ALEC Corporations Spend Big in Washington

On Monday, September 12, Brad Hooker of the Center for Responsive Politics' Open Secrets blog posted an exposé of the money that the corporate members of ALEC's "Private Enterprise" Board (including AT&T, Exxon Mobil, Kraft, Coca-Cola and Koch Industries) spent to lobby Washington and fill the campaign chests of ALEC alumni in Congress (as well as other Congressmembers). ALEC alumnus John Boehner received the most from ALEC Board corporations, a total of "$368,200 from the people and political action committees associated with the companies on ALEC's private enterprise board during the 2010 election cycle." Second place goes to another ALEC alumnus, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who has been introducing ALEC's agenda to the House. He collected "$328,100 from people and PACs associated with 17 companies on the ALEC private enterprise board."

Of the ALEC board corporation, PhRMA spent the most on lobbying the Federal government. "Last year, the drug trade group spent more than $22.74 million on lobbying and hired 156 lobbyists -- about 59 percent more lobbyists than any other ALEC company. ... The next highest lobbying spender in recent years, with $46.7 million spent since 2009, was Exxon Mobil." A table of lobbying expenditures by each of the 23 corporations on ALEC's board from the Open Secrets post follows:

Organization 2009 2010 2011
Altria Group $12,770,000 $10,360,000 $5,480,000
American Bail Coalition $0 $80,000 $35,000
AT&T Inc. $14,729,673 $15,395,078 $11,690,000
Bayer AG $8,478,512 $4,903,640 $3,380,000
Coca-Cola Co. $9,390,000 $7,352,795 $3,450,000
Diageo PLC $2,250,000 $2,620,000 $1,100,000
Energy Future Holdings Corp. $3,974,014 $4,731,228 $2,770,000
Exxon Mobil $27,430,000 $12,450,000 $6,820,000
GlaxoSmithKline $8,760,000 $6,070,000 $2,650,000
Intuit Inc. $2,142,000 $2,249,000 $1,589,000
Johnson & Johnson $6,560,000 $6,700,000 $3,106,000
Koch Industries $12,450,000 $8,070,000 $4,060,000
Kraft Foods $3,390,000 $3,000,000 $1,450,000
Peabody Energy $5,835,000 $6,591,000 $3,727,000
Pfizer Inc. $25,819,268 $13,380,000 $7,440,000
PhRMA $26,150,520 $21,740,000 $9,290,000
Reed Elsevier Inc. $2,130,000 $1,670,000 $810,000
Reynolds American $4,556,215 $4,323,293 $1,728,305
Salt River Project $1,170,000 $870,000 $370,000
State Farm Insurance $3,420,000 $3,620,000 $1,540,000
United Parcel Service $8,430,526 $5,587,349 $2,642,399
Wal-Mart Stores $7,390,000 $6,160,000 $4,070,000

For more, see Open Secrets' blog post here.

Comments

Maybe this story should ALSO include what the 2008 Pres donations were. As I remember it- wall street was the biggest donator to this current administration...NOT the Republicans.. It should be noted that (2008) was a record year and people need to remember that. Open Secrets has that info-and quite telling! Do your own homework people..It is there!