Corporations are facing increased scrutiny over their political spending—particularly when their stated values seem to contradict their lobbying efforts. A 2020 report by the Center for Political Accountability offers abundant examples, including corporations that have publicly demanded racial equality while contributing to groups and candidates that promote racial gerrymandering and corporations that purport to be concerned about climate change while donating to groups that challenge the EPA’s clean-power plan. In this groundbreaking article the authors argue that companies should halt political spending entirely to reduce the risk of blowback and enable executives to focus attention and resources on running their companies.
On April 14, 2021, in response to a restrictive Republican-sponsored voting law in Georgia, the CEO of Google joined 200 other corporate CEOs in publishing an open letter in the New York Times and the Washington Post stating opposition to “any discriminatory legislation” that would make it more difficult for Americans to vote. But there was a catch: Google had quietly funded a “policy working group” on “election integrity” with the Republican State Leadership Committee, an organization that supported the Georgia legislation and similar legislation in other states. During the RSLC working group meeting that Google’s state policy manager attended, slides were shown calling “election reform” “the only line of defense of the Republican Party.” Months earlier, Google had also donated $35,000 to the RSLC from its corporate treasury.
