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Political contributions
March 27, 2006 4:00 AM PST
How are employees of technology companies spending their political dollars? Here's a look at contributions to politicians from individuals and political action committees, or PACs.
The chart below is interactive. You can sort columns by clicking the appropriate header, and you can select and deselect rows by clicking on text within each cell. Your selection will persist through re-sorting. To clear all sorting, simply refresh this page. To break out certain companies' spending, highlight one or more rows and click "Get combined totals."
| Individual donations | PAC contributions | Soft money | |||||||||
| Company | 2006* | 2004 | 2002 | 2006* | 2004 | 2002 | 2000 | 1998 | 2002 | 2000 | 1998 |
| Adobe Systems | 35,450 | 114,545 | 21,950 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10,000 | 0 |
| Acxiom | 4,200 | 23,350 | 17,778 | 9,000 | 34,500 | 55,500 | 0 | 0 | 67,797 | 25,000 | 500 |
| Amazon.com | 32,619 | 230,275 | 84,316 | 13,000 | 106,750 | 20,500 | 14,000 | 0 | 0 | 6,574 | 844 |
| Apple Computer | 19,600 | 173,170 | 28,400 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 56,050 | 60,000 | 0 |
| AT&T | 31,755 | 348,519 | 191,693 | 140,500 | 404,000 | 464,912 | 780,720 | 974,879 | 3,146,971 | 3,760,020 | 1,024,493 |
| ChoicePoint | 14,450 | 35,382 | 16,000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Cisco Systems | 63,391 | 855,133 | 181,573 | 89,400 | 271,000 | 10,000 | 0 | 0 | 367,038 | 690,383 | 115,500 |
| Comcast | 69,700 | 726,060 | 131,772 | 248,700 | 540,050 | 259,350 | 250,900 | 161,475 | 197,500 | 199,500 | 0 |
| Computer Associates International | 6,775 | 99,835 | 26,241 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 45,000 | 100,000 |
| Dell | 41,300 | 344,677 | 114,002 | 41,000 | 120,888 | 6,500 | 0 | 0 | 425,250 | 505,599 | 0 |
| EarthLink | 27,630 | 30,243 | 7,900 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5,000 | 0 |
| eBay | 57,775 | 170,462 | 79,800 | 41,717 | 124,254 | 122,500 | 57,000 | 0 | 103,050 | 38,500 | 0 |
| EchoStar Communications | 25,500 | 152,500 | 356,025 | 19,499 | 283,900 | 176,250 | 65,250 | 1,014 | 869,250 | 729,250 | 0 |
| Electronic Arts | 250 | 33,860 | 1,100 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| EMC | 6,900 | 221,886 | 10,161 | 25,000 | 80,400 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 260,292 | 265,000 | 50,000 |
| 33,750 | 207,650 | 29,000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10,000 | 0 | 0 | |
| Hewlett-Packard | 5,747 | 237,066 | 122,253 | 60,900 | 114,600 | 121,750 | 68,000 | 75,750 | 0 | 5,000 | 0 |
| Hitachi | 2,050 | 32,123 | 8,290 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10,000 | 0 |
| IBM | 56,859 | 728,819 | 158,069 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Intel | 15,830 | 315,486 | 81,470 | 78,449 | 286,864 | 251,779 | 205,287 | 81,007 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Microsoft | 164,014 | 2,104,320 | 707,753 | 259,000 | 1,213,200 | 815,201 | 820,999 | 212,000 | 2,691,244 | 2,317,226 | 779,816 |
| Motorola | 16,600 | 152,052 | 45,350 | 73,000 | 248,605 | 138,556 | 213,000 | 108,556 | 239,550 | 430,789 | 103,500 |
| Novell | 5,000 | 27,801 | 12,900 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 350 | 281,000 | 99,966 |
| RSA Security | 500 | 27,650 | 10,000 | 1,500 | 8,500 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12,500 | 35,000 |
| Red Hat | 750 | 48,250 | 4,350 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oracle | 32,760 | 263,320 | 56,200 | 18,500 | 76,000 | 51,750 | 74,000 | 34,500 | 539,734 | 608,677 | 275,463 |
| SAP | 4,350 | 27,394 | 16,580 | 67,000 | 176,250 | 20,100 | 0 | 0 | 65,350 | 5,000 | 5,000 |
| SBC Communications (now AT&T) | 17,900 | 433,066 | 172,268 | 577,800 | 1,954,116 | 1,602,945 | 1,749,738 | 963,485 | 1,247,184 | 1,787,228 | 470,361 |
| Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International | 1,750 | 2,750 | 1,750 | 11,500 | 30,500 | 5,000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Siebel Systems | 0 | 25,400 | 16,850 | 90,500 | 307,500 | 352,499 | 0 | 0 | 235,000 | 850,000 | 0 |
| Silicon Graphics Inc. | 1,900 | 25,600 | 8,150 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sun Microsystems | 16,760 | 233,710 | 131,198 | 22,500 | 80,250 | 53,250 | 31,300 | 0 | 12,500 | 24,000 | 6,500 |
| Sybase | 7,100 | 32,889 | 16,765 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Symantec | 8,000 | 96,954 | 15,550 | 8,000 | 16,000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15,000 | 250 | 0 |
| Time Warner | 398,350 | 2,712,944 | 785,626 | 96,500 | 545,073 | 542,352 | 534,762 | 388,073 | 451,919 | 1,617,310 | 498,000 |
| Unisys | 9,450 | 60,666 | 18,650 | 62,000 | 155,000 | 74,000 | 58,000 | 0 | 135,000 | 142,350 | 30,000 |
| Verizon Communications | 60,040 | 400,368 | 172,268 | 334,800 | 1,003,164 | 1,183,160 | 2,017,117 | 942,295 | 1,541,137 | 1,787,228 | 909,519 |
| Viacom | 87,337 | 1,086,021 | 272,600 | 83,500 | 359,500 | 272,600 | 235,961 | 240,288 | 1,363,541 | 41,405 | 46,000 |
| Vonage Holdings | 5,500 | 11,550 | 2,000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Yahoo | 50,500 | 306,600 | 58,250 | 34,000 | 81,500 | 14,000 | 0 | 0 | 30,000 | 0 | 20,691 |
Source: Federal Election Commission filings compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.
* 2006 figures are incomplete. Numbers are current through October 2005.
* 2006 figures are incomplete. Numbers are current through October 2005.
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