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    News on Political Accountability

  • U.S. Chamber Grows into Major Poltiical Force    March 8, 2010
    Los Angeles Times by Tom Hamburger
    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is building a large-scale grass-roots political operation that has begun to rival those of the major political parties, funded by record-setting amounts of money raised from corporations and...    more right  

  • Decision Could Allow Anonymous Political Contributions by Businesses    February 27, 2010
    New York Times
    by Griff Palmer
    The Supreme Court decision last month allowing corporations to spend unlimited money on behalf of political candidates left a loophole that campaign finance lawyers say could allow companies to pay for extensive political...    more right  

  • Lobby Firm Tells Clients How to Sway Elections While Avoiding 'Public Scrutiny'    February 17, 2010
    Talking Points Memo
    by Zachary Roth
    Last Month's Citizens U In the wake of last month’s Citizens United ruling, a powerhouse Washington lobbying firm is informing its corporate clients on how they can use middlemen like the Chamber of Commerce to pour...    more right  

  • PG&E Amps up Bid for Power    February 10, 2010
    Los Angeles Times
    by Michael Hiltzik
    The utility's initiative has become Proposition 16, which is written broadly to apply to all public power systems. By undermining all competition from public power agencies, it will benefit no one except...    more right  

  • The Corporations Already Outspend the Parties    February 1, 2010
    The Atlantic
    by Marc Ambinder
    For the first time in recent history, the lobbying, grassroots and advertising budget of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has surpassed the spending of the national committees of BOTH the Republican National Committee and Democratic...    more right  

  • Campaign Finance ruling leaves Democrats with few options    January 23, 2010
    Washington Post
    by Dan Eggen and Ben Pershing
    Frustrated Democrats began laying plans Friday to chip away at a landmark Supreme Court decision unleashing corporate expenditures in political campaigns, but the ruling's broad sweep will make it difficult to...    more right  

  • High Court Decision May Bring 'Cascade' of Election Spending    January 22, 2010
    Bloomberg
    by Jonathan D. Salant and Lorraine Woellert
    Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down federal restrictions on corporate political spending may pump millions of dollars into the 2010 campaign from companies with stakes in...    more right  

  • Chamber of Commerce Warns Lawmakers it Will Play Election Hardball    January 12, 2010
    CQ Today
    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Tuesday that it will try to stop several bills that it views as trouble for the economy, and the group warned lawmakers that it will involve itself in House and Senate races this year. Thomas J. Donohue, president and...    more right  

  • Health Insurers Funded Chamber Attack Ads    January 12, 2010
    National Journal - Under the Influence
    by Peter H. Stone
    Just as dealings with the Obama administration and congressional Democrats soured last summer, six of the nation's biggest health insurers began quietly pumping big money into third-party television...    more right  

  • Courts Roll Back Election Spending Limits    January 9, 2010
    New York Times
    by David D. Kirkpatrick
    WASHINGTON- Even before a landmark Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance law expected within days, a series of other court decisions is reshaping the political battlefield by freeing corporations, unions and other...    more right  

  • How Interest Groups Behind Health Care Legislation are Financed is Often Unclear    January 7, 2010
    Washington Post
    by Dan Eggen
    Many of the Washington interest groups that are seeking to shape final health-care legislation in the coming weeks operate with opaque financing, often receiving hidden support from insurers, drugmakers or unions.    more right  

  • Tiny Group of Deep-Pocketed Contributors Fueling U.S. Chamber's Advocacy    November 24, 2009
    New York Times-Greenwire
    by Anne C. Mulkern
    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce often says it speaks for 3 million members, businesses both large and small. What it doesn't promote as readily is that 19 supporters last year provided a third of the trade group's...    more right  

  • Storm Over the Chamber    November 19, 2009
    New York Times
    by John Broder
    BACK in the 1990s when Thomas J. Donohue was president of the American Trucking Associations, a subordinate raised a question at a staff meeting. Some of the association’s members, the aide said, wondered whether it was...    more right  

  • Chamber spent $1.6 million in last week    November 18, 2009
    Politico
    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has spent at least $1.6 million in the last ten days targeting nine House battleground Democrats who voted for the passage of the health reform package, according to a list of ad buys obtained by POLITICO.    more right  

  • Supreme Court Ruling Could Play Role in 2010 Governor's Races    November 17, 2009
    USA Today
    by Fredreka Schouten
    If the Supreme Court opens the door to more corporate money in political campaigns, it could affect laws in nearly two dozen states and a host of governor's races next year, including high-profile contests in Texas and...    more right  

  • Chamber's Donohue Keeps Cash Coming After PG&E, Apple Defect    November 12, 2009
    Bloomberg
    By Mark Drajem and Daniel Whitten
    Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. and three other members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce quit over its opposition to climate-change legislation. President Barack Obama denounced the group for “spending...    more right  

  • Drug Makers are Advocacy Group's Biggest Donors    October 22, 2009
    New York Times
    by Gardiner Harris
    WASHINGTON A majority of the donations made to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one of the nation's most influential disease advocacy groups, have come from drug makers in recent years, according to Congressional...    more right  

  • Exit Through Lobby    October 19, 2009
    The New Yorker
    by James Surowiecki
    Resigning in protest is not in the American grain. Robert McNamara stuck around as Secretary of Defense even after he decided that the Vietnam War was a disaster; Colin Powell did the same during the Bush Administration's...    more right  

  • Chamber Divided on Climate Change    October 18, 2009
    Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
    by Len Boselovic
    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has lost a handful of influential members over its opposition to climate change legislation being considered by Congress.    more right  

  • Chamber Defections Cast Shadow Over Latest Effort    October 15. 2009
    Roll Call
    by Anna Palmer
    As the U.S. Chamber of Commerce rolled out its multimillion-dollar Campaign for Free Enterprise on Wednesday with all the pomp and circumstance of a political campaign rally, the business group was still dogged by questions...    more right  

  • Some companies cool to chambers' stance on climate change legislation    October 15, 2009
    Finance and Commerce
    by Bob Geiger
    Minnesota businesses increasingly are saying that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which opposes a U.S. Senate energy bill that could cap greenhouse gas emissions, does not speak for them.    more right  

  • Coalition Calls on 14 CEOs to Drop Chamber Memberships    October 14,
    Pension & Investments
    The CEOs of Air Products & Chemicals, Alcoa, American Electric Power and 11 other companies were urged to withdraw their memberships from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Associations of Manufacturers over disagreements on...    more right  

  • Shareholders Urge Companies to Challenge U.S. Chamber, NAM Over Climate Change Position    October 14, 2009
    North American Windpower
    by NAW Staff
    In letters to 14 top companies, 43 investors and investment-focused organizations encouraged the companies to end the contradiction between their own policies and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's and National Association...    more right  

  • Asset Managers, Religious Groups Turn up Heat on U.S. Chamber, NAM    October 14, 2009
    E&E
    by Michael Burnham
    Forty-three asset managers and allied groups -- including the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, Maryknoll Sisters and Dominican Sisters of Hope -- stepped up pressure today on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of...    more right  

  • Businesses Clash with U.S. Chamber over Climate Change    October 14, 2009
    Minnesota Public Radio
    by Stephanie Hemphill
    Businesses clash with U.S. chamber over climate change legislation by Stephanie Hemphill, Minnesota Public Radio October 14, 2009 St. Paul, Minn. — Some Minnesota businesses are opposing the U.S. Chamber of...    more right  

  • Campaign Finance Laws Face a Reset    October 13, 2009
    Politico
    by Jeanne Cummings
    A series of court decisions expected this fall could put the nation on track to return to turn-of-the-century campaign finance laws.    more right  

  • Chamber CEO takes Steve Jobs to task in climate row    October 7, 2009
    Greenwire
    by Michael Burnham
    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is defending its climate policy positions in a new and very public way. Chamber President and CEO Tom Donohue sent Apple CEO Steve Jobs a letter yesterday that questions the computer maker's...    more right  

  • Chamber Tries to Stop Climate Bleeding    October 7, 2009
    CongressDaily
    by Darren Goode
    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Tuesday looked to stanch the bleeding of recent defections over differences on climate change. They did so even as several dozen businesses this week increased their visibility on Capitol Hill to...    more right  

  • Does the U.S. Chamber Speak for Big Business?    October 7, 2009
    Business Week
    by Jane Sasseen
    There aren't many who would willingly take on Apple (AAPL) icon Steve Jobs—and lecture him on technology. But Thomas J. Donohue, the combative head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, isn't one to step away from a fight.    more right  

  • 'Hot Button' Climate Issue Spotlights How U.S. Chamber Sets Policy    October 6, 2009
    Greenwire
    by Anne C. Mulkern
    U.S. Chamber of Commerce staff decides the trade group's climate and energy policy positions without approval from the board of directors, Nike Inc. charged as it formulated a plan to call for greater chamber openness.    more right  

  • Chamber of Overstated Horrors    October 3, 2009
    Boston Globe
    Globe Editorial
    IT IS refreshing to see three energy companies - the nuclear power operator Exelon; Pacific Gas and Electric; and New Mexico’s largest electricity provider, PNM - quitting the US Chamber of Commerce over that organization’s...    more right  

  • Investor Advocates Press Business Groups Over Climate Policy    October 2, 2009
    New York Times
    by Michael Burnham
    Progressive investor funds and their allies are increasing pressure on powerful Washington business associations to alter their climate change policy positions, following the high-profile departure of three electric...    more right  

  • Exelon Quits U.S. Chamber Over Rift on Climate Bill    September 29
    Wall Street Journal
    By Cassandra Sweet
    Exelon Corp. on Monday became the third big utility in the past week to quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over the influential business group's stance against federal climate-change legislation.    more right  

  • P&E, Duke Energy Walkout Show U.S. Splits on Climate    September 29, 2009
    Bloomberg News
    By Daniel Whitten
    Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) -- PG&E Corp. quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Nike Inc. and Johnson & Johnson criticized the group for its stance. Duke Energy Corp. resigned from the National Association of Manufacturers.    more right  

  • Armey's Army Marches against Obama    September 27, 2009
    Washington Post
    By Ben Pershing
    Richard K. Armey has been an economics professor, House leader, corporate lobbyist and a blunt-talking critic of his fellow Republicans. Now, at the vanguard of a looselyknit band of opponents of President Obama's agenda,...    more right  

  • Utility Quits Alliance Over Climate Change    September 23, 2009
    New York Times
    By Kate Galbraith
    Amid a growing split in the business community over climate policy, Pacific Gas and Electric, a major California utility, is withdrawing from the United States Chamber of Commerce, citing “fundamental differences” with...    more   

  • Court Backs Outside Groups Political Spending    September 19, 2009
    New York Times
    by David D. Kirkpatrick
    WASHINGTON — The federal appeals court for the District of Columbia ruled Friday that the government cannot restrict independent political spending by nonprofit groups or political committees, accelerating the...    more   

  • Supreme Court hears arguments for corporate funding of candidates    September 10, 2009
    Los Angeles Times
    By David G. Savage
    The Supreme Court's conservative bloc sounded poised Wednesday to strike down on free-speech grounds a 102-year-old ban against corporations spending large amounts of money to elect or defeat congressional and...    more right  

  • A Century-Old Principle-Keep Corporate Money Out of Politics    August 11, 2009
    New York Times
    By Adam Cohen
    The founders were wary of corporate influence on politics — and their rhetoric sometimes got pretty heated. In an 1816 letter, Thomas Jefferson declared his hope to “crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed...    more right  

  • Exclusive: Conservative group offers to sell endorsement for $2M    July 17, 2009
    Politico
    By Mike Allen
    The American Conservative Union asked FedEx for a check for $2 million to $3 million in return for the group's endorsement in a bitter legislative dispute, then flipped and sided with UPS after FedEx refused to pay.    more right  

  • Justices may end campaign finance ban on corporations    June 30, 2009
    Los Angeles Times
    By David G. Savage
    The high court delays a decision until next term on whether a documentary critical of Hillary Clinton can be regulated as a type of campaign ad.    more...  

  • Campaign Finance Rules May Take A Beating    May 18, 2009
    National Journal
    By Eliza Newlin Carnery
    Even as Congress and the Obama administration mull a new round of campaign finance regulations, a series of legal challenges threatens to dismantle the existing rules, election law experts warn.    more right  

  • Duke Energy ditches manufacturing group    May 8, 2009
    Politico
    By Lisa Lerer
    Duke Energy won't renew its membership in the National Association of Manufacturers, in part because of disagreements with the lobbying group's stance on climate change policy.    more right  

  • Chamber under fire on warming    May 5, 2009
    Politico
    By Lisa Lerer
    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is taking head from Johnson & Johnson, Nike and other corporate members over its opposition to global warming legislation pending in the House.    more right  

  • Lobbying Groups Ramp Up Spending on Issue Ads    April 20, 2009
    The Wall Street Journal
    By Christopher Conkey and Brody Mullins
    Washington - A pilots group on Monday launched an advertising campaign designed to shoot down an Obama administration proposal to levy new user fees on planes, part of a surge in spending on issue...    more right  

  • He Doesn't Let Money Managers Off the Hook    April 12, 2009
    The New York Times
    Gretchen Morgenson
    Every once in a while, if only for sanity's sake, it is wise to leave our bankrupt era behind and seek out a bit of wisdom from a moral authority.    more right  

  • Not Quite a Confession, But a Good Start    April 8, 2009
    The Washington Post
    Steven Pearlstein
    For the past year, as the nation has engaged in a heated debate about how we got into the current financial mess and how we're going to get out of it, there's been one group noticeably missing from the conversation: leaders...    more right  

  • FEC, IRS Decline to Pursue Complaints On Political Ads by Secretive Organization    March 19, 2009
    BNA Money and Politics Report
    By Kenneth P. Doyle
    Americans for Job Security, a conservative, pro-business group has spent about $40 million since its founding a decade ago, nearly all of it for political advertising that favors Republican congressional...    more...  

  • Empty Disclosure    March 19, 2009
    Center for Responsive Politics
    By Lindsay Renick Mayer
    Some lobbyists appear to collect money for nothing--more than half a billion dollars from clients over the last decade, Center finds.    more right  

  • Nonprofits Wield Some Serious Campaign Cash    March 8, 2009
    CQ Today Online News
    By Bart Jansen
    Fueled by anonymous, unlimited contributions, nonprofit organizations have emerged as the latest weapon of choice in political advertising, rivaling congressional campaign committees in the last election cycle.    more...  

  • Exclusive: Bailout recipients keep donating    February 19, 2009
    The Washington Times
    By Jennifer Haberkorn
    Wall Street executives have pleaded economic ruin, secured hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer assistance and been pilloried for their business excesses. But none of that has curbed their appetite for...    more...  

  • FPPC targets ballot campaign accounts    January 15, 2009
    The Sacramento Bee
    By S Goldmacher
    Assembly Speaker Karen Bass used hers to fund voter registration efforts to elect more Democrats. Former Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata used his to bolster his legal defense fund. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger used his...    more...  

  • Prop. 8 supporters file challenge to campaign donor laws    January 8, 2009
    Sacramento Bee
    By A Rojas
    The Proposition 8 campaign has filed a federal suit challenging the constitutionality of California's campaign finance laws that compel disclosure of personal information by campaign donors who they said have been threatened and...    more...  

  • Wall Street: It's payback time    January 6, 2009
    Fortune Magazine
    By Roger Parloff
    In today's dire financial climate, what exactly should a CEO say when it's time to hold that quarterly earnings call with analysts and the media? On the one hand, he could try refreshing candor and say, "Look, let's be...    more right  

  • The Crisis Last Time    November 7, 2008
    The New York Times Book Review
    By Richard Parker
    For writers who seek to influence public affairs, timing plays a paramount role. And few writers have had better timing than Adolf Augustus Berle.    more...  

  • Independent groups up spending    October 10, 2008
    USA TODAY
    By Fredreka Schouten
    Spending by independent political groups in congressional races is surging in the final weeks before Election Day, in some cases surpassing what candidates themselves are pumping into close contests. Since Sept. 1, nine groups...    more...  

  • Partisan Fighting for Your Business    October 9, 2008
    The Washington Post
    By Mary Ann Akers And Paul Kane
    Congressional Democrats and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are back in that comfortable position they've long enjoyed -- mortal enemies. After working together last week to pass the $700 billion rescue...    more...  

  • Business, Labor Groups Zero In On a Few Close Senate Contests    October 9, 2008
    Wall Street Journal
    By T.W. FARNAM
    Business and labor groups are ramping up advertising in a handful of Senate races, seeing that chamber as the battleground that will have an outsize impact on the next administration's policies, regardless of which party...    more right  

  • Business Nervously Eyes the Senate    July 26, 2008
    National Journal
    By Peter H. Stone
    In the business community, the fundraising mantra these days sounds a lot like "It's the Senate, stupid." There are 23 Republican Senate seats up this year versus 12 Democratic ones, and fundraising by several GOP candidates...    more...  

  • McCain Allies Find Finance-Law Holes    July 3, 2008
    Wall Street Journal
    By Brody Mullins and T.W. Farnam
    Allies of Sen. John McCain have found new loopholes in the campaign-finance law he helped write -- and they're using them to reel in huge contributions to help him compete with Sen. Barack Obama.    more right  

  • When Political Giving Doesn't Pay    June 1, 2008
    Directorship
    Aaron Bernstein
    As the 2008 presidential election hits full stride, your company may be inclined to shell outâ?? through the legal channels of PACs, 527s, and other avenuesâ??to the candidate perceived to be in the best interest of your company or...    more...  

  • McCain Campaign Calls; A Nonprofit Steps In    May 31, 2008
    The Washington Post
    By Robert O'Harrow Jr.
    For weeks, Republican presidential candidate John McCain had been hammered for supporting the Air Force's February decision to award a $40 billion contract for refueling tankers to Northrop Grumman and its European...    more...  

  • For American Judges, Rendering Justice, With One Eye on Re-election    May 25, 2008
    The New York Times
    By Adam Liptak
    Last month, Wisconsin voters did something that is routine in the United States but virtually unknown in the rest of the world: They elected a judge.    more right  

  • Accounting Information as Political Currency    May 12, 2008
    Harvard Business School
    By Martha Lagace
    Corporate donations to political campaigns reveal a lot about mutual back-scratching in the political and business arenas. Now new research from Harvard Business School reveals that corporate giving may consist of more...    more...  

  • Dragging Big Business to Disclosure    April 24, 2008
    The New York Times
    Resisting every inch of the way, the powerful National Association of Manufacturers has finally agreed to follow Congress's new ethics law and disclose which of its members have been funding its lobbying operations on Capitol Hill. Welcome to...    more...  

  • Climate Issues Divide U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Big Members    April 17, 2008
    Wall Street Journal
    By Elizabeth Williamson
    Thomas Donohue built the U.S. Chamber of Commerce into Washington's biggest spending lobbying group by seizing the opportunities of a pro-business, Republican decade. But as Washington tilts more Democratic, populist...    more right  

  • The Selling of the Judiciary: Campaign Cash 'in the Courtroom'    April 15, 2008
    The New York Times
    By Dorothy Samuels
    "We put cash in the courtrooms, and it's just wrong," Sandra Day O'Connor, the former Supreme Court justice, declared at the start of a conference in New York last week on a growing threat to judicial independence and...    more...  

  • Interest-Group Campaign Spending Nears Record    February 5, 2008
    Wall Street Journal
    By T.W. Farnam and Brody Mullins
    Spending by interest groups in the current presidential campaign is on pace to far exceed the record amount spent by outside groups in the last presidential election -- and could top $1 billion for the...    more   

  • Stealthy Groups Shake Up Races    February 4, 2008
    Wall Street Journal
    By Brody Mullins
    Election results from Florida were still rolling in last Tuesday evening when Patrick Davis began plotting to help his candidate, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, in tomorrow's slate of Super Tuesday contests. He...    more right  

  • A Conservative Answer to MoveOn    January 20, 2008
    The Washington Post
    By Paul Kane and Jonathan Weisman
    When a group of former White House aides formed a political advocacy group called Freedom's Watch last summer, its initial wave of ads featured battered Iraq war veterans pleading for support for...    more right  

  • Chamber of Commerce vows to punish anti-business candidates    January 8, 2008
    Los Angeles Times
    By Tom Hamburger
    Alarmed at the increasingly populist tone of the 2008 political campaign, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is set to issue a fiery promise to spend millions of dollars to defeat candidates deemed to be...    more...  

  • Donor money talks, often in a whisper    December 29, 2007
    Los Angeles Times
    By Nancy Vogel
    A massage for a lawmaker's wife. Circus tickets for his kids. Keys to a mountain cabin for the weekend. A donation to his favorite charity or one that flies him across the world on an "educational" trip. There are many...    more...  

  • Nonprofits Become A Force in Primaries    December 5, 2007
    The Washington Post
    By John Solomon and Matthew Mosk
    Nonprofit groups created to educate the public and lobby on issues have started inserting themselves into the presidential primaries, adding an unexpected wild card to wide-open elections in both parties.    more right  

  • TrustHuckabee Calling    December 4, 2007
    The Washington Post
    Editorial
    GO TO TrustHuckabee.com, and you'll see what appears to be a typical campaign Web site. "Governor Huckabee can win the Iowa Caucuses if you commit yourself to attending your Precinct Caucus and become a Precinct Captain," it...    more right  

  • Lifting the Curtain on Corporate Contributions    November 16, 2007
    CondeNast Portfolio.com
    by Megan Barnett
    During the first six months of 2007, Pfizer spent $128,969 from its corporate checkbook on political donations to Democratic and Republican politicians. It doled out another $614,300 to various party committees and...    more...  

  • Corporate Political Contributions: Investment or Agency?    November 16, 2007
    University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management
    Abstract: We examine corporate contributions to political candidates for federal offices in the United States from 1991 to 2004. We find that firms that donate have operating characteristics consistent with...    more right  

  • A New Channel for Soft Money Starts Flowing    November 12, 2007
    The New York Times
    By Jim Rutenberg and David D. Kirkpatrick
    The so-called Wounded Warriors Act, legislation intended to improve health care for veterans, has attracted nearly unanimous, bipartisan support in Congress. So why would the newly formed...    more...  

  • Show Us Your Money: Halting the Use of Trade Organizations as Trade Organizations as Convert Conduits for Corporate Campaign Contributions    October 1, 2007
    Journal of Corporation Law
    By Shayla Kasel
    The US Chamber of Commerce (the Chamber) is the world's largest business federation, and the most financially influential trade organization. The Chamber is one of the top independent organizational contributors to...    more...  

  • Resolved: Public Corporations Shall Take Us Seriously    August 12, 2007
    New York Daily Magazine
    By Dashka Slater
    Daly's order, the Sisters of Saint Dominic of Caldwell, N.J., owns about 300 of the 5.5 billion Exxon Mobile shares outstanding, but she has used those few shares to keep the company talking about an issue that it...    more...  

  • Proxy bids more than hot air    June 4, 2007
    Financial Week
    By Jeff Nash
    With the 2008 election season ramping up, investors are increasingly asking companies to better disclose their political contributions' and in many cases, they're getting what they asked for.    more right  

  • To Conceal Donors, Some Political Groups Look to the Tax Code    April 17, 2007
    The Washington Post
    By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
    An increasing number of organizations working to influence elections also are working to hide who is paying for their activities.    more...  

  • Industry Giants Opening Up on Politics    April 11, 2007
    Roll Call
    By Tory Newmyer
    The transparency tide sweeping Capitol Hill is reaching corporate suites far outside the Beltway.
    A dozen companies this month announced they are the latest to join a growing list of business giants pledging to disclose more...    more...  

  • More Firms to Make Political Disclosures    April 5, 2007
    CFO.com
    By Stephen Taub
    The transparency tide sweeping Capitol Hill is reaching corporate suites far outside the Beltway.
    A dozen companies have recently adopted political disclosure and accountability policies, according to a group of shareholder...    more...  

  • Subtle Shift: Business Lobby Hedges Its Bets By Supporting More Democrats    September 22, 2006
    Wall Street Journal
    By Jeanne Cummings
    Freshman Democratic Rep. Melissa Bean of Illinois is facing the Republican Party machine in her re-election bid. Vice President Dick Cheney and House Speaker Dennis Hastert have headlined money-raising events for her...    more...  

  • The End of Legal Bribery    June 2006
    Washington Monthly
    By Jeffrey Birnbaum
    So far, the scandal surrounding disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff has produced some vivid and memorable examples of modern Washington graft--skybox tickets, pricey restaurant meals, golf junkets to Scotland. Yet at the center...    more...  

  • Loophole in 527s Shields Donors    April 27, 2005
    Roll Call
    Suzanne Nelson
    As Congress debates what to do about 527 groups, the independent political organizations that spent almost a half-billion dollars to influence the 2004 elections, an underlying assumption has been that while the groups raised...    more right  

  • Sunshine is the Best Disinfectant    January 1, 2005
    Business Ethics
    By Marc Gunther
    A new standard for best practice in corporate political donations is being set today, as leading firms respond to pressures to disclose soft-money political donations. Morgan Stanley became the first major U.S. company to agree...    more...  

  • In the U.S., Some Big Names Have Lost Luster    November 15, 2004
    Wall Street Journal
    By Ronald Alsop
    Ask Michael Kitchens what comes to mind when he hears the name Walt Disney Co., and it won't be Mickey Mouse or Disney World. What he thinks of first: "Michael Eisner and overblown salaries."    more right  

  • Bleeding Heart Businesses    November 14, 2004
    The Washington Post
    By Marc Gunther
    Compassionate capitalism. Think it sounds like an oxymoron? Think again. Even as America is supposedly turning conservative on social issues, big business is moving in the other direction.    more...  

  • SEC Should Require Corporations to Disclose Political Contributions    September 5, 2004
    San Jose Mercury News
    Editorial
    Maybe you contribute to political campaigns. Maybe you don't. Or maybe you do, but don't know about it. If you own stocks, directly or through mutual funds, some of your money is going into politics. As a shareholder,...    more...  

  • Domini Social Impact Update- Fourth Quarter 2004    September 1, 2004
    Domini Social Investments
    Social Impact Update
    Every year, we draft and file "shareholder resolutions"to appear on corporate proxy statements in the spring. Each resolution presents an important social or environmental issue, and seeks approval from the...    more right  

  • Feds asked to suspend PAC probe: Contributions legal, U.S. attorney is told    April 26, 2004
    Houston Chronicle
    By R.G. Ratcliffe
    A national conservative group is asking federal prosecutors to drop an investigation into the financial activities of a political committee founded by U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land. The American...    more...  

  • U.P. political gifts are questioned    April 16, 2004
    World-Herald
    By Stacie Hamel
    The Washington, D.C.-based center distributed information this week reporting that U.P. made $1,032,022 in corporate contributions in the 2002 election cycle and that the company "gave to conduits that, in turn, contributed to...    more...  

  • Right Wing 527s in Temporary Hiatus    March 1, 2004
    Roll Call
    By Chris Cillizza
    The Republican hard money advantage and temporary conservative and corporate donor skittishness have delayed the growth of conservative 527 political committees in the current election cycle, according to Roll Call, a newspaper that...    more...  

 

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