This morning Congressional Quarterly casually mentions that the Democratic National Committee is spending $500,000 on the special election for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts. Martha Coakley, who disappointed many Massachusetts liberals by declaring her support for spying against American citizens under the Patriot Act, has been struggling against the Republican candidate, Scott Brown.
It certainly all sounds straightforward. Martha Coakley is the Democratic candidate, so of course the Democratic Party would support her. The Democratic National Committee is the top fundraising organization for the Democratic Party, so of course it would be the source of money. And where does the Democratic National Committee get its money? From Democratic voters, right?
Actually, that’s where the straightforward nature of the story unravels.
It’s individuals who contribute to the fundraising committees of the national political parties, but those individuals are often not as individual as they seem. Corporations with interests in particular government actions, for example, will often give their executives a certain amount of pay with the understanding that political donations will be made from that money in accordance with the company’s agenda. Often, the company has a political action committee that points employees the way to where they are supposed to make their donations.
For that reason, the Center for Responsive Politics takes a look both at which companies have the most employees donating to particular candidates and committees, and which professional sectors are donating the most to particular candidates and committees.
It may be a bit of a surprise for rank and file Democratic voters to learn that one of the biggest group of contributors to the Democratic National Committee consists of employees of News Corporation, the company that owns Fox News. Only the huge law firm Susman Godfrey LLC, with offices in five cities in the United States, has given the DNC more.
As a category of businesses with conspicuously high amounts of employee donations to the Democratic National Committee, financial firms are second only to the rather generic category of “retired”. Placing the categories of “Securities and Investment” and “Miscellaneous Finance” together, employees of these firms have given over 3.2 million dollars to the DNC during the present 2010 campaign cycle so far.
Keep these big business donations in mind when you’re reading stories talking about donations to candidates like Martha Coakley coming from partisan political committees like the Democratic National Committee. Directly, the money is coming from the political party, but ultimately, much of the money being given comes from corporate sources and may have rather substantial strings attached.
The News Corporation that owns Fox News, which is meant in its news reporting only – not such programming that is clearly on the side of particlar opinion – to be fair and balanced donates to the Republican party as well.
As with all politicians,both Dems and Repubs, where donations come from is clearly a sticking point for Americans. Most Americans on both sides cringe at the power that lobbyists and special interest groups hold over the manner in which our elected leaders govern. It is hard to see that within both parties, lobbyist donations rule followed by special interests.