Leslie Lenkowsky sends along the following thoughts about this post:
- This is not all that surprising for several reasons.
Although its methodology has been questioned, the Capital Research Center (and others) have demonstrated for many years that corporate philanthropy has a left-of-center tilt.
Corporations are pragmatic in their political activity. The period under study covers years in which liberal groups were very competitive at both the Federal and state levels and thus, attractive to companies wanting to cover all bases.
Most importantly, this data say more about the political preferences of board members than of how corporations will behave post-CU. Those preferences are shaped by a variety of factors, including education, geography, upbringing, etc. The question of relevance in the post-CU era is how these personal preferences will affect the actions of people as board members, when they are supposed to make decisions with the company’s interest foremost. My guess is that as long as liberal political groups remain competitive, they will get a good share of post-CU corporate funding, which will also have the “happy” outcome (from the viewpoint of directors) of consistency with their personal preferences.