America's Most Republican-Leaning Company Makes White Bread
Corporations are people. Like people, they have political opinions. If you're looking for the most Republican corporate persons in the world, you're probably thinking Koch Industries. But you should be thinking white bread and interstate-redneck food.
The New York Times' Upshot blog took a dive into historical campaign donations to see not who gave the most money, but who gave the most money to just one political party. You see, even the Koch brothers and the big banks and defense contractors and most other big soft-money rollers like to spread the wealth around to Republicans and Democrats, usually in tune with whoever's political stock is rolling.
But some companies stay the course over many decades. Like the makers of America's most famous and famously metaphorical flavorless fluff, Wonder Bread:
The political action committee of Flowers Foods, a Georgia company that produces the pillowy sandwich bread, Tastykakes and Nature's Own baked goods, has given more than 99 percent of its political contributions since 1979 to Republicans. Only three Democratic congressional candidates have gotten money from its PAC since 1984, and not one in the past 20 years.
The PAC of Koch Industries, the well-known supporter of Republican candidates and conservative causes, has given nearly as much money to Democrats in the past 14 months as Flowers Foods has in more than 30 years.
That's a far more lopsided tally than the most Democratic-leaning corporate entity, Citizens Financial's PAC.
Who else gives almost exclusively to Republicans? A lot of construction firms, a financial information business, and also "The Cracker Barrel Old Country Store PAC," which "routinely gives them more than 80 percent of its contributions."
Truly, it pays to be egg-no-ra-moose.
[Photo credit: wonderbread.com]