Texas corporations still backing GOP

Houston Chronicle:

Bucking a national trend, Texas-based corporations have remained loyal to Republican congressional candidates in the 2008 campaign.

According to a Houston Chronicle analysis of Federal Election Committee data, the 46 Texas companies that are included in the Fortune 500 gave 73 percent of their political action committee contributions to Republican House and Senate candidates in Texas, while donating just 27 percent to Lone Star Democrats in the first nine months of 2007.

Nationally, the largest Texas companies sent more than $1.8 million, or 58 percent of their overall campaign cash, to congressional Republicans. Democrats received about $1.3 million.

"Texas is still Republican locally, and Texas businesses remain committed to the Republican Party," says Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University.

But Jillson notes that even in Texas, "interest trumps ideology," and Texas companies have increased their donations to influential Democratic committee chairs and other power brokers in Washington.

...

The cash flow toward Capitol Hill Democrats is far more pronounced among businesses in the other 49 states. In the months since Democrats gained control of Congress in January, the 50 biggest American industries have given 57 percent of their contributions to Democrats, according to a Nov. 15 analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Just last year, when Republicans controlled Congress, business interests favored the GOP by a margin of 2-to-1.

"This is when you find out who your friends are," said Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., a former chairman of the House Republicans' campaign committee. "In the business community, everybody is anteing up to who they think will win."

Analysts said Texas businesses are more likely to stick with Republicans because Lone Star State businesses tend to be more ideologically conservative than corporations in other states.

...

Donations to Democrats are more akin to a protection racket to get them to leave you alone. Companies need to recognize that in the long run this is self defeating that Democrats are going to screw them anyway.

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