In the 2007-2008 election period, Netflix made $616,357 in political contributions. None went to Republican candidates. Barack Obama received the largest amount ($19,485).
Costco Wholesale gave $306,033, with 92 percent going to Democrats – $32,240 to Obama and $9,700 to Clinton.
Amazon.com contributed $279,269. Seventy-nine percent went to Democrats, with Barack Obama receiving the most ($104,382).
I’m happy to see that the companies I spend money with supported my party and my candidate with their political contributions in the 2008 election.
That is the kind of interesting information you can find with “Influence Explorer” (http://influenceexplorer.com) by The Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan nonprofit group focused on creating more government transparency online. It mines and compiles campaign contribution data from OpenSecrets.org and FollowTheMoney.org, and makes it easily searchable with this free online tool.
I learned about “Influence Explorer” in a recent article in the New York Times titled “The Political Impact of Your Consumer Spending” and couldn’t wait to try it.
You might find it fun to check it out, too.