Bank and Corporate Political Contribution History

Posted: May 6, 2015

There was some debate below about whether America's biggest bankers supported Republicans or Democrats, so I looked it up myself. The link below is the "Top Organization Contributor" list from the site "opensecrets.org". It is a bipartisan organization that was founded in 1983 by U.S. Sens. Frank Church (D-Idaho) and Hugh Scott (R-Pa.) and publishes its work tracking money in politics in extensive reports; at first via books, now via the internet. I cannot guarantee its legitimacy, but it has been cited or praised by publications in both conservative and liberal realms, such as Forbes, Bloomberg, The National Review and The Columbia Journalism Review, but completely ignored/snubbed by other publications. Lending them credibility, you might be surprised at the actual dollar amounts given to which party, by which banks and companies, as I was. Goldman Sachs, though color-coded "gray" for neutral/equal contribution to both parties, has given slightly more ($4000) to Democrats (and their CEO since 2006, Lloyd Blankfein, is a Democrat). Otherwise, it appears most contributions from the large commercial and investment banks, though also "gray" for neutral/equal contribution, have given $2000 to %10,000 more to the Republican Party (JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bank of America. The American Bankers Association itself, however, is coded pink for predominantly Republican contributions. To me, the sheer dollar amounts some companies gave to politics was astounding. The figures are "all cycles", but there is an option to choose/limit the years. Here is the URL: https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php ***Note: When I try to paste the URL in the URL/Link box below, it keeps telling me there's no "http", but there is? I will try again and if still doesn't work, I'll try image link box. If you have trouble, please copy/paste the URL above or Google for opensecrets.org, go to that site and choose by tab search. Again, this list is "Top Organization Contributions", but you can also choose contributions by politician:) ;