Corporate America rethinks political donations

Big businesses often donate to both political parties and say that their support is tied to narrow issues of specific interest to their industries. That became increasingly fraught last week, after a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol and some Republican lawmakers tried to overturn Joe Biden's win in the presidential election. A flurry of companies have since reviewed political giving via their corporate political action committees.

Some big banks are pausing all political donations:

• Goldman Sachs is freezing donations through its PAC and will conduct "a thorough assessment of how people acted during this period," a spokesman, Jake Siewert, told DealBook.
• JPMorgan Chase is halting donations through its PAC for six months. "There will be plenty of time for campaigning later," said Peter Scher, the bank's head of corporate responsibility.
• Citigroup is putting all campaign contributions on hold for a quarter. "We want you to be assured that we will not support candidates who do not respect the rule of law," Candi Wolff, the bank's head of government affairs, wrote in an internal memo.

Some companies are pausing donations to specific politicians:

• Marriott said it will pause donations from its PAC "to those who voted against certification of the election," a spokeswoman told DealBook.
• Blue Cross Blue Shield, Boston Scientific and Commerce Bancshares are taking a similar, targeted approach to donation freezes. The newsletter Popular Information is tracking the responses of these and other companies that donated to lawmakers who challenged the election result.

A pause is not permanent. The suspensions coincide with the first quarter after a presidential election, which is typically light on fund-raising anyway. Efforts by some companies to pause PAC donations to all lawmakers — those who voted to uphold the election as well as those who sought to overturn it — are raising eyebrows. And companies can still give to "dark money" groups that don't disclose their donors but often raise far more money than corporate PACs.

• Here's an intriguing question: Will companies ask for their money back? Ken Gross, a partner at the law firm Skadden, said he hadn't seen evidence of that, but he noted that the pauses may be prolonged, depending on "how the dust settles" on potential impeachment proceedings and the nature of the debates over Mr. Biden's cabinet nominees.

Corporate PACs aren't the only groups under scrutiny. The Republican Attorneys General Association is taking heat following reports that a fund-raising arm, the Rule of Law Defense Fund, urged people to march on the Capitol. Several companies told DealBook that they were reviewing their support of the group, though none said they planned to cut ties. (Most noted that they supported attorneys general from both parties, an issue Andrew addressed in a column last year.) A representative for the association said that it and the Rule of Law Defense Fund "had no involvement in the planning, sponsoring or the organization of Wednesday's event."

Here's what we heard from some of the big corporate donors to the group:

• "We are appalled and condemn these actions in the strongest possible terms and have communicated that to R.A.G.A.," said John Demming, a spokesman for Comcast, which donated $200,000 last year, according to Documented. The company would seek "assurances that they take steps to ensure that nothing like this would happen again," he said.
• Randy Hargrove, a spokesman for Walmart, which donated $140,000, said: "As we conduct our review over the coming months, we will certainly factor last week's events into our process."
• Ann Moore, a spokeswoman for Coca-Cola, which donated $50,000, said: "We continuously re-evaluate our memberships, and we will continue to do so with last week's event in mind."