WorldCom: A Look at the Company's Lobbying and Campaign Contributions
By Holly Bailey
Months after the collapse of Enron, President Bush, members of Congress and the Justice Department are again on the trail of what looks to be one of the biggest cases of fraudulent accounting practices yet. On June 25, WorldCom, the nation's second largest long-distance carrier, announced that it had overstated its cash flow by nearly $4 billion during the last two years, sending its stock into a virtual freefall and leaving the company on the brink of bankruptcy.
How did it happen? That's what Congress wants to know, especially during an election year. With voters already disgruntled after what seems to be months of continuous corporate scandal, Democrats are hoping to use the issue of corporate mistrust to unseat Republicans this Election Day. One avenue they will likely use: campaign contributions from the embattled companies to the GOP. "All you have to do is follow the money," House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) told reporters June 26. "It leads right to the Republican party."
But that argument might not be as convincing in WorldCom's case. Over the last 10 years, the company's political contributions have been spread evenly between the two national parties. Since 1989, the company has contributed roughly $7.5 million in soft money, PAC and individual contributions to federal candidates and parties, 54 percent to the GOP. The race for WorldCom money has been even tighter than during the current election cycle. So far in 2001-02, WorldCom has contributed just over $1 million, split equally between Democrats and Republicans.
Click here for the full report, including a breakdown of the company's political contributions and lobbying dating back to 1989:
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/worldcom/index.asp
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