Citizens' Daily Lobby

I have been browsing the Center for Responsive Politics website Opensecret.org to get a feel for corporate and individual donations to political parties and candidates.   I highly recommend it for those who want to know who’s getting how much from whom, and also for those who simply enjoy looking at well-presented data.    A good place to get started is the industry profiles summary from 1990-2010.   Here, industry and a limited number of ideological/single issue groups are compared side by side for amounts contributed to candidates over time.   People (corporations are included here, of course) tend to give their money to those who support their agenda, so it may be reasonable to make some conclusions about party principles based on these industry and ideological donations.  (While it is true that corporations tend to spread their money around to both parties it is also true that certain trends are too big to ignore.)   Think of this as party profiling.

Table: Contributions by political party 1990-2010.  x’s  indicate which party receives the majority of campaign contributions from each listed industry/ideological group.

Hmm… Lobbyists give substantially more money to Republicans no matter which party is in power.   Either they are more easily manipulated, or they sell themselves more dearly than Democrats.   Big Tobacco and Bankers lover the GOP, but the education sector steers clear.    Personality:  Show the GOP the money.  Donors get what they pay for.  The nation’s health and education are secondary interests, at best.

Meanwhile, Democrats are the overwhelming favorites of the gambling industry and hedge funds (gambling at a different level).  Interesting.   Democrats are less risk averse?  More susceptible to corruption?  The party is also the favorite recipient of funds from the education sector and  entertainment industry.  Laywers love the Democratic Party.  Personality:  The Democratic Party is overly given to education, debate, and the arts (shades of elitism, some would say) and takes a tolerant view of vice.

I wouldn’t want to leave out those groups that represent the height of corporate cynicism:  Big Pharma, insurance,  health professionals, and telephone utilities will spend money where they presume the power is, as indicated by the sudden reversal of their giving pattern when Democrats gained control of the Congress and the Presidency.

Of course, this table represents a very broad overview, but the general trend remains the same if you look at the top 100 “heavy hitters“, for example.   Politics is a dirty business, and in terms of accepting corporate money, both parties have much of which to be ashamed.