A quick guide for digging into corporate campaign spending

A CBS News segment on Super PACs.

With less than three months to go before the Nov. 6 general election, and with corporations being people and all, you might want to take a look at what companies on your beat will be doing to support presidential, congressional and local candidates.

Super PACs (political action committees) are the buzz lately, but these organizations which courts have permitted unlimited political advocacy spending and fundraising are just part of the picture.  You may not realize – I didn’t — the extent that regular PACs (those that can raise a limited amount of money from any  individual per year, and that unlike Super PACs can donate directly to candidates) are common among industries and individual businesses. 

For example, it’s pretty intuitive that industries like tobacco, defense contracting, health care and others affected by state and federal laws — such as labor unions — would be vested in election outcomes.  Here’s the National Federation of Independent Businesses endorsement list, for example. But who knew that, for example, companies the likes of Amazon.com, Target Corp., Orbitz Worldwide, Pizza Hut and Kraft Foods also have PACs? 

I think readers would be quite interested to know which local employers, retailers/franchises and consumer goods forms have PACs, who’s contributing to the PACs and what the PACs are doing with the cash.  These public-service stories appear to be sorely needed; according to recent Pew research, public awareness about various campaign-spending issues is pretty low.

OpenSecrets.org is an excellent source of leads to PACs on your beat — as well as very informative primers about the nature of PACs and myriad other political lobbying and influence topics.  On this OpenSecrets page you can search by name, or search by sector and industry.  (Unfortunately I don’t see a geographical field.)  Once you find a PAC of interest, you can open it up to see both donor and recipient info.  Amazon, for example, has sent $53,500 so far this year to federal House and Senate candidates in a variety of districts, mostly in small contribution amounts.  The online seller has given more to Republican than Democrat candidates for the House, and vice versa to Senate candidates. 

OpenSecrets’ lobbying portal also lets you drill down to find top contributing companies in a variety of industries; here, for example, is what individual pharmaceutical makers are spending for Washington influence this year.

Another treasure trove you may be familiar with is ProPublica, which offers a variety of campaign-spending tools and investigative reports.  The Sunlight Foundation and the Federal Election Commission also are sources for lobbying and campaign-finance stories.   And don’t forget about state and local elections; Ballotopedia is a handy reference there.

And for contrast, you might want to search at USASpending.gov to see which of the companies you follow are profiting from federal assistance or contracts.  I found one four-decade-old yacht-making business in my state, for example, whose owners regularly contribute to “smaller government” candidates and lobbying groups — yet actively lobby for more Small Business Administration lending and assistance to boat dealers.  Such contrasts could make for some interesting interview questions for politically active firms on your beats.