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News on Political Accountability

Mar 9, 2010 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

Feb 27, 2010 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

Feb 17, 2010 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

Feb 10, 2010 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

Feb 1, 2010 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

Jan 23, 2010 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

Jan 22, 2010 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

Jan 12, 2010 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

Jan 12, 2010 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

Jan 9, 2010 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

Jan 7, 2010 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

Nov 24, 2009 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

Nov 19, 2009 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

Nov 18, 2009 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

Nov 17, 2009 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

Nov 12, 2009 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

Oct 22, 2009 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

Oct 19, 2009 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

Oct 18, 2009 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

Oct 15, 2009 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

Oct 15, 2009 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

Oct 14, 2009 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

Oct 14, 2009 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

Oct 14, 2009 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

Oct 14, 2009 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

Oct 13, 2009 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

Oct 7, 2009 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

Oct 7, 2009 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

Oct 7, 2009 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

Oct 6, 2009 '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

Oct 3, 2009 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

Oct 2, 2009 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

Sep 29, 2009 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

Sep 29, 2009 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

Sep 27, 2009 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

Sep 23, 2009 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

Sep 19, 2009 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

Sep 10, 2009 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

Aug 11, 2009 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

Jul 17, 2009 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

Jun 30, 2009 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...

May 18, 2009 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

May 8, 2009 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

May 5, 2009 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

Apr 21, 2009 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

Apr 12, 2009 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

Apr 8, 2009 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

Mar 19, 2009 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...

Mar 19, 2009 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

Mar 8, 2009 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...

Feb 10, 2009 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...

Jan 15, 2009 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...

Jan 8, 2009 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...

Jan 6, 2009 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

Nov 7, 2008 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...

Oct 10, 2008 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...

Oct 9, 2008 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...

Oct 9, 2008 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

Jul 26, 2008 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...

Jul 3, 2008 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

Jun 1, 2008 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...

May 31, 2008 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...

May 25, 2008 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

May 12, 2008 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...

Apr 24, 2008 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...

Apr 17, 2008 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

Apr 15, 2008 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...

Feb 5, 2008 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

Feb 4, 2008 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

Jan 20, 2008 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

Jan 8, 2008 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...

Dec 29, 2007 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...

Dec 5, 2007 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

Dec 4, 2007 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

Nov 16, 2007 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...

Nov 16, 2007 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

Nov 12, 2007 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...

Oct 1, 2007 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...

Aug 12, 2007 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...

Jun 4, 2007 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

Apr 17, 2007 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...

Apr 11, 2007 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...

Apr 5, 2007 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...

Sep 22, 2006 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...

Jun 1, 2006 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...

Apr 27, 2005 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

Jan 1, 2005 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...

Nov 15, 2004 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

Nov 14, 2004 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...

Sep 5, 2004 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...

Sep 1, 2004 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

Apr 26, 2004 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...

Apr 16, 2004 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...

Mar 1, 2004 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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