Dell and Intel which donated very heavily for the Red campaign. Companies working in the Internet space were kind of evenly split except for EDS, Unisys, and Siebel who donated big bucks to the Red campaign.
Microsoft, CNET and HP did the same except they did so for the Blue Generally, computer software manufacturers favored the Blue campaign. Microsoft led the pack with over $2.7 million in donations 60% of which went to the Blue campaign.
When it comes to media, cable providers were somewhat evenly split. There were a very large number of banks donating predominantly for the Red campaign. Check out the website to see what your bank did. I was surprised what my banks did. Ditto for credit cards. Food manufacturers heavily favored the Blue campaign including even the Spam folks. Grocery stores overwhelmingly went Red. Interesting exceptions were: Costco, Whole Foods, Starbucks (never thought of them as into groceries), and Trader Joes. The HUGE household products category went overwhelmingly for the Red campaign. Check it out to see how the folks who make your household products donated. The meat and poultry industry went Red more than any other sector. So did the tobacco industry. I guess that's no surprise. Retailers was an interesting category. The trendy companies supported the Blue campaign. The long-standing major retailers went for the Red campaign. Walmart (Sam's Club) donated $2 million with 80% of that going to the Red campaign. Think of a major fast food chain and likely it supported the Red campaign. Notable exceptions were Starbucks and Arby's. McDonald's and Wendy's donated ~$540,000 between them with ~85% of that figure going to the Red campaign. Virtually every major restaurant chain that donated did so heavily for the Red campaign. Only one exception: Hard Rock Café. Final observations: I am absolutely blown away by how much money companies donate to political campaigns. I knew it was a lot. But, I had no idea just how big of an impact they have. You have to wonder what their Red and Blue stockholders would think of this if only they knew. Our politicians are bought and paid for. I am amazed just how skewed the corporate donations were for the Red campaign this year considering the state of the economy and a whole lot of other factors. With this information, you have an opportunity to influence these companies with your future purchases and letters
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