despite legal rulings allowing companies, trade groups and unions to spend unlimited sums supporting political candidates, they still trail far behind wealthy individuals in political spending, a new study finds. a study by the conference board<u+2019>s committee for economic development found that individuals made about 80% of all super pac contributions in the 19 months through july 31. companies contributed just 8% in the period and unions a mere 1.9%, according to the report slated for release wednesday. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s wealthy individuals that are really driving the large sums<u+201d> being spent on elections, said anthony corrado, colby college professor of government, who carried out the analysis. <u+201c>there wasn<u+2019>t this big pent up supply of corporate political spending that was looking for some way to be unleashed.<u+201d> the study examines how companies, trade associations and unions have used new avenues to spend money on influencing campaigns. it tallied broad categories of direct political spending for the 2013-14 midyear election cycle, and looked more closely at spending by so-called super pacs for that period, as well as for the current presidential cycle through the end of july this year. super pacs are campaign groups that can raise unlimited sums from individuals, companies and unions to spend on campaign activity. they became prominent after court rulings, like 2010<u+2019>s citizens united decision, opened the way for companies and labor unions to spend unlimited amounts in direct efforts to elect or defeat candidates<u+2014>by running ads or mailing brochures, for example<u+2014>as long as they didn<u+2019>t coordinate with candidates or parties. mr. corrado said he expects the proportion of contributions from companies, unions and trade groups to rise as additional data become available reflecting the later stages of this year<u+2019>s election. the group plans to update its analysis after the election. this election cycle, most business contributions to super pacs came from small companies such as law firms and real-estate companies, and more than half went to super pacs for republican presidential candidates jeb bush and marco rubio, mr. corrado said. labor unions are among the top supporters of super pacs spending money to support democratic presidential nominee hillary clinton. the primary super pac backing mrs. clinton, priorities usa action, has collected nearly all of its largest donations from labor unions, federal election commission data show. separately, labor unions have helped raise $60 million for another super pac, called for our future, that supports mrs. clinton and democrats for congress. meanwhile, only 33 public companies have contributed to super pacs, the report said, and those funds<u+2014>a total of $5.3 million<u+2014>accounted for less than 1% of all contributions through july 31, the report said. the bulk of those funds came from three firms, according to mr. corrado: chevron corp. , at about $1 million; nextera energy inc. at a little over $1 million; and devon energy corp. at about $750,000. only 11 companies on fortune magazine<u+2019>s list of the 500 biggest public and private companies contributed. in a statement, chevron said it supports business-friendly candidates and follows a strict internal approval and compliance process for political spending. devon said in a statement that it supports candidates promoting responsible energy development and that the company is committed to complying with campaign finance laws. one category of spending remains largely opaque, and could include corporate contributions: spending through <u+201c>social welfare<u+201d> organizations, which aren<u+2019>t required to disclose their donors. but contributions to super pacs from these groups and a range of others<u+2014>including the national education association and the cooperative of american physicians<u+2014>was small at $9.7 million, just over 1% of all super pac contributions through july 31. <u+2014>brody mullins contributed to this article. write to theo francis at theo.francis@wsj.com
despite citizens united, corporate super pac contributions trail individuals, study finds - wsj
theo francis