corrupted demoRATS: MicroHoo Goes To Washington
Brian Wingfield, 02.06.08, 7:09 PM ET
Google gives to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Microsoft gives to them, too, and more than 150 other members of Congress.
A quick look at the political donations of the companies and their key executives shows where they might seek favor in the nation's capital as Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) seeks the permission of regulators for its $44.6 billion hostile bid for Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ). Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) opposes the deal. In many cases, the recipients of those contributions have been politicians in leadership positions and those on congressional committees that deal with antitrust issues.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, last year Google's political action committee contributed to just nine politicians: Pelosi, Reid and McConnell, and four members of congressional antitrust panels: Rep. Robert Goodlatte, R-Va., Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and the committee's ranking member, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. and Gordon Smith, R-Ore., both on the science and technology committee, also got money from Google.
"We support candidates who share our goal of keeping the Internet free and open for our users," says Google spokesman Adam Kovacevich.
Microsoft does much the same thing. In 2007, the company's political action committee donated to the same folks that Google contributed to, with the exception of Dorgan and Goodlatte. Microsoft also contributed to committees affiliated with Rep. Richard Boucher, R-Va., (a member of the House's antitrust panel) and Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., who chairs the Senate appropriations group that oversees funding for the Federal Trade Commission--one of the agencies that gives the thumbs up or down to corporate mergers.
"Microsoft's political giving philosophy is that we give to incumbent candidates who work on issues important to the hi-tech industry, and our political giving reflects that," says Microsoft spokeswoman Ginny Terzano.
Yahoo!'s political giving last year included donations to committees affiliated with Leahy, Boucher and other members of antitrust subcommittees, including Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, and Darrell Issa, R-Calif., according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Yahoo! officials would say only that the company's board is reviewing the Microsoft proposal.
The tech firms' key executives were also prominent donors. Google CEO Eric Schmidt and co-founder Larry Page contributed $5,000 exclusively to Google's political action committee in 2007. Alan Davidson, who heads Google's Washington office, gave $4,750, including contributions to the company's PAC, Leahy and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. Microsoft executives Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer also contributed to their company's PAC, but Gates donated an additional $1,000 to a committee affiliated with the Senate's No. 3 Republican, Adam Putnam of Florida.
Ballmer did the same for Hoyer, House Chief Deputy Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Wis., and Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Ca., who heads the House's chief investigations committee. Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang'sdonations included $4,600 to Pelosi, as well as contributions to Yahoo!'s PAC and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2007.
As the merger drama unfolds, it will be interesting to see how the differences between the lobbying shops at Google and Microsoft affect their strategies. Microsoft, which has had a presence in Washington for more than 12 years, paid $4.78 million to lobbying firms last year. In terms of political donations, the company canvasses Congress, contributing to 129 House members and 28 senators for the 2008 election cycle, Republicans and Democrats alike.
By contrast, Google established its presence in the capital in 2005. It's still small, but quickly growing and highly effective. Last year, the firm spent just $580,000 on lobbying, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Nonetheless, Google was able to secure the FTC's approval of its merger with DoubleClick, and the company used its deep pockets to ensure that the Federal Communications Commission set aside a swath of broadband to be used for an "open" network in its ongoing spectrum auction.
Members of Congress don't directly have a say in the review of a proposed merger, but they can sway the debate by exposing issues for a federal agency to examine. Later this week the House Judiciary Committee takes the first step in that direction as it holds a hearing on the state of competition on the Internet, touching specifically on the Microsoft-Yahoo! deal.
Meanwhile, expect Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! to start lining up their lawyers and economists as they prepare to make their respective cases. |
