In case you thought our utility competitors had deep pockets........

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                                       This election is brought to you by ...
                                       Corporations lavished more money than 
ever before on this
                                       year's political campaigns. So who 
stands to benefit?

                                       - - - - - - - - - - - -
                                       By Katharine Mieszkowski

                                       Nov. 7, 2000 | As the 2000 campaign 
season winds up, quite
                                       a few major corporations have lighter 
pockets; the same year
                                       that saw campaign finance reform 
become a significant election
                                       issue also witnessed leading 
candidates raking in more
                                       corporate dollars than ever before. 

                                       The Center for Responsive Politics 
estimates that by the time
                                       the last "soft-money" dollar has been 
counted, the amount
                                       contributed will be the greatest haul 
of its kind in the history of
                                       U.S. politics -- $3 billion for the 
federal elections alone. By the
                                       center's estimates 50 percent more 
dough has been contributed
                                       to campaigns this year than in the 
last presidential campaign
                                       season. We have companies like AT&T, 
Microsoft, Citigroup
                                       and Verizon Communications to thank 
for underwriting the
                                       blizzard of campaign propaganda. 

                                       The surging economy isn't the only 
reason
                                       that contributions are up. Since both 
the
                                       presidential race and control of the 
House
                                       are up in the air, many companies are 
betting
                                       that the wisest strategy is to 
prudently fund
                                       both sides of the aisle. 

                                       "There are no safe bets this year," 
says Larry
                                       Makinson, executive director of the 
center.
                                       "They've got to protect themselves by 
giving
                                       to both sides, and they're being shaken
                                       down mercilessly by fundraisers." 

                                       Not surprisingly, many of the biggest
                                       contributors are in highly regulated 
industries
                                       like telecommunications and finance. 

                                       Based on the latest available data 
from the Federal Election
                                       Commission, AT&T is the biggest single 
contributor to this
                                       year's election. As of Oct. 1, the 
telecommunications company
                                       -- a perennial major donor -- had 
given more than $4.3 million,
                                       with 62 percent of that money going to 
Republicans. AT&T
                                       has been lobbying Congress to change 
federal regulations that
                                       will force the telecommunications 
giant to sell some of its cable
                                       holdings. Verizon Communications and 
SBC Communications,
                                       two contenders for AT&T's telecom 
throne, are the fourth and
                                       seventh biggest donors, respectively. 

                                       Mergers are a huge reason for 
companies to give, give and give
                                       some more to members of the House and 
Senate. "You don't
                                       want any embarrassing hearing being 
called in Congress if
                                       you're trying to acquire a big 
company," says Makinson. While
                                       in the '70s many of today's brand of 
megamergers would have
                                       had members of Congress "pounding 
their fists," today's larger
                                       mergers are sailing by without so much 
as a peep. 

                                       Microsoft, still trying to recover 
from its antitrust hangover, is
                                       the second largest corporate donor -- 
having given more than
                                       $3.4 million at last count. Bill Gates 
and Co. seem to have
                                       learned their lesson from years of 
neglecting to remember
                                       political friends at election time. "I 
joke that what Microsoft is
                                       really after is legislation that makes 
it legal to give direct
                                       contributions to federal judges," says 
Makinson. The company
                                       has given almost evenly to Republican 
and Democratic forces
                                       this year. 

                                       Notably, many large unions, like the 
American Federation of
                                       State, County and Municipal Employees, 
the AFL-CIO and
                                       the Service Employees International 
Union, gave as much as
                                       the top corporate donors. But if 
business contributions and
                                       union contributions are taken in 
aggregate, the for-profit guys
                                       outspent the unions 15 to 1. Also, 
many of the top individual
                                       contributors are corporate CEOs who 
give their own money to
                                       a candidate in addition to what their 
corporation might donate.
                                       For example, Enron, a Texas energy 
company, is the 13th
                             biggest corporate donor, and the biggest single 
donor, to
                             George W. Bush over the course of his short 
political career.
                             Kenneth Lay, CEO of Enron, had at last count 
also contributed
                             more than $300,000 of his own money -- almost 
exclusively to
                             Republican causes -- this year. 

                                       The moral of the story seems to be: 
Give, or take your
                                       chances. For many companies, opening 
up their ample wallets
                                       is undoubtedly intended not just for 
political favors but as a
                                       defense mechanism in case they should 
face some public
                                       relations debacle that congressional 
hearings wouldn't help.
                                       "That probably was Firestone's big 
problem," says Makinson.
                                       "They don't give enough campaign 
contributions. They give
                                       virtually nothing." 


                                       salon.com | Nov. 7, 2000

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                                       About the writer
                                       Katharine Mieszkowski is a senior 
writer
                                       for Salon Technology.