Corporations Influence on Elections

Hello,

New to this forum and I had a simple question:

What percentage of campaign contributions/donations come from corporations? In 2010? So far, in 2011? I'm looking for any good statistics.

Is it even possible to know? How transparent are corporate campaign finance activities?

I've tried Googling the hell out of this topic, but haven't yielded any figures at all. I'd appreciate it if someone could provide me with relevant info or point me in the right direction.

Thanks!

 

Are you looking for corporate donations for a particular candidate or group of candidates, or Congress (with the Presidency) as a whole?

 

As a whole.

 

I couldn't find that exactly, but I did find related information that you might find interesting.









Top Lobbyist Spenders

US Chamber of Commerce
$785,065,680

American Medical Assn
$259,467,500

General Electric
$257,590,000

AARP
$210,182,064

Pharmaceutical Rsrch & Mfrs of America
$209,203,920

American Hospital Assn
$208,993,836

Blue Cross/Blue Shield
$174,370,552

National Assn of Realtors
$172,231,698

Northrop Grumman
$167,645,253

Exxon Mobil
$166,722,742

Verizon Communications
$161,234,841

Edison Electric Institute
$156,585,999

Business Roundtable
$153,620,000

Boeing Co
$151,704,310

Lockheed Martin
$146,267,373

AT&T Inc
$130,749,336

Southern Co
$126,280,694

General Motors
$123,679,170

PG&E Corp
$119,580,000

Pfizer Inc
$118,227,268




Top Sectors for Lobbying

Health
$4,749,776,604

Finance/Insur/RealEst
$4,746,995,354

Misc Business
$4,732,536,268

Communic/Electronics
$3,949,818,285

Energy/Nat Resource
$3,503,645,758

Other
$2,549,546,632

Transportation
$2,464,176,659

Ideology/Single-Issue
$1,620,025,838

Agribusiness
$1,410,875,491

Defense
$1,368,771,092

Construction
$525,117,038

Labor
$479,320,607

Lawyers & Lobbyists
$375,399,222





Top Industries for Lobbying

Pharmaceuticals/Health Products
$2,266,139,745

Insurance
$1,616,959,099

Electric Utilities
$1,516,839,891

Business Associations
$1,258,419,984

Computers/Internet
$1,234,630,107

Oil & Gas
$1,186,183,312

Misc Manufacturing & Distributing
$1,038,344,012

Education
$1,025,941,209

Hospitals/Nursing Homes
$973,203,605

Civil Servants/Public Officials
$932,031,991

TV/Movies/Music
$906,459,159

Real Estate
$903,786,552

Securities & Investment
$874,219,868

Health Professionals
$860,306,133

Air Transport
$812,568,687

Misc Issues
$720,039,431

Telephone Utilities
$696,033,048

Automotive
$675,761,582

Telecom Services & Equipment
$647,274,031

Defense Aerospace
$591,285,541




Top Issues for Lobbyists (in # of reports)

Fed Budget & Appropriations
48,993

Health Issues
22,664

Taxes
21,140

Defense
20,706

Transportation
17,647

Energy & Nuclear Power
14,190

Environment & Superfund
13,065

Education
12,915

Trade
12,127

Medicare & Medicaid
11,035








Contributions by Sector to the 2012 Presidential Election
(Sector---Total---To Democrats---To Republicans

Agribusiness
$1,165,963
$296,674
$869,289

Communications/Electronics
$4,484,629
$2,956,215
$1,528,414

Construction
$2,408,811
$563,034
$1,845,777

Defense
$274,264
$111,745
$162,519

Energy & Natural Resources
$2,786,605
$421,113
$2,365,492

Finance, Insurance & Real Estate
$16,835,938
$4,188,924
$12,647,014

Health
$4,104,592
$1,719,547
$2,385,045

Lawyers & Lobbyists
$7,350,036
$4,178,970
$3,171,066

Transportation
$1,419,759
$148,974
$1,270,785

Misc Business
$16,400,883
$6,818,104
$9,582,779

Labor
$13,489
$13,087
$402

Ideological/Single-Issue
$1,653,614
$247,125
$1,406,489

Other
$20,037,742
$11,381,050
$8,656,692





Top Industries to 2012 Presidential Candidates


Retired
$14,917,905

Misc Business
$9,745,867

Securities & Investment
$7,026,179

Lawyers/Law Firms
$6,762,227

Real Estate
$4,081,038

Homemakers/Non-income earners
$3,347,396

Education
$2,733,064

Misc Finance
$2,564,867

Business Services
$2,366,733

Computers/Internet
$2,114,674

Health Professionals
$1,942,117

Hedge Funds
$1,770,675

TV/Movies/Music
$1,379,838

Oil & Gas
$1,375,653

Civil Servants/Public Officials
$1,339,959

Misc Manufacturing & Distributing
$1,245,424

Insurance
$1,238,761

Commercial Banks
$1,155,051

Candidate Committees
$982,887

General Contractors
$849,874






Top Earmarks, by

 

Actually I think there's the basis of a discussion here.

It's certainly been said that corporations influence elections. But is that very true, or is it that they influence the workings of government between elections?

In American society as in most societies, there's the assumption of a free and fair vote? Do corporations interfere with this? Consider: there's a base amount of cash someone needs to get their name on a ballot. While there's need for other things, that's really all someone needs to get voted for.

So what should be asked is: how does money produce votes for the candidate in question? Or does it at all? Does advertising really change peoples minds about a candidate? If so, how often? Does having political analysts on payroll result in a candidate being better able to play to certain constituencies? If so, what does that say about the people in those constituencies?

 

Regarding what the moderator says:

Yikes. I'm guilty of the latter - somewhat. I was just looking for some statistics and did not intend on carrying on with a conversation. I mean, if others do, by all means continue but this was not the intention.

 

I think it is fair to say that corporations can influence the election itself and the political process afterwards.

Money isn't the be all end all, but it certainly talks. If candidate A is flush with cash from corporations (hypothetically), they can flood the airwaves early with either a positive message about who they are, or a negative one about who candidate B is. If candidate B gets defined too early by such a message and goes on to lose, would they not then be a victim of corporate influence? Or, alternatively, what if candidate B simply can't afford to compete dollar for dollar, and then simply goes on to lose because of a lack of any real name recognition, and thus legitimacy?

Plus think of all the cool things you can do with rich campaign coffers. At the local caucus and straw poll level, you can entice more people into coming out by having live music, or free food, or something noteworthy at your campaign's ground zero. That is much better than that dork Tim Pawlenty and his boring, empty high school gymnasium.

So far, we've only seen money be harmful to a candidates chances when it is their own money and they are pouring it in relentlessly (see: 2008 Mitt Romney, 2010 Meg Whitman). At least so far, taking handouts seems to be a lot of upside with little to no downside.

 

What about foundations?

The reason the antiwar movement was neutralised post Bush is because Soros stopped funding it trough his foundations.

 

This influence you speak of isn't in the way you think.

Basically, they "contribute" to both major parties. That's where the influence comes from. Imagine a roulette wheel where, instead of basing around the number 36, it was based around the number 120. What would you do? Bet on every last number every time. "Yeah, give me $5 on 1, $5 on 2, $5 on 3..." I spent $190, but I won $720.

That's how corporations contribute. They tend more toward Republicans, though, for some meme or another. Mostly because the average blue-collar Republican votes Republican out of a religious preference. If you have an army of fanatics, you have an advantage. They do contribute to Democrats. Unions do too, though. (Another reason: Corporations know unions are antithetical to their interests.) This is actually why we get stuff like Wisconsin.

 

I think Wall Street threw more money at the democrats in the last decade.

 

From 1999-2010, banking and finance gave $3,290,184.46 to Democrats, $5,791,423.45 to Republicans. It's not that the Democrats are pure, of course, just less corrupt. Which is, of course, like marrying the dude who "only cheated on you that one time".