The Top 20 Political "Heavy Hitters" Lean Democrat

	Top 20 Political Donors, 1989-2010
Rank	Organization	Total Donations, 1989-2010	Dem %	Rep %
1	ActBlue	$52,572,081	99%	0%
2	American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees	$45,238,103	94%	1%
3	AT&T Inc.	$41,314,444	45%	54%
4	National Association of Realtors	$39,717,410	47%	49%
5	National Education Association	$36,312,895	81%	5%
6	Service Employees International Union	$36,043,789	77%	2%
7	American Association for Justice	$33,983,671	89%	8%
8	International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers	$33,476,655	97%	2%
9	Laborers Union	$31,335,267	89%	7%
10	American Federation of Teachers	$31,023,603	90%	0%
11	Teamsters Union	$30,632,309	89%	6%
12	Carpenters & Joiners Union	$30,523,437	86%	9%
13	Communications Workers of America	$29,468,934	95%	0%
14	American Medical Association	$27,431,405	39%	59%
15	United Auto Workers	$27,108,182	98%	0%
16	United Food & Commercial Workers Union	$26,788,209	93%	0%
17	National Auto Dealers Association	$26,664,992	32%	67%
18	Machinists & Aerospace Workers Union	$26,407,374	98%	1%
19	United Parcel Service	$24,505,222	37%	62%
20	American Bankers Association	$24,190,464	39%	60%
		Average	76%	20%

The Center for Responsive Politics (OpenSecrets.org) is a national research group that tracks money spent on U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy.  The table above shows the Top 20 All-Time Political Donors from the organization's "Heavy Hitter List" of the 100 biggest political donors in federal-level politics from 1989-2010.

OpenSecrets tracks political contributions by source, and also identifies the political leanings of the organizations who spend money on political donations.  For example, the National Education leans strongly Democrat, the National Auto Dealers leans mildly Republican, and the National Association of Realtors is politically balanced. 

Overall, the top 20 political donors lean strongly Democrat, see the average above in the last row of the chart: 76% Democrat vs. 20% Republican.  

Note: Koch Industries ranks #87 at $9.5 million and AFSCME ranks #2 at $45.2 million.  Read here what AFSCME has to say about the evil Koch brothers.   

HT: Steve Bartin