Idea in Brief
The Situation
Since Citizens United, companies have often donated to political candidates they hope will do their industry’s bidding or support a specific cause.
The Problem
If firms publicly advocate a contrary stance, they risk being seen as hypocritical and incurring a backlash from shareholders, employees, or other stakeholders.
The Solution
Ideally, companies should stop making political contributions altogether. Failing that, they should commit to giving only through a PAC that raises voluntary money from employees and other stakeholders—or at least contribute only according to a political spending plan approved by shareholders.
On April 14, 2021, in response to a restrictive Republican-sponsored voting law in Georgia, the CEO of Google joined 200 other corporate CEOs in publishing an open letter in the New York Times and the Washington Post stating opposition to “any discriminatory legislation” that would make it more difficult for Americans to vote. But there was a catch: Google had quietly funded a “policy working group” on “election integrity” with the Republican State Leadership Committee, an organization that supported the Georgia legislation and similar legislation in other states. During the RSLC working group meeting that Google’s state policy manager attended, slides were shown calling “election reform” “the only line of defense of the Republican Party.” Months earlier, Google had also donated $35,000 to the RSLC from its corporate treasury.