Wal-Mart greeters like Dems: Obama, McCaskill, Waxman
Evidently, some Wal-Mart employees didn’t get the word about the McCain-TBA ticket.
They’re still giving their cash to Democrats, even though, as the Wall Street Journal disclosed, the retailing behemoth from Bentonville, Ark., is trying to persuade its store managers and department supervisors to vote Republican.
The low-price leader has waged running battles with unions, and fears that a Democratic administration and Congress could impose laws opening the way for the greeters, clerks and others at the global empire Sam Walton built to organize unions. Of course, official Wal-Mart spokespeople deny any such push.
But a cursory review of donations at the Federal Election Commission shows that Wal-Mart and its employees show a significant amount going to Democratic candidates and political action committees.
Donors identifying their employer as Wal-Mart gave $33,877 to Democratic candidates -- including $7,337 to Barack Obama. They gave $55,761 to Republicans, including $7,250 to John McCain.
The company clearly is playing both sides, unlike in the past. Data compiled by Congressional Quarterly show that Wal-Mart’s political action committee gave 52% of its money, or $460,500, to Republicans and 48%, or $425,200, to Democrats in 2007-2008 election cycle.
A decade ago, more than 90% of its money went to Republicans.
Prominent recipients include some mentioned as Obama’s potential running mates: Sen. Claire McCaskill, Sen. Evan Bayh, and, of course, former Wal-Mart board member Hillary Clinton.
California’s Democratic congressional caucus also collects Wal-Mart bucks: Henry Waxman, Xavier Becerra, Laura Richardon, Loretta Sanchez, Ellen Tauscher, Zoe Lofgren, Mike Thompson and Dennis Cardoza.
-- Dan Morain
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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if unions are such great things then i guess the car makers would be doing great right now unions are also will bankrupt most companeys that have them there are a lot of workers in unions who should not hold jobs they do not perform but they cant be fired because of the unions one thing wallmart knows is if they do get unions there prises will go up people will stop shopping there and they will end up closing there stores is is making less better then making nothing
Posted by: wtobias | August 03, 2008 at 08:37 AM
Or... maybe... there are more democrats working for walmart? Maybe there has become a democratic shift in the United States? Honestly, it just shows that now Wal*mart has a nice blend in its Sales people.
Honestly, I doubt that the same employees are still working there from 10 years ago... or not enough to make an actual percent change.
It seems like dems are starting to get the lower class vote again (like pre-vietnam), mainly with their "you don't owe anything to this country and it owes you everything" mentality, and not informing them that they will lose half their paycheck to this wonderland.
Point is that i don't think these stats prove what you are saying.
Posted by: Travis McCrea | August 03, 2008 at 11:07 AM