State, Federal Donations Show Microsofties Bank on Obama, Dems; State Party Also Makes New Donor List
It might have been the Bush administration that helped a grateful Microsoft get out of that little antitrust jam created by the Clinton administration a few years back. But it's the Democrats who are overwhelmingly getting the Redmond company's political donations now, at both the state and federal levels, according to a new report.
A couple million from Microsoft is enough to make anyone smile.
A unique joint study by the Center for Responsive Politics and the National Institute on Money in State Politics finds that Microsofties gave state and national Democrats more than $3.3 million in the 2007-08 election cycle while Republicans got $1.6 million.
The corporation has carefully sent money to both sides of the aisle in the past. But 2008 of course was the year of the donkey, and Barack Obama became Microsoft's fave, receiving $834,000, followed by Hillary Clinton ($191,000), congressional candidate Darcy Burner ($135,000) and Rep. Jay Inslee ($28,000).
Microsoft, with a $5 million total, is ranked 67th on the groups' new list of 200 top state/federal political givers. The Washington State Democratic Party ($3.6 million) is 109th, and Boeing ($3.4 million) is 120th. No. 1 is the National Education Association. With just $2.7 million in federal donations, it ranked low on the federal level - but when its nationwide state totals are added in, a bigger picture emerges: the NEA doled out altogether $58 million in contributions, mainly to Dems.
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