Even before the violent mob stormed the Capitol on January 6th, disrupting the joint session convened to confirm Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory and  leaving five people dead, 139 U.S. Representatives and 14 U.S. Senators indicated they planned to join in objecting to the votes of one or more states.

Even more disgusting and dangerous was the fact that eight of those 14 Senators followed through with their objections when the Senate reconvened after order was restored.

As the world watched in horror, these Senators carried through with their plans to validate baseless allegations of fraud and undermine American democracy.

[  The Infamous Eight:  Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Rick Scott (R-FL), Roger Marshall (R-KS), John Kennedy (R-LA), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY).]

In addition to the much-deserved public condemnation (The Kansas City Star said that Hawley had “blood on his hands” and should resign. The Houston Chronicle said Cruz’s “lies cost lives” and called for his resignation) these infamous eight have already received –and hopefully will continue to reap until they’re driven from office –the fundraiser in me wondered whether their donors be equally appalled.

Money in politics is a very powerful force.  So is withholding it.

Unlike funding for the insurrectionists  of the old Confederacy, who depended on the sale of cotton bonds in London, issuing debt instruments in Amsterdam and just printing Confederate currency, today’s political rebels rely heavily on shaking down K Street lobbyists in return for special interest favors.

The result?   A massive whirlpool  of undisclosed “dark money”‘swirling in the special interest river of campaign cash from corporate political action committees enabling and insulating politicians.

Apparently I wasn’t alone in wondering how the corporate donors to these Insurrectionist Senators  would react.  Within hours after the mob assault on the Capitol,  two ingenious reporters –Judd Legum and Tesnim Zekeria of Popular Information — contacted 144 corporations that, through their PACs, donated to one or more of those eight Senatgors in the 2020 election cycle.

Popular Information asked if they would continue to support these Senators in the future.  In response, 3 major corporations –The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Marriott International and Commerce Bankshares–indicated they would end or suspend support. All three companies, according to Popular Information, kept the door open for future contributions.

What struck and saddened me was the equivocal/wishy-washy statements of some major companies.  Not exactly a full-throated cry that we’ll protect American democracy at any cost.  Here’s a sampling:

• Bank of America — “…in the next election cycle the PAC will review its decision making criteria in light of the actions that contributed to the appalling violent assault on the U.S. Capitol.”
• Ford--“Our employee PAC contributes to candidates who support policies critical to Ford’s employees, communities and jobs.  Events over the past year have underscored the need for a broader, ongoing discussion about other relevant considerations.”
• AT&T–Prior to Wednesday’s Congressional votes, we publicly supported the U.S. Chamber and Business Roundtable  in opposing efforts to delay or overturn the certification of Electoral College votes.  As is their standard practice, the employees who serve on our PAC committee will weigh candidatess’ positions, votes cast and actions taken when making decisions about future PAC support.”

Several respondents to the inquiry told Popular Information they’re reviewing the policies around their political giving or have not made any decisions.

Also disturbing but not surprising of the 144 corporations contacted, 128 did not respond. Within this group are the largest corporate contributor fo the Republican Senators who objected to the Electoral College count —Comcast/NBC Universal.  United Parcel Service (UPS) donated at least $30,500 to five of the eight Senators.  Boeing gave at least $28,500 to three of the eight.  Lockheed Martin donated $30,500 to five of the eight and T-Mobile forked out $25.500 to seven of the eight.

To the cynic in me these corporate actions shallow and self-serving.  Obviously, terrorism is bad business.   It’s not good a corporation’s reputation to be associated with  domestic terrorism or fund  politicians who defend and enable this mob.

Among issues now crying out for reform it’s time to better insulate our democracy from the corrupting power of special interest money. .

Roger

P.S.  Of course, it’s not just legislators that corporations seek to support and ingratiate themselves with.  The investigative watchdog organization Documented that tracks corporate influence reports the following:

The Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF), a 501(c)(4) arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), helped organize the protest preceding the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol that took place on January 6, 2021.

As a 501(c)(4), RLDF is not required to reveal its donors. RLDF has received at least $175,000 from the Koch-backed Freedom Partners. Other RLDF donors include Judicial Crisis Network, the Rule of Law Project, and the Edison Electric Institute.

As previously reported by Documented, RAGA received significant funding from numerous corporations in 2020, including Koch Industries ($375k), Comcast Corporation ($200k), Walmart ($140k), Home Depot ($125k), Amazon ($100k), TikTok ($75k), 1-800 Contacts ($51k), Chevron ($50k), The National Rifle Association ($50k), Monsanto ($50k), Facebook ($50k), Fox Corporation ($50k), Uber ($50k), Coca Cola ($50k), Exxon ($50k), and Google ($25k

P.P.S.  For a listing of he top PAC and Industry donors to the Electoral College Objector go to this Open Secrets report