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The Logo Lowdown, part 2
FROM THE “LAND OF THE CLUELESS AND CONNIVING,” meet a couple of gentlemen who insist that America’s political funding system is working splendidly. They report that there’s absolutely nothing going on between the money interests and our lawmakers in Washington that should trouble our fuzzy little minds.
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First up is one Paul Miller, president of the American League of Lobbyists (bet you didn’t know that lobbying is now such an industry in Washington that they’ve formed a lobby group for lobbyists!). He offers this insight:
“Our government is not corrupt, lobbyists are not bribing people, and members of Congress are not being bought for campaign contributions. I don’t think we can say for certainty that the current system is broken.”
Gosh, I wonder if he can say “TomDeLay JackAbramoff DukeCunningham” with certainty…or a straight face?
Next comes Ben Barr, who’s from a pro-corporate Arizona think tank called the Goldwater Institute. In an interview last October on the PBS television show “NOW,” he shared this wisdom:
NOW: Do you think money is a problem in politics under the traditional system?
Barr: No, I do not. Money is speech.
NOW: But, surely money can also distort speech….
Barr: That’s the price of freedom…. Speech costs money.
Follow the bouncing logic: Speech costs money; money distorts speech; distorted speech is freedom.
So, I hope you’ll feel perfectly free to peruse this month’s Lowdown listing of brand-name corporations and others who paid pricey sums in last year’s congressional elections to buy oodles of speech for themselves. Their purchases began at the $100,000 level and ran higher than $3 million.
Lest you think that this money amounts to a gross distortion of our democracy, I’m sure that Messrs. Miller and Barr would point out that, hey, it’s an open system—if you’ve got $100,000 and up, you can buy some speech, too! Imagine how Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Madison, and the other founders would feel about this perversion of their concept of “free speech.”
And if the 2006 money appalls you, wait for the presidential race, where it’s predicted that serious contenders will have to put up $100 million each to be competitive in the primary elections. This means that Clinton, Edwards, Giuliani, McCain, Obama, Romney and the rest will be dragging sacks all this year to wealthy interests, with the candidates needing to fill their sacks with $2 million every week!
To help reform this destructive, corrupting, absurdist system, call Public Campaign (202-293-0222). Meanwhile, you might want to take your own personal stand by voting with your consumer dollars, using this month’s and last month’s Lowdowner’s Shopping Guide.
| ENERGY/NATURAL RESOURCES | ||
| Corporation & products | Total contributed | Percentage contributed |
| Koch Industries, Inc. | $1,274,055 | 86% to GOP |
| Exxon Mobil Corp. | $827,882 | 90% to GOP |
| Valero Energy Corp. | $787,950 | 88% to GOP |
| Southern Co. | $759,274 | 77% to GOP |
| Florida Power & Light Co. | $755,095 | 81% to GOP |
| American Electric Power | $674,500 | 79% to GOP |
| TXU Corp. | $584,864 | 79% to GOP |
| Peabody Energy Corp. | $519,250 | 91% to GOP |
| Chevron Corp. | $534,237 | 86% to GOP |
| Occidental Petroleum Corp. | $476,525 | 74% to GOP |
| Duke Energy Corp. | $412,475 | 80% to GOP |
| ConocoPhillips | $414,083 | 90% to GOP |
| Marathon Oil Corp. | $405,803 | 80% to GOP |
| Sunoco, Inc. | $314,550 | 81% to GOP |
| Andarko Petroleum Corp. | $260,000 | 91% to GOP |
| Chesapeake Energy Corp. | $249,820 | 93% to GOP |
| PPL Corp. | $236,007 | 76% to GOP |
| Waste Management, Inc. | $227,983 | 67% to GOP |
| Murray Energy Corp. | $174,750 | 99% to GOP |
| Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold | $180,600 | 84% to GOP |
| Phelps Dodge Corp. | $181,685 | 83% to GOP |
| Arch Coal, Inc. | $160,850 | 80% to GOP |
| El Paso Corp. | $157,600 | 67% to GOP |
| Foundation Coal | $151,370 | 72% to GOP |
| COMPUTERS/INTERNET | ||
| Corporation & products | Total contributed | Percentage contributed |
| Siebel Systems, Inc. | $663,750 | 89% to GOP |
| Intel Corp. | $478,259 | 63% to GOP |
| Dell Inc. | $384,602 | 83% to GOP |
| Google Inc. | $286,987 | 91% to GOP |
| Oracle Corp. | $264,395 | 65% to GOP |
| Unisys Corp. | $215,735 | 65% to GOP |
| SAP America | $184,304 | 69% to GOP |
| EMC Corp. | $178,300 | 74% to GOP |
| VeriSign, Inc. | $158,950 | 82% to GOP |
| Prologic, Inc. | $249,150 | 84% to Dems |
| Achievement Technologies, Inc. | $215,300 | 99% to Dems |
| Progeny Systems Corp. | $197,875 | 70% to Dems |
| CONSTRUCTION | ||
| Corporation & products | Total contributed | Percentage contributed |
| Washington Group International | $681,019 | 66% to GOP |
| Caterpillar Inc. | $474,241 | 84% to GOP |
| Centex Corp. | $284,472 | 92% to GOP |
| Perry Homes | $159,000 | 99% to GOP |
| Clark Construction | $138,450 | 96% to GOP |
| Kohler Co. | $125,300 | 86% to GOP |
| Zachry Construction Corp. | $124,250 | 87% to GOP |
| Stanley Tate Enterprises | $124,200 | 100% to GOP |
| Williams Brothers Construction | $116,300 | 100% to GOP |
| William Lyon Homes | $111,500 | 100% to GOP |
| Village Homes of Colorado | $103,637 | 100% to GOP |
| Owens Corning | $102,450 | 77% to GOP |
| Tishman Realty & Construction | $218,100 | 99% to Dems |
| BANKS/INSURANCE/FINANCE | ||
| Corporation & products | Total contributed | Percentage contributed |
| Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu | $2,147,239 | 71% to GOP |
| PricewaterhouseCoopers | $1,367,604 | 70% to GOP |
| KPMG LLP | $1,256,900 | 67% to GOP |
| Wachovia Corp. | $1,115,144 | 64% to GOP |
| USAA Insurance | $637,850 | 76% to GOP |
| American Financial Group | $626,900 | 98% to GOP |
| Nelnet, Inc. | $561,600 | 76% to GOP |
| St. Paul Travelers Companies | $498,519 | 67% to GOP |
| Zurich Financial Services | $467,985 | 82% to GOP |
| Aon Corp. | $435,432 | 76% to GOP |
| U.S. Bancorp | $429,520 | 68% to GOP |
| Mellon Financial Corp. | $341,720 | 69% to GOP |
| National City Corp. | $210,260 | 85% to GOP |
| Trust Company of the West | $213,170 | 70% to GOP |
| SunTrust Banks, Inc. | $172,976 | 73% to GOP |
| Cash America International | $145,350 | 73% to GOP |
| College Loan Corp. | $138,000 | 88% to GOP |
| Bank of New York | $199,431 | 66% to Dems |
| City National Bank | $159,301 | 97% to Dems |
| Advance America | $131,900 | 84% to Dems |
| Business Loan Express | $124,100 | 98% to Dems |
| DEFENSE | ||
| Corporation & products | Total contributed | Percentage contributed |
| BAE Systems | $979,089 | 64% to GOP |
| Fluor Corp. | $363,920 | 78% to GOP |
| Bechtel Group | $269,650 | 64% to GOP |
| Halliburton | $205,390 | 94% to GOP |
| Vought Aircraft | $128,000 | 73% to GOP |
| Playing both sides | |||
| Some major players wanted to be “winners” no matter which side prevailed last November, so they split their campaign investments pretty evenly. Here are million- dollar donors who hedged their bets in 2006: | |||
| Corporation & products | Total contributed | TO DEMS | TO GOP |
| Goldman Sachs | $3,348,816 | 61% | 38% |
| Citigroup Inc. | $2,368,516 | 51% | 46% |
| Verizon | $2,080,425 | 40% | 59% |
| Bank of America | $2,050,034 | 44% | 55% |
| JPMorgan Chase & Co. | $2,009,121 | 56% | 43% |
| Lockheed Martin | $2,007,569 | 42% | 58% |
| Microsoft | $1,995,492 | 56% | 43% |
| UBS AG | $1,909,551 | 50% | 45% |
| Morgan Stanley | $1,837,253 | 48% | 51% |
| Comcast Corp. | $1,796,325 | 49% | 50% |
| Aflac Inc. | $1,634,685 | 43% | 56% |
| Ernst & Young | $1,434,481 | 42% | 57% |
| General Dynamics | $1,419,913 | 38% | 59% |
| Blue Cross & Blue Shield | $1,375,346 | 41% | 59% |
| Bellsouth Corp. | $1,355,995 | 41% | 58% |
| Boeing Co. | $1,173,141 | 43% | 56% |
| Raytheon Co. | $1,116,880 | 43% | 57% |
| New York Life Insurance Co. | $1,102,025 | 52% | 47% |
| Merrill Lynch | $1,036,433 | 45% | 54% |
| NewsCorp. (Fox TV/film) | $943,682 | 55% | 45% |
| HEALTH SERVICES/PHARMACEUTICALS | ||
| Corporation & products | Total contributed | Percentage contributed |
| Pfizer, Inc. | $1,698,639 | 68% to GOP |
| GlaxoSmithKline Inc. | $1,101,591 | 69% to GOP |
| Amgen Inc. | $1,055,975 | 67% to GOP |
| Eli Lilly and Co. | $668,060 | 72% to GOP |
| Abbott Laboratories | $662,946 | 83% to GOP |
| Merck & Co., Inc. | $532,856 | 78% to GOP |
| AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals | $520,730 | 74% to GOP |
| DaVita Inc. | $487,800 | 68% to GOP |
| Schering-Plough Corp. | $463,438 | 77% to GOP |
| Kindred Healthcare, Inc. | $415,000 | 75% to GOP |
| Medco Health Solutions, Inc. | $387,220 | 68% to GOP |
| Novartis AG | $375,933 | 71% to GOP |
| HCA, Inc. | $299,187 | 69% to GOP |
| sanofi-aventis Group | $271,285 | 73% to GOP |
| Humana, Inc. | $233,947 | 82% to GOP |
| Bayer Corp. | $205,833 | 82% to GOP |
| PacifiCare Health Systems | $188,500 | 67% to GOP |
| Kaiser Permanente | $109,546 | 69% to Dems |
| TRANSPORTATION | ||
| Corporation & products | Total contributed | Percentage contributed |
| UPS | $2,522,673 | 65% to GOP |
| FedEx Corp. | $1,522,354 | 64% to GOP |
| Union Pacific Corp. | $1,327,765 | 77% to GOP |
| Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. | $1,264,944 | 71% to GOP |
| Enterprise Rent-A-Car | $942,320 | 83% to GOP |
| General Motors Corp. | $835,235 | 67% to GOP |
| Ford Motor Co. | $561,761 | 66% to GOP |
| CSX Corp. | $526,980 | 71% to GOP |
| American Airlines | $464,578 | 67% to GOP |
| Continental Airlines | $291,923 | 72% to GOP |
| Southwest Airlines | $267,264 | 76% to GOP |
| Northwest Airlines | $243,866 | 70% to GOP |
| CarMax, Inc. | $182,850 | 92% to GOP |
| Carnival Corp. | $181,099 | 70% to GOP |
| Delta Air Lines | $151,817 | 80% to GOP |
| Overnite Corp. | $147,500 | 94% to GOP |
| Rolls-Royce | $137,750 | 79% to GOP |
| US Airways | $116,150 | 71% to GOP |
| COMMUNICATIONS/ELECTRONICS/ENTERTAINMENT | ||
| Corporation & products | Total contributed | Percentage contributed |
| AT&T | $2,835,997 | 65% to GOP |
| General Electric NBC Television Network, Universal Pictures, Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC, Sci Fi, USA Network, Universal Parks and Resorts. |
$1,172,101 | 90% to GOP |
| Clear Channel Communications Several TV stations, over 1,200 radio stations, concert venues, advertising. |
$789,279 | 64% to GOP |
| Qwest Communications | $693,653 | 66% to GOP |
| Corning, Inc. | $396,710 | 65% to GOP |
| IDT Corp. | $365,183 | 84% to GOP |
| Motorola, Inc. | $355,221 | 68% to GOP |
| Bresnan Communications | $229,150 | 98% to GOP |
| Salem Communications | $181,499 | 100% to GOP |
| Western Wireless | $159,700 | 79% to GOP |
| Time Warner Time, Entertainment Weekly, Fortune, In Style, Life, Money, People, Real Simple, Sports Illustrated, Coastal Living, Cooking Light, Southern Living, Sunset, The Progressive Farmer, Golf Magazine, This Old House, Homes & Gardens, DC Comics, Mad Magazine, Turner Broadcasting System, Atlanta Braves, Cartoon Network, CNN, NASCAR.COM, TBS, TCM, Pogo, TNT, Turner Network Television, Court TV, AOL, CompuServe, MapQuest, Moviefone, Xdrive, New Line Cinema. |
$1,861,845 | 72% to Dems |
| Viacom Inc BET, MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Comedy Central, CMT, IFILM, DreamWorks SKG, TV Land, Paramount. |
$855,971 | 80% to Dems |
| QUALCOMM Inc. | $447,550 | 65% to Dems |
| Discovery Communications Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, The Science Channel, Discovery Times, Military Channel, FitTV, U.S. Hispanic Networks, Discovery HD Theater. |
$135,320 | 98% to Dems |
| Working Assets | $117,914 | 100% to Dems |
| Union donations | ||
| The right wing constantly says that, yeah, corporations are big Republican backers, but that this money is balanced by the donations that unions make to Democrats. Nice try, but no cigar. While unions do support Dems, total corporate investment in congressional races dwarfs that made by the unions. The union total of $65million is less than that of the electronics industry alone ($67million) and amounts to less than 7% of the roughly $880 million that corporations put up last year. Here’s a listing of the top 20 labor donors, with the percentage they gave to Democrats: | ||
| Corporation & products | Total contributed | Percentage to Dems |
| International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers | $3,018,636 | 97% |
| Laborers Union | $2,936,259 | 87% |
| Operating Engineers Union | $2,788,595 | 78% |
| American Federation of Teachers | $2,569,498 | 99% |
| Carpenters & Joiners Union | $2,522,173 | 75% |
| American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees | $2,347,588 | 98% |
| National Education Association | $2,339,477 | 87% |
| United Auto Workers | $2,303,290 | 99% |
| Teamsters Union | $2,284,522 | 90% |
| National Air Traffic Controllers Association | $2,149,570 | 76% |
| International Association of Fire Fighters | $2,145,105 | 72% |
| Machinists/Aerospace Workers Union | $2,086,589 | 98% |
| Plumbers/Pipefitters Union | $2,086,170 | 91% |
| Air Line Pilots Association | $1,819,250 | 89% |
| Sheet Metal Workers Union United Food & Commercial | $1,771,700 | 95% |
| Workers Union | $1,722,305 | 98% |
| American Postal Workers Union | $1,721,500 | 95% |
| National Association of Letter Carriers | $1,718,300 | 88% |
| Service Employees International Union | $1,674,192 | 92% |
| AFL-CIO | $1,615,577 | 88% |