Corporate PACs Give to Dem Leaders

Well, duh!! From Politico.com:

Donations from corporate political action committees, or PACs, for years had skewed heavily to Republicans as they controlled Congress. But campaign finance data reported this week show that this year's top-giving company PACs are shifting course.

Some -- notably those in the defense and energy industries -- flipped the partisan balance of their giving to favor Democrats, while others inched closer to 50-50 but continued to favor Republicans. That contribution shift is particularly pronounced among committee leaders, which offers some clues about how big companies may seek to navigate the new Congress.

Some PACs can afford to be ideological, but large corporations answer to another more important constituency--their shareholders. Those shareholders want return on investment and growth. With shifting priorities on many corporate matters, Democrats, particularly chairmen, will be showered with lobbying and campaign finance visits in order to corporations to head off bad legislation or to minimize the damage from inevitable attempts to limit their influence.

Of course the campaign finance reform community will no doubt come unglued about the matter, despite the fact that such changes in campaign giving have a long history.