Opening the books on political giving by Comcast and others
Among the more than 4,000 political donations totaling $12 million that Comcast Corp. made in 2014 and 2015, one recipient stands out: the Republican Party of Florida.
Among the more than 4,000 political donations totaling $12 million that Comcast Corp. made in 2014 and 2015, one recipient stands out: the Republican Party of Florida.
As Comcast ran cable systems in Miami and its Universal theme-park subsidiary in Orlando, the company gave $733,932 to the state Republican Party, according to Comcast posts on its website.
GOP leaders in Florida did not return phone calls about this spending. But Comcast says about $400,000 was "in-kind contributions" for state Republicans to hold fund-raisers at the Universal theme park.
"It is something that they have been doing since before we owned the parks," Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice said. Comcast bought NBCUniversal and its theme parks in 2011.
The millions of dollars Comcast spends on lobbying in Washington has always drawn scrutiny, partly because those payments are so large and also because they are now easier to track through federal disclosures.
But equally important - and maybe more so because of the direct benefit to lawmakers - is political spending by Comcast and other firms on candidates, lawmakers, trade associations, and other groups.
This spending runs nationally into the hundreds of millions of dollars in an election cycle and has taken on a sinister cast with the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision in 2010, which uncapped corporate political expenditures. The decision also uncapped spending for unions and individuals.
Fearing a deluge of corporate money into the political process, shareholders have been petitioning public companies in recent years to disclose political spending. Some say the Securities and Exchange Commission could one day require companies to disclose political spending.
Focusing attention on this river of corporate cash sloshing through Washington, state capitals, cities, court races, and trade groups is the Center for Political Accountability, which annually scores companies for their political-spending transparency with its CPA-Zicklin Index of Political Disclosure and Accountability.
The center released its latest index in late September on companies in the S&P 500 and analyzes 24 categories: whether a company discloses recipients and amounts; whether it has implemented board-level oversight of political spending; and whether it posts a detailed report semiannually on its website; and other measures. The center scores companies from zero to 100.
Partly because of its openness - such as the recipients and amounts listed on the Comcast website - the cable giant scored at the "lower end of the first tier," with 82.9.
"I would say that the company has good behavior," said Bruce Freed, the center's president. Comcast was the highest-rated locally based company.
The index was created after Lawrence Zicklin, former chairman at the Wall Street firm Neuberger Berman, funded the Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research at the Wharton School. (He now teaches ethics at Wharton and other business schools.)
Zicklin said he became interested in campaign finance nearly a decade ago when Massey Energy's then-CEO, Don Blankenship, donated $3 million to a West Virginia judge who later decided a case in the company's favor.
"You can think of campaign dollars as the stakes to get in the game and lobbying dollars to advance an agenda," said Jennifer Brown, an associate business professor at Arizona State University who has written on political spending. "The strategy is that you contribute to both sides of the aisle. You want the ear of policymakers."
The Zicklin index is not complete. It "essentially aggregates publicly available data, which has gaps" since some spending occurs via independent groups exempt from naming donors, said William G. Lawlor, head of Global Corporate Governance at Dechert LLP in Philadelphia.
"Many companies assiduously donate to benign social causes or across party lines to promote general goodwill," Lawlor said. "Others have very targeted goals tied to specific kinds of political outcomes or legislation. Well-managed companies that make political contributions will assess their effectiveness just like other corporate expenditures. It's the shareholders' money, after all."
The seven companies with the most transparent spending policies, based on the CPA-Zicklin Index, scored 97.1. They were part of a 36-company group that Freed called "trendsetters." Among the 36 was Exelon Corp., Peco Energy's corporate parent, which scored 91.4.
Among local firms, AmerisourceBer-
gen Corp. in Chesterbrook scored 78.6.
Campbell Soup in Camden scored lower, at 58.6. The firm discloses on its site that its political action committee gave $33,807 to candidates in 2015. But it does not say to whom. The company does disclose those names on FEC.gov.
Campbell spent $237,946 on dues to groups for lobbying, including $97,932 to the Grocery Manufacturers of America, its website says.
Spokesman Thomas Hushen said Campbell "remains a benchmark for commonsense political disclosure" that "is appropriate given our small level of political spending."
Big regulated companies such as Comcast generally give more to political campaigns and lobbying because of the nature of their business.
Nationally in 2014 and 2015, Comcast made 4,787 individual contributions.
In Pennsylvania, Comcast gave $639,015 to dozens of lawmakers over the two years, including $50,000 to both Tom Wolf and Tom Corbett for their 2014 gubernatorial campaigns and $5,500 to James Kenney when he ran for mayor of Philadelphia in 2015.
Other big recipients in 2015 include Sen. Pat Toomey ($7,500) and Republican U.S. Reps. Tom Marino and Ryan Costello (both $10,000).
In California, the cable giant kicked in $216,250 to a special political account at the California cable trade association in 2014 and 2015. Firms that give "don't dictate how it is to be spent," said Carolyn McIntyre, spokeswoman for the association.
In Florida, Comcast runs cable franchises, internet businesses, and the Universal theme park. Issues before the GOP-controlled legislature included telecom taxes that experts say are among the nation's highest.
"Everyone wants to reduce the telecommunications tax to put it more in line with the nation," said Dominic M. Calabro, president of the nonprofit Florida Tax Watch.
Tourism businesses, meanwhile, don't want the state to expand casinos in Florida to preserve the industry's family-friendly reputation, said Susan MacManus, a professor at the University of South Florida. They think "creating a Vegas in Florida would not be a good thing."
Florida lawmakers also took a hard look at a tax-credit program aiding the Universal theme park. Enacted to boost jobs in Florida's inner cities, the program was expanded to include theme parks.
State Rep. Ritch Workman proposed a bill in 2014 that would have ended the tax credit. The bill died in committee without a hearing.
Comcast's Fitzmaurice said Comcast and NBCUniversal operate in 39 states and have 153,000 employees. In 2014-15 the company gave nearly $1 billion in cash and in-kind donations to local and national nonprofit groups.
"Every year we face thousands of national, state, and local legislative and regulatory actions which affect our business," she said. "It is important for our customers, employees, and shareholders that we participate in the political process with the officials that represent these constituencies."
Zicklin said many companies "would like to get out of this game if they could. In some cases, companies are being extorted. They're told there's a bill they really ought to support by some nameless politician, and they have to support it."
But more important, "Americans are very upset. They feel they have no part in how government is run - it's all by big checkbooks. I can't change Citizens United, but I can at least make it transparent."
215-854-5897@bobfernandez1
Staff writer Dylan Purcell contributed to this article.
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Top National Donations
Comcast contributed $6.5 million in 2014 and $5.5 million in 2015 to candidates, lawmakers, political parties, and trade associations. The top recipient in each year was the Republican Party of Florida.
SOURCE: Comcast annual report
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Top Pennsylvania Donations
The 11 groups in the state that received the most money from Comcast in 2015.
SOURCE: Comcast annual report
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How transparent?
The CPA-Zicklin Index rates companies in the S&P 500 on 24 measures for transparency and governance related to political activity. Here are scores for the seven highest-rated firms and select others.
SOURCE: Center for Political Accountability's Zicklin Index annual report for 2016