… to the Democratic Party. Even though all the news right now is focused on the Democratic presidential primary, the larger story for this election cycle is the big money donations flowing to both parties.
In a clear hedging of bets, corporate America is giving to the Democrats in record numbers. This has profound implications on all the races, particularly the downticket races that will fill Senate and House seats. And don’t discount state and local contests, either.
To my mind the GOP completely squandered an opportunity to showcase limited government and fiscal responsibility over the first six years of the Bush 43 regime while holding the White House, Senate and House of Representatives. Instead the GOP somehow became the party of extreme deficit spending, cronyism and incompetence.
Most likely this November the GOP will get a major slap-down. Count me among those who hope it happens, and is a major wake-up call to get the GOP back on the track of fiscal conservatism. Without that, I have little to no reason to pull a GOP lever. And I’d sit out before ever pulling a straight Democratic ticket.
From the CFO.com link covering the “big four” accounting firm’s donations this cycle:
For the first time in more than a decade political campaign contributions from the accounting industry are starting to shift toward Democratic candidates.
Political action committees (PACs) for the Big Four accounting firms and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants have favored Republicans in doling out corporate campaign contributions since the late ’90s. But the 2006 election seems to have instigated a shift.
According to recent Federal Election Commission data, PACs for KPMG, Deloitte & Touche LLP and PricewaterhouseCoopers have noticeably increased their contributions to Democrats since the party took control of Congress in the midterm elections.
For example, according to FEC filings, Deloitte still gives more of its total contribution (61.6 percent) to Republicans than to Democrats. But the percentage going to Republicans has fallen. In 2007 and the first two months of 2008, Deloitte increased the percent of its total contributions going to Democrats by 13 percent over the 2006 election season.
PwC, too, upped contributions to Democrats 12.8 percent over 2006. KPMG started increasing donations to Democrats even earlier. In 2006, KPMG gave ten percent more to Democrats than it did in the 2004 election season and has given 7 percent more in the current election season than it gave in 2006.
PACs for Ernst & Young and the AICPA have increased the percent of their contributions going to Democrats as well, although the increases are smaller. Each has contributed 7 percent more to Democrats this election season than they did in 2006.
Contributions typically increase during presidential election years because of the expensive race to the White House. But while most of the country is watching the presidential race play out, accounting firms have so far focused their largesse on legislators in Congress and the Senate.