Shhh! The media don’t want you to know that 57% of the political spending by top donors goes to Democrats.
According to a report in the New York Times, Michael Podhorzer, political director of the AFL-CIO, says big labor will be spending $300 million in the 2014 midterms, which is the same amount they spent in 2010.
Much of that spending is expected to be dropped on four industrial battlegrounds — Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, traditional union strongholds. Big Labor also wants Florida.
“Their hope is to not only oust the Republican governors of those states, but also to flip several of the legislative chambers. In all five states the Republicans control both houses,” the Times piece notes.
It makes one wonder where are the complaints by the progressives who daily claim the Koch brothers are stealing the political process?
A recent report by OpenSecrets.org titled “Heavy Hitters: Top All-Time Donors, 1989-2014” proves the claim about the Koch brothers’ influence false. The Koch brothers are way down the list, placing #59. But that is only part of the story.
Seven of the top ten donors lean Democrat, and all seven are labor unions. The other three in the top ten donate equally to both parties.
The chart above represents the aggregate spending by the top 100 political donors on the Open Secrets list. The blue slice is donations to Democratic candidates and PACs, the red to Republican candidates and PACs, while the gray is third-party candidates and PACs. When donations from the top 100 donors in the same study are aggregated, 57% ($1,379,880,052 of the total $2,431,127,151) was given to Democratic Party candidates.
Perhaps it’s time for the media to start telling the truth about spending.
