Open Secrets and the Center for Responsive Politics have compiled a list of the top 140 political donors in federal politics since 1989. Of the top ten donors five are unions — AFSCME (3), IBEW (7), NEA (8), Laborers (9) and Teamsters (10). The top spot belongs to ActBlue, the Obama netroot money raiser. AT&T comes in second, followed by Goldman Sachs (5) and the American Association for Justice (6) (lawyers who donate 90% to Democrats). Of the next fifteen, seven are unions — Carpenters (11), SEIU (12), AFT (13), CWA (14), UAW (17), Machinists (19) and the UFCW (21). Emily’s List, with 99% of its donations going to Democrats, comes in 25th. Thirteen additional unions come in ahead of Koch Industries in 83rd place, Walmart at 89th and AIG at 100th. The Club for Growth came in 78th and Bank of America, another frequent target of Big Labor, came in at 38th on the list. Together, the twenty-nine unions in the top donor list contributed $602M over ten years, with 95% going to Democrats. This figure would not include non-cash donations of manpower, mail, equipment and facilities on and off the books or funds filtered through front organizations like America Votes which likely dwarf cash contributions.
