THOMPSONSPF10RESEARCH

When you buy a product from any major corporation most if not all donate to political campaigns by means of individual employees giving money. Another major way of donating to campaigns and politicians is by creating a tax exempt organization otherwise known as a 527 organization. Under the 527 laws allows these organizations to create PACs (Political Action Commities) and Candidate Commities. To become one of these organizations you must contribute over 1,000 dollars to influence a federal election.  The amount of money in these PAC’s sores into the multi-millions, the money comes from mostly the employees of corporations who make donations around 1,000 dollars. The individuals who make these contributions are often stockholders in the company who can profit from policy changes.

"527 Organization" Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/527_organization

Once the money makes it into the hands of a political campaign and the person being financed becomes elected into a seat of the chamber of commerce they are now in a position of control. Often once in control they owe their investors promises on policies. To take it a step further in gathering money, once in the chamber they band together by parties and start a 501(c)(6) organization to gain campaign money.

“According to the Internal Revenue Service, a 501(c)(6) organization is a business league devoted to the improvement of business conditions of one or more lines of business. It is not engaged in any regular business typically carried on by for-profits.
Trade associations and professional associations are considered to be business leagues. The mission of a 501(c)(6) organization must focus on the advancement of the conditions of a particular trade or the interests of the community.”

“Business Leagues” IRS. July 2010. http://www.irs.gov/charities/nonprofits/article/0,,id=96107,00.html

These 501(c)(6) organizations have recently been in the news for financing over $75 million dollars of attack ads against Democrats.

Read more at: http://thinkprogress.org/2010/10/05/foreign-chamber-commerce/

This information about FOX news contributing over 1 million dollars is gathered by the research done at Wesleyan University.

My interest in bankrolled campaign financing is that the majority of the financing comes from corporations to elect people into positions of policy change. So it isn't really bankrolling but consumer-rolling.The link between the money spent at the register at the consumer level and the portion of the money you spend going to a political party or political agenda that you are unaware of. It is nearly impossible for consumers to be conscious of what companies support. Also, I debate if it is politically correct for businesses to lobby for their own self-preservation or if they should not be allowed. The effects on policy change for business is huge and is truly financed by consumers. Our voting power really is not at the ballot box but with where and whom we spend our money. I feel that most consumers are ignorant of this or find it too complex to deal with.

This is the beginning of transparency, however there are enormous amounts of data to comprehend and much of it is not directed connecting dollars to policies, but instead dollars to political figures or political organizations whose motives are not clear.

To decipher advertising and branding I am trying to connect some the dots between dollars spent and policies. It is easy to figure out if a company is mainly pro democratic or pro republican but once again it is the specific policies that interest me and they are almost impossible to figure out.