Posted on 05/20/2014 4:22:48 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Some businesses in states with pitched Republican primary fights are turning to a relatively new tool to help ensure the outcome they want: telling employees how they want them to vote. Thanks in part to Citizens United, it's perfectly legal — but it probably doesn't do much good.
Bloomberg Businessweek describes the concerted effort by business groups to get their member corporations ready to weigh in on the election — an election, we'll remind you, that has largely been framed as business-versus-Tea Party. The National Association of Manufacturers spent a week in Kentucky, briefing "as many as 10 businesses a day" on how to get their employees to vote for Sen. Mitch McConnell. The Business-Industry Political Action Committee held a meeting in Idaho in January to encourage support for Rep. Mike Simpson, with employers representing about 94,000 voters in the room. Both men faced competitive primary challenges from tea party-backed challengers.
When the Supreme Court removed prohibitions against corporate political spending in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, businesses were freed to do precisely this sort of electioneering. Shortly before the 2012 election, the New York Times reported on a letter sent from Georgia-Pacific (a subsidiary, the rules of politics blogging require we note, of Koch Industries) to employees criticizing President Obama. Companies can't threaten to fire employees if they don't vote a certain way, but can indicate their concern about the effects on the company if the "wrong" candidate is elected. "Employers can be the most credible source of information for their employees," BIPAC's Greg Casey told Businessweek....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
If any employer told me how to vote I’d tell them were to shove it. If they fired me I’d sue the hell out of them.
Forcing people to vote your way is Democrat territory.
Can you say "card check?"
The other donation trick is the billionaire who has all of his employees from his various contractors, vendors, and subsidiaries donate to politicians and then he compensates them with bonuses.
Yep, but that's different. Just ask a Democrat.
I stopped doing that along time ago, their non stop braying gives me migraines.
The only way business and tea party are on opposite sides is if there is a whole lot of crony capitalism going on.
CGato
It is a stretch - probably a lie - to connect this to Citizens United. Every employee - whether corporate, private, or public - probably already senses the political preferences of management, regardless of whether those preferences have any specific relationship to legislation affecting the business or government agency. But no business owner or government manager can compel an employee who or what to vote for.
I’ve always known how my employers wanted me to vote. It’s never mattered to me at all.
boy they really hate Citizens United.
That’s how you know it’s good
Shortly before the 2012 election, the New York Times reported on a letter sent from Georgia-Pacific (a subsidiary, the rules of politics blogging require we note, of Koch Industries) to employees criticizing President Obama.
READ THE ARTICLE CAREFULLY
WE *LIKE* THE CITIZENS UNITED DECISION
They tried to prevent comapnaies from having their first ammendment rights, because it turns out they donate to Republicans.
Citizens United decision prtected their ability to do this.
Liberals hate CU because of this, and this is a smarmy libtard smear job against it. No company is TELLING people how they HAVE TO vote. They just have the right to tell employees the truth how they would LIKE them to vote, for the health of the economy and their business
Exactly. Unions have been doing it very aggressively for years. Now that some Lib hears a rumor that some company asked its employees to vote Republican, it becomes the new chapter in "oppression of democracy in America."
I don't agree with it but the irony is that in modern times, there is a lot less telling people how to vote than in the past. In the 1800s and early 1900s, your ward boss watched you put your ballot in the box so you couldn't even lie about voting the way they wanted. And if you didn't vote right, you might even get beat up. And if you did vote right, you got free booze.
I always said that the only good thing about getting laid off was not having to look at all the Obama bumperstickers in their parking lot anymore. That I relied on the bus made it even more painful.
I used to go by a coffeehouse when I lived in Seattle with one of those big red and blue Fairey Obama posters on the window. I felt so bad for those poor employees.
I’ve never liked the mix of politics in the work place. Ever.
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