Petrelis Files

As gay groups and activists debate how best to punish Microsoft for its recent withdrawal of support for Washington State's gay rights bill that was defeated, I've been looking at the political money trail for the corporate giant's executives and the Microsoft PAC.

The Open Secrets web site has a superb detailed breakdown of Microsoft PAC donations to Presidential, Senatorial and House candidates in the 2004 election cycle. The watchdog site says their list is based on "data released by the FEC on Monday, March 28, 2005. Figures in parentheses denote negative numbers, and may indicate returned contributions or bounced checks."

Here's what most interested me.

In the race for the White House, the Microsoft PAC gave $5,000 to George W. Bush and nothing to John F. Kerry.

Some gay members of the House received money from the PAC, including David Drier, R-CA, $2,500; Mark Foley, R-FL, $2,000; Barney Frank, D-MA, $1,000; Jim Kolbe, R-AZ, $6,000; and Jim McCrery, R-LA, $2,000. Our one lesbian House member, Tammy Baldwin, R-WI, got nothing from the PAC, while beleaguered Tom DeLay, R-TX, accepted $10,000 from the committee.

For all of the races at all three levels, the Microsoft PAC gave more to Republican candidates than Democratic ones.

Total donations to GOP White House candidates equaled $5,000 and zero for Democrats. In the Senate, GOP contenders took in $111,500, versus $99,500 for Democrats, and in the House, the PAC gave Republicans $423,000 and just $363,700 to their opponents. (Source: http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgot.asp?strID=C00227546&Cycle=2004 )

If you're curious about following the Microsoft political money trail, you've must read Scott Bekker's long and fabulous article in the October 2004 issue of Redmondmag.com, which declares itself the independent voice of the Microsoft IT community at http://redmondmag.com/features/article.asp?EditorialsID=440#emp .

Please do want you can to make others aware of the Open Secrets information and the magazine article.