A political group supported by Walmart, Eli Lilly, Anthem, and other major corporations is behind the new avalanche of repressive laws. As usual, these initiatives are contrary to the corporations’ express statements of encouragement for women, minorities, and the LGBTQIA communities. Republican state legislators across the country have embraced an aggressively regressive agenda, targeting the…
Tag: dark money
Hiltzik: Disney loses its grip over Florida politicians – Los Angeles Times
DeSantis and his fellows are threatening to revoke Disney’s near-dictatorial control over the 43-square-mile site of Walt Disney World and its related theme parks and resorts outside Orlando, the product of a deal that Florida’s then-Republican governor, Claude Kirk, signed into law in 1967. Is this threat plausible? That hinges on the question of whether…
The Rise of Anti-ESG Shareholder Proposals | Morningstar
Ruth Saldana reports on a concerning number of “anti-ESG” shareholder proposals filed by politically conservative groups, chief among them the National Center for Public Policy Research (funded by ultra-right groups including the Marcus, Scaife, and Coors foundations and a promoter of climate change denial and disinformation about January 6 ) and the National Legal and…
Warning: The “Corporate Citizenship Project” is Another Astroturf Fraud
As VEA Vice Chair Nell Minow wrote about the so-called (and now defunct) “Main Street Investors Coalition” on the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, “the more folksy or patriotic the name of the group, the more likely that it is funded by people who are promoting exactly the opposite of what it is…
Accountable US to Eli Lilly: Stop Lying About Your Support for the Sedition Caucus
Kyle Herrig of Accountable US has written to Eli Lilly about their support for elected officials known as “the sedition caucus” for their efforts to overturn the Presidential election. “If Eli Lilly is content to donate to those in Congress who tried to overthrow the will of the people, or even those who seek to…
Kochs Insist on Keeping Russian Operations — Judd Legum
On Wednesday morning, Popular Information exposed how pundits and groups backed by Charles Koch were publicly advocating against economic sanctions on Russia — without disclosing their ties to Koch. On Wednesday afternoon, Koch Industries finally spoke. It released a public statement from Koch Industries’ COO, Dave Robertson. The statement confirmed that Koch Industries was still…
ALEC Is Driving Laws to Blacklist Companies That Boycott the Oil Industry | The Nation
As we have said many times before, corporate executives love to extol the purity of the free market until they do not like the outcome. And fossil fuel companies would rather spend the shareholders’ money promoting climate change denial and interfering with market assessments of the inevitability of their decline than actually transitioning to a…
Corporations Claim to Support Black History Month but Pay to Suppress Votes from BIPOC
From a new report by Accountable US: Major corporations that have publicly touted their celebration of Black History Month and previously promoted voting rights contributed at least $459,000 to lawmakers who blocked two pieces of federal voting rights legislation, the Freedom to Vote Act (FTVA) and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (JLVRAA), in 2021. The FTVA would restore voting rights to…
Corporations send large donations to GOP group behind abortion bans and voter suppression
Judd Legum’s Popular Information reports on the corporations that claim to support women’s rights and voting rights but make political contributions to elected officials opposing them. These companies include Google, Comcast/NBC/Universal, CVS, Citi, ATT, and Anhauser Busch. In 2021, Republican-controlled state legislatures imposed a bevy of radical policies on millions of Americans. This was especially…
Yale SOM on Corporations, Advocates and Voting Rights
The Yale School of Management has published a meticulously researched report on 188 different groups advocating for voting rights, with detailed information on their longevity, funding, staff, positions, and initiatives. For us, the most significant part of the report is this: CEO commitment towards protecting the right to vote remains as strong as ever with 80%…
ValueEdge Advisors 