WHO DONATED HOW MUCH TO WHOM IN 2000?

This was an interesting e-mail passed on to me by my friend Steve. I am not sure of the source, but it is interesting:

With the holidays upon us, I’m passing on some information that some of us might wish to be mindful of with regards to who we patronize relative to their 2000 Election Cycle political donations, as reported by the Center for Responsive Politics. [Would be interesting to have the 2004 statistics.]

REPUBLICAN SUPPORTERS
WalMart, $467K, 97% to republicans;
K-Mart, $524K, 86% to republicans;
Home Depot, $298K, 89% to republicans;
Target, $226K, 70% to republicans;
Circuit City Stores, $261K, 95% to republicans;
3M Co., $281K, 87% to republicans;
Hallmark Cards, $319K, 92% to republicans;
Amway, $391K, 100% republican;
Kohler Co. (plumbing fixtures), $283K, 100% republicans;
B.F. Goodrich (tires), $215K, 97% to republicans;
Proctor & Gamble, $243K, 79% to republicans;
Coors, $174K, 92% to republicans; (also Budweiser - sd)
Brown-Forman Corp. (Southern Comfort, Jack Daniels, Bushmills, Korbel
wines - as well as Lennox China, Dansk, Gorham Silver), $644K, 80% to
republicans;
Pilgrim's Pride Corp. (chicken), $366K, 100% republican;
Outback Steakhouse, $641K, 95% republican;
Tricon Global Restaurants (KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell), $133K, 87%
republican;
Brinker International (Maggiano's, Brinker Cafe, Chili's, On the Border,
Macaroni Grill, Crazymel's, Corner Baker, EatZis), $242K, 83% republican;
McDonald's Corp., $197K, 86% republican;
Darden Restaurants (Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Smokey Bones, Bahama
Breeze), $121K, 89% republican;
Waffle House, $279K, 100% republican;
Mariott International, $323K, 81% to republicans;
Holiday Inns, $38K, 71% to republicans.

DEMOCRATIC SUPPORTERS
* Price Club/Costco donated $225K, of which 99% went to democrats;
* Rite Aid, $517K, 60% to democrats;
* Magla Products (Stanley tools, Mr. Clean), $22K, 100% to democrats;
* Warnaco (undergarments), $55K, 73% to democrats;
* Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, $153K, 99% to democrats;
* Estee Lauder, $448K, 95% to democrats;
* Guess ? Inc., $145K, 98% to democrats;
* Calvin Klein, $78K, 100% to democrats;
* Liz Claiborne, Inc., $34K, 97% to democrats;
* Levi Straus, $26K, 97% to democrats;
* Olan Mills, $175K, 99% to democrats.
* Gallo Winery, $337K, 95% to democrats;
* Southern Wine & Spirits, $213K, 73% to democrats;
* Joseph E. Seagrams & Sons (includes beverage business, plus considerable
media interests), $2M+, 67% democrats.
* Sonic Corporation, $83K, 98% democrat;
* Triarc Companies (Arby's, T.J. Cinnamon's, Pasta Connections), $112K, 96%
democrats;
* Hyatt Corporation, $187K, 80% to democrats


Hmmm! Guess I won't be doing much shopping at Wal-Mart, Circuit City, Hallmark, K-Mart or Home Depot. Too bad about Outback Steakhouse, I love their food. Same goes for Red Lobster, Olive Garden and Chili's. I don't eat a whole lot from McDonald's,Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC, but it's interesting to know where some of the money I spend at those places ends up. We don't have Waffle House in our part of the world, and I don't drink Coors beer anyway (and that mostly after Pete ran for the Colorado Senate position). Our local Rite-Aid is getting pushed out of business due in large part to the presence of Wal-Mart, so I'll have to start giving Rite-Aid more of my money. Seeing Proctor and Gamble on the GOP donor list doesn't surprise me... they did have the controversy over their logo being satanic, after all. 8-)>

It's good to see there are a number of high-percentage Democrat donors. I wish we had a Costco around here, but there's one a couple of hours away in Kennewick, WA. Maybe we will have to start stocking up there! I hear Sonic has good fast food, but I don't know if there are any of those places within 300 miles of here. At least there is an Arby's about 50 miles away.

One thing I did notice about the above lists: the GOP donors generally had larger dollar amounts listed than the Democrat donors. The Republicans' top five were 95% of $641K, 86% of $524K, 97% of $467K, 100% of $391K, 100% of $366K... The Dems had huge donations from Seagrams (67% of $2.1+ mil), and 60% of $517K from Rite-Aid. After that, their next three were 95% of $448K, 95% of $337K and 99% of $225K. So, I saw a slight disparity but nothing as bad as I thought it might be.

Why should the Republican list have all the big chain restaurants? That's a shame. Should I choose to eat there again, I don't think the fish will taste as fresh at Red Lobster next time.