"Individual employees may choose, at their own discretion and based on their political beliefs, to make contributions to political campaigns. Donors are typically required to identify their employer. Each campaign - Scott Walker and Tom Barrett - received voluntary contributions from individual M&I employees."
I suppose it is possible that this spokesperson is fairly new, given that M&I was recently sold to a Canadian bank. But absent that possibility this response is laughable and it is totally divorced from reality. Don't be fooled by the spin, instead look at the facts.
1. Top executives at M&I Bank have long been boosters of Scott Walker's destructive brand of politics. These were not simply bank tellers or other front line workers giving contributions. Instead it was a cadre of big executives and bosses at M&I that helped finance Walker's campaigns.
2. These top executives often gave thousands of dollars at a time. The biggest example is former M&I Chief Executive Dennis Kuester and his wife who gave $20,000 to Walker during the 2010 campaign alone. Before the 2010 campaign the couple gave at least $5,600 to advance Walker's political ambitions. While this is by far the biggest example it is certainly not the only one. Mark Furlong, the executive that took over for Kuester at M&I gave $3,000 to Walker in the run up to the November 2010 election. So is this tradition of giving to Walker something that is passed down from executive to executive?
3. When the top executives of M&I weren't giving to Walker in massive amounts, others at the bank were giving in what appears to have been coordinated bundles. For example a total of 6 people from M&I Bank gave to Walker on March 25, 2009. A total of 15 gave to Walker on December 12, 2008. A total of 14 gave to Walker on August 22, 2007. Were these coordinated fundraisers hosted by M&I people or are we supposed to believe that they all just happened to repeatedly give on the same exact dates?
4. To pretend that there was any parity in M&I giving to Walker as compared to Mayor Tom Barrett is absurd and highly misleading. For example Dennis Kuester gave $400 to Barrett while giving the aforementioned $20,000 to Walker. According to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign's database, Mark Furlong gave $0 to Tom Barrett during the 2010 campaign while giving the aforementioned $3,000 to Walker. In fact if you were to search the database you will find that M&I Bank employees have given approximately 68 times to Mayor Barrett since 2001 (usually in much smaller amounts than they have given to Walker). During that same time they have given approximately 185 times to Scott Walker.
Given these facts and this longtime financing of Scott Walker's extreme brand of politics, it should be no suprise to M&I Bank that they now find themselves on several boycott lists.
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14 comments:
A number of years ago I worked for a bank (not M & I) that "strongly encouraged" all employees to contribute to political campaigns, and to write to legislators about upcoming bills. I mean, leaned really hard on tellers, loan processors, the lower level employees.
I finally complained to HR, and pointed out where these actions pushed the border of illegality. Since this was a relatively small bank, the pressure eased up. But I'm sure that in many larger institutions employees are donating/contacting elected officials because they have to in order to safegard their positions.
I have closed my accounts. The bank manager argued with me, throwing canned, rehearsed phrases my way. "Any employee has the right to donate to whatever cause." I'm sorry, but when a CEO chooses to donate, it is a direct reflection of the an institution's stance as well. M&I & I are done forever. I've also gotten a friend with nearly 100k holdings there to leave as well. There are consequences to elections.
As a former employee of M&I Bank (working in their corporate office in Milwaukee) I can tell you that prior to elections corporation wide emails were sent out encouraging employees to "vote for candidates that would vote favorably on legislation relating to the banking industry. This will allow for the future success of the organization and your employment." This was a clear violation of the bank's own electronic communication policy as it was, in essence, telling employees for whom they should vote. When addressed with Human Resources the response came back that the statement was meant simply to encourage people to vote. Later when one of the bank's customers Russ Darrow was running for a Senate seat, the message came right out and told employees to support our client.
...things that go on behind not-so-closed doors.
My brother-in-law works for Georgia Pacific and received a list of people he should vote for from Georgia Pacific prior to the November 2010 election. Similar to the M&I comments, it is clear that these companies influence people purposefully. Even my managers at a different, family-owned corporation questioned me about my voting practices, though they did not really press me for information. Instead I received the standard, "you're going to vote right aren't you?"
Thanks for posting this useful information. I'm opening an account at a local credit union today and we'll be taking all our money out of M&I over the next week. The banks are part of the problem, plain and simple.
Contributions to Wisconsin Manufacturing and Commerce (WMC) by M&I Bank have been just as disturbing. Mark Furlong (M&I Bank) also sits on the WMC Board of Directors. This group has been responsible for the all-but outright purchase of the last two conservative State Supreme Court Justices. When I discovered this a few years back, I pulled my accounts immediately. Vote Kloppenburg to help even the score.
I worked for M&I Bank and can honestly say that I never received or seen one of these emails.
The top 5 contributors to Barrett were unions who gave a total of $250,000. I can't believe that all that money was given freely by members.
I never trust anyone who can't be bothered to make up a username when they comment. On my own blogs, they are considered trolls and punished accordingly.
I do appreciate the efforts of those, including the author of this post, who shed light on the monied interests that have a corrupting effect on our political system. However, I also have to take note of the unions' own political contributions, which are very large and also very one-sided. So when I see so much being made about the $45k that the Koch's gave to the Walker campaign, or these contributions from current and retired M&I employees, these complaints seem to be crocodile tears when the unions are simultaneously donating millions to forward their own agendas as well. Cheers.
I worked, as a supervisor, for a large Wisconsin based home improvement chain at their distribution center, which was attached to their general offices, and was told that the owner of company would give money to his managers for donations to political candidates that he favored. I do not know how much of this was true, but it did seem in line with other business practices that were in place there. I just wonder how much of that actually goes on.
I think that is a false equivalency...the problem is not that M&I execs and other biz interests gave big to Republicans. In many ways that is to be expected just like it is expected that unions will more than likely give to Dems. But the real problem is that they gave big $ to an extreme Republican that is now trying to literally kill unions and totally end 50 years of worker rights in Wisconsin.
There is no real equivalency to this kind of unprecedented attack on the union side. Now unions and their allies are fighting back with the only tools that they have left to defend themselves.
Anon at 10:41, thanks for not naming the biz because what you are describing sounds illegal and I don't want anyone specific to be accused of that without having all of the facts.
That being said, there was a report in the MJS last year reporting something similar sounding. Here is that link:
Walker donor broke political contribution rules
Now, if it could be proved that the M & I employees got their donations back from the bank........
Like the train man did........
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