Since 1990, the auto industry has cut $100 million in checks to the GOP, compared with $34 million to Democrats. But the Big Three is snubbed on bailout.
By Ken Bensinger / Los Angeles Times
By standing in the way of an auto industry bailout, GOP senators appear to have bitten the hand that fed them.
Over the last decade, General Motors has given $1.50 to Republican candidates for every $1 it has given to Democrats. That same pattern has been followed by Chrysler and Ford, which year after year have favored the right side of the aisle, sometimes by more than a 3-to-1 ratio in dollar terms.
Since 1990, the auto industry as a whole -- including suppliers, dealers and manufacturers -- has cut $100 million in checks to Republicans, compared with just $34 million to Democrats.
On Thursday night, the carmakers discovered just how little loyalty that investment strategy had bought them.
Efforts to get through even a watered-down version of the $14-billion aid package were stymied by Republican senators, many of whom contend that GM and Chrysler -- the most troubled U.S. automakers -- should simply go bankrupt.
"Carmakers have always leaned Republican," said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "But it'll be interesting to see whether what happened this week changes that pattern."
Political giving from the auto industry as a whole -- including carmakers, dealers and suppliers -- has long backed candidates that favor less regulation, lower taxes and looser labor rules, among other key issues.
Also from this from LA Times:
Bush personally lobbied recalcitrant Senate Republicans after Vice President Dick Cheney failed to round up support Wednesday during a contentious two-hour meeting.
"If we don't do this, we will be known as the party of Herbert Hoover forever," Cheney told them, according to a Senate Republican aide, evoking the president whose inaction is widely blamed for helping trigger the Great Depression in the early 1930s.
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