It appears President Obama can expect fewer contributions from workers on Wall Street and at major corporations this election cycle. New data from Bloomberg shows more employees at companies with the greatest employee campaign contributions are backing Republicans this fall, and many are changing parties.
Employees at 13 companies that in 2008 backed Democrats, including AT&T, Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Goldman Sachs, are putting their money behind Republicans instead. Even employees from General Electric, run by President Obama's Job Council Chairman Jeff Immelt, have switched sides.
Only four companies -- Microsoft, Comcast, Pfizer and Time Warner -- show employee donations doubling down on the president, while the employees of the eight corporations that backed Republicans in 2008 are giving even more cash to GOP candidates this election cycle.
The Bloomberg data does not break down by occupation or donation amount, so it's hard to say which employees at these corporations seem to have changed their political colors, or why. In some cases, the shifting loyalties seem odd. Banks with employees that are now backing Republicans -- Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley -- could arguably not have survived the financial crisis without strong government intervention in 2008 and 2009.
At least in the case of banks like Goldman Sachs, support for Mitt Romney may have more to do with familiarity. Romney “is one of their own, and Obama has been attacking the way they make money,” Linda Fowler, a professor of government at Dartmouth College told Bloomberg. “Throw in legislation to rein in the large banks, and it’s pretty clear that they would switch.”
Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the Washington- based advocacy group Public Citizen, told Bloomberg that he agrees. “Many of the biggest corporations are angry at the Obama administration and the Democrats for their new regulatory policies,” he said. “This is ideological giving."
Check out which companies have employees that are ditching President Obama:
