Litigation

Corporate Political Money ?Radioactive? Now?

By Peter Hardin

Some corporate political spending has become “radioactive” in the wake of a landmark Supreme Court ruling and an angry public response.

That’s the intriguing analysis offered by Eliza Newlin Carney in a National Journal article, based in part on a public backlash over big contributions by Target Co. and Best Buy Co. to a Minnesota group supporting the GOP candidate for governor. He opposes gay marriage.

Here’s a taste of the withering backlash that Carney documents:

“Since news of Target’s $150,000 donation to the pro-business group MN Forward broke in late July, irate customers have staged some 1,200 store protests; close to 300,000 have signed onto MoveOn.org’s Target boycott; more than 74,000 Facebook users have joined an anti-Target group; and a trio of investment firms has filed a shareholder resolution demanding that Target re-evaluate its political spending policies.”

The Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling early this year lifted key restraints on direct corporate and union election spending.

Carney notes that campaign finance reformers have predicted a flood of corporate political spending, which still may materialize. But there’s been a flood of hostile reaction, too, Carney concludes:

“[P]ublic outrage over Citizens United and heightened media scrutiny of corporate money flowing through associations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have made some corporate political spending radioactive.”

To learn more about the Citizens United, read the Justice at Stake amicus brief in the case or the JAS news release commenting on the high court’s decision. To read more about the backlash in Minnesota, see Gavel Grab.

Full post as published by The Gavel on August 31, 2010 (boomark / email).