Are Obama Donors Inadvertently Helping Republicans?

Much is being made of Barack Obama's latest fundraising accomplishment: A whopping $150 million in September alone. Most people who are donating to Obama are making small contributions over the Internet with their credit cards. But anyone making a donation with a Wells Fargo, Wachovia, US BankCorp or Capitol One credit or debit card may actually be giving the Republican Party an unintended boost as these financial institutions invest predominantly in the Republican party and Republican candidates.

And while everyone knows that millions of dollars are flowing into the McCain/Palin and Obama/Biden campaigns right now, do you know who the companies you buy products from everyday are supporting with the dollars you give them? And do you know whether companies you support are supporting politicians you wouldn't?

GoodGuide, in partnership with the Center for Responsive Politics, is releasing company-focused campaign finance data today, showing the political donations of major corporations to Republican and Democratic parties and candidates. It's part of our ongoing effort to make it easier for consumers to make purchasing decisions that reflect their values.

I first had the idea for GoodGuide a few years ago when I discovered that the sunscreen I put on my 3-year-old daughter had a toxic ingredient. I realized that we know very little about the products we bring into our homes every day, and that other parents should have the same access to product information that top university researchers had. So my colleagues and I at UC Berkeley, Harvard and MIT set out to create the world's largest and most reliable source of information on the health, environmental, and social performance of everyday products.

There are some big revelations in the data that are relevant to this election. Obama supporters may be surprised to learn that Procter & Gamble, the maker of Tide laundry detergent and Pantene shampoo, donates overwhelmingly to Republicans. Even though McCain likes to tout Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman as economic advisors, their respective former companies HP and EBay, slightly favor Democrats.

Also interesting is that some prominent consumer products firms such as Unilever have chosen to not contribute to political parties or candidates through PACs or corporate donations. They do, however, lobby heavily on legislation, and Unilever employees overwhelmingly give to Democrats.

We already know that the candidates are using sophisticated marketing data to find voters most likely to respond to their pitches. Maybe it's time for voters to turn the tables and use product information to advance their own political agenda.

Check out GoodGuide's Political Contribution page and Click "Republican" or "Democratic" to see which companies support your political perspective. Or, search GoodGuide for specific products and learn whether a green product is really Red or Blue!

Comments

[cvfh]

The GoodGuide is a good *start* when it comes to assessing the politics of an organization...but there are some significant weaknesses in the data. This is intriguing data-- but it needs to be interpreted VERY carefully because some of the data for a given organization is too skimpy to support any conclusions (e.g., The Body Shop is 'Republican' on the basis of $6,250 worth of contributions).

Still, the implications for the consumer-advocate and for employees are important, especially when it comes to assessing which organizations you can trust. Check out www.AuthenticOrganizations.com for a discussion of how some organizations' politics contradict their brands, and why that matters.

[rgoulet]

Great site; not that many of the companies' giving tendencies really surprised me all that much. But good to know so when I do have a choice I can pick the place that isn't giving money to Palin and pals...

[IntrepidReader]

Better you should ask yourself what has gone so wrong with our campaigning and electing processes that these guys rake in hundreds of millions of dollars every month and still beg for more. Candidates have spent BILLIONS of dollars in this eternal campaign mode they've been in for nearly two years--just add up the money spent by Hillary, Edwards, Romney, Huckabee, etc before you even contemplate the vast sums Obama has spent and then add in McCain's expenditures.

As the late, great Molly Ivins said over and over, we will keep getting the kind of politics we have now until there is real campaign finance reform. We need strict ceilings on spending and even stricter time limits on campaigning.

[PennP]

Life is tough enough without searching out new reasons to get freaked out about the inadvertent perils of trying to do good. The six-degrees-of-separation applies to institutions as well as individuals, and I think that all of these things even out in the long run. Besides, given the vast good done by our donations to Obama, we can afford to chuck a few bucks to GOP-related concerns along the way. They're providing a service--albeit at usurious rates--and by accepting our dollars, they're irrefutably endorsing wealth redistribution.

[ManyColored]

I use a Wells Fargo check card in credit mode. I frankly don't see how Wells makes any money from that as I get charged no fees and neither does the recipient. Besides, Wells Fargo is nowhere near as evil as Chase, Citibank, and Bank of America.

[OrganOfThought]

The recipient/merchant/seller gets charged 4%, just like all other credit card transactions.

[clevelandchick]

I've donated online but not put it on a credit card. Most local banks offer check cards as an option as opposed to debit cards which charge fees over a certain number of transactions. They're pretty common, most people I know use them. I'd hope people weren't using credit cards and adding to their balances.