Major companies underreported millions in political contributions

From: POLITICO Influence - Tuesday Oct 03,2023 10:51 pm

Oct 03, 2023

With Daniel Lippman

FIRST IN PI: As corporate America continues getting squeezed by calls for transparency around companies’ political activities, new research shows nearly three dozen major corporations are falling short on those transparency commitments with contributions that counter the companies’ social commitments as well.

— According to data compiled by the liberal activist group Gen-Z for Change shared first with PI, 32 companies examined by the group did not disclose or underreported $6.5 million in contributions to the Republican Governors Association, Republican Attorneys General Association and the Republican State Leadership Committee between 2018 and 2022.

— Your host found millions more in donations to those groups’ Democratic counterparts — the Democratic Governors Association, Democratic Attorneys General Association and Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee — that were underreported by the companies during the same period.

— Each of the companies profiled had previously pledged to voluntarily disclose their political donations to various degrees, or say they do not make political contributions at all. Separately, Gen-Z for Change argues that the underreported donations to Republican state groups runs counter to public affirmations from each company examined to support LGBTQ and reproductive rights, both of which have been the target of a flurry of GOP-led restrictions in statehouses in recent years.

— Nearly two-thirds of the companies examined have signed on to a Human Rights Campaign statement opposing “bills being introduced in state houses across the country that single out LGBTQ individuals — many specifically targeting transgender youth — for exclusion or differential treatment.” More than half of the companies have explicitly pledged to cover travel expenses for employees who must travel out of state to get an abortion, according to the report.

— That includes Bayer, which the report found donated more than $590,000 to the RGA, RAGA and RSLC. Bayer donated slightly less than that to the Democratic groups over the same period, but the company’s website has not been updated with disclosures after 2020.

— The worst offender, according to the report, was drugmaker Eli Lilly. Gen-Z for Change tallied $1.3 million in donations to the RGA, RAGA and RSLC during the period in question, compared to the $50,000 in contributions disclosed in Eli Lilly’s reports for those years. Your host tallied another $1 million in donations to the DGA, DAGA and DLCC, compared to the $20,000 in contributions disclosed in Lilly’s reports for those years. Eli Lilly did not respond to a request for clarification of its disclosure guidelines.

— “We're trying to shed light here on these corporations who … put themselves forward as supporters of equality, supporters of reproductive rights and supporters of corporate transparency,” while at the same time “sending millions of dollars to the very people who are leading these attacks on LGBTQ protections, on racial equality, on reproductive rights,” Gen-Z for Change founder Aidan Kohn-Murphy told PI. “Not only that, but they're hiding these donations that they are claiming to disclose.”

— “Even if you want to be a responsible consumer, and you want to look at their disclosed donations, because you say, ‘Oh, this company pledges to disclose all their donations, I want to see where their money is going.’ And you say, ‘Oh, I'm happy with these donations,’ you can't be a responsible consumer,” he argued.

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SCOTUS DARK MONEY CURTAIN RAISER: “The Alliance Defending Freedom and Pacific Legal Foundation, two right-leaning groups that won major Supreme Court victories earlier this year, are again poised to play key roles in the term that opened this week,” Bloomberg’s Emily Birnbaum reports in a deep dive on the two dark money groups, who are raking in in more money than ever before.

— “Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom has won 15 Supreme Court Cases since 2011, and four since 2020, when Justice Amy Coney Barrett tilted the court into a 6-3 conservative supermajority. Founded in 1973, the Pacific Legal Foundation — a libertarian group that opposes big government — has won five cases since 2020 and boasts an overall record of 17 Supreme Court victories and two losses.”

— “The victories show the ADF and PLF’s mastery of the long game: Deploying their deep influence and vast financial warchests, loaded with funds from dark money groups, to advance conservative and libertarian cases through the legal system — all the way to the highest court in the country.”

— “Liberal groups like the NAACP and American Civil Liberties Union have cultivated cases in order to achieve policy goals for decades. But the Supreme Court's makeup means it’s the conservative ecosystem now pushing cases — and becoming more influential and better-funded than ever.”

THEY WERE ON A BREAK: Exxon Mobil has added Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld back into its rotation of outside lobbying firms, two years after parting ways with the K Street heavyweight. Akin Gump has worked for the oil giant on and off for much of the past two decades, with the latest stint lasting from 2019 to 2021, disclosures show. Exxon currently retains nine other outside firms.

— Akin Gump will lobby on corporate and energy tax issues for Exxon, according to a newly filed registration amendment. Zachary Rudisill, a former tax counsel to former Sen. Rob Portman; Brendan Dunn, a Mitch McConnell and Senate Finance alum; Reggie Babin, a former Chuck Schumer aide; Virgil Miller, a former Cedric Richmond aide; and Jose Borjon, a former Vicente Gonzalez aide, will work on the account for Akin.

FIGHTING AI FIRE WITH AI FIRE: “A new initiative is planning to use AI-generated misinformation to try to prepare voters against a possible wave of similar content. AIandYou, a nonprofit founded in 2019 to help underrepresented racial and ethnic groups understand AI, is launching the public awareness campaign to educate voters on how AI could affect next year’s election,” POLITICO’s Madison Fernandez reports.

— “The campaign is still in its early stages, and it launched Tuesday morning with more traditional kinds of outreach in an attempt to drive awareness and understanding of AI-created content. That includes a video that outlines the uses and risks of AI and an online database of election-related AI news and voter resources. Susan Gonzales, founder and CEO of the nonprofit, said it is also looking to host a town hall on AI and the election next month.”

— “The campaign is planning to start running its own AI-generated ads — to make voters familiar with that type of content — as the primary elections start to ramp up, said José Villa, president of Sensis, an ad agency working with the campaign.”

— “The ads are still being developed, but one example could be an AI-generated video of President Joe Biden saying something he didn’t say, with a message at the end saying that the content was not real and directing viewers toward the nonprofit, Villa explained.”

WHITE HOUSE LAWYER HEADS TO GE: Another top White House lawyer is heading to the private sector. Jake Phillips, who served as deputy counsel to President Joe Biden and was a legal adviser to the National Security Council, has joined GE Aerospace as a senior vice president and general counsel. Prior to his role at the White House, Phillips worked for more than a dozen years at Boeing, including as an assistant general counsel handing the company's 737 MAX litigation and investigations.

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Jobs Report

— Bess McWherter Anderson has joined Tractor Supply as director of government relations and stakeholder engagement. She was previously a consultant with The Ingram Group.

— Marcus Slade is joining Everytown for Gun Safety as associate regional director for state government relations. He was previously on the state and local government relations team at Airbnb and is a Center for Secure and Modern Elections alum.

— ROKK Solutions has added Kristen Smith and Mike Waterman as senior vice presidents. Smith was most recently senior vice president and head of health public affairs and policy communications at Edelman Global Advisory, and Waterman was previously managing director at Burson Cohn & Wolfe.

— The Federation of American Scientists hired Jon Wolfsthal as the organization’s new director of global risk. He most recently served as a adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security in the Transatlantic Security Program.

— Climate Power has added Alex Witt and Alex Wall as senior advisers, directing the oil and gas accountability program and clean energy economy program, respectively. Witt previously was campaign manager for Trudy Busch Valentine’s Missouri Senate bid. Wall previously ran the digital comms team at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

— Collin Moore is joining Polaris as director of research and analytics. He previously was senior manager of political data and insights at Ampersand.

— Kyle Simpson is now director of government affairs at the Institute of International Bankers. He most recently was at Korn Ferry and is a Hill alum.

— BlueLabs Analytics is adding Kelsey Mulcahy as director of public affairs and agency partnerships, Maya Halder as director of strategic analytics and Megan Crowe as director of commercial insights.

— Phi Nguyen is now director of democracy at Demos. She most recently was executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta.

— Jason Lee is the next CEO of the Home Care Association of America. He was previously senior adviser to the president of the American Dental Education Association.

New Joint Fundraisers

None.

New PACs

None.

New Lobbying REGISTRATIONS

Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP: Calbright College

Collective Strategies & Communications (Formerly Known As Collective Communications: Vibrant Planet Pbc

Corrigan & USsery LLC: Honeywell International, Inc.

Drummond Woodsum Strategic Consulting LLC: American Unity Fund

Howard Law & Policy Group Pllc: American Property Casualty Insurance Association

Klein/Johnson Group: Airports Council International - North America

Mcwilliams Governmental Affairs Consultants: Williams & Lake, LLC