Black Friday politics: Do some stores lean Democratic or Republican?

Black Friday is upon us, which means a break from politics, right? Nope. DC Decoder offers you a by-the-numbers look at how some top holiday retailers spend their money politically.

By Peter Grier,?Staff writer / November 23, 2012

Shoppers wait in a checkout line in the Times Square Toys R Us store after doors were opened to the public at 8 p.m. on Thursday in New York.

John Minchillo/AP

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Black Friday: It?s a day in which most American citizens put aside politics in pursuit of shopping bargains. But in Washington we can sort almost anything in the US in terms of partisan proclivity, and temples of commerce are no exception. Want to know whether the big box store where you?re waiting in line leans Democratic or Republican? ?The folks at the invaluable Center for Responsive Politics have compiled a handy guide based on campaign contributions.

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Toys R Us, for instance, seems a solidly blue store. Self-identified employees of the store gave $39,000 to political candidates in the 2012 election cycle, and $36,000 of that went to Democrats.

Dig into the numbers though, and you?ll see that Toys R Us is not so much Democratic as Klobucharian. All that $36,000 went to one candidate, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D) of Minnesota. (That?s kind of odd, isn?t it? The retailer?s corporate headquarters are in New Jersey.) Other than that, Mitt Romney got $1,750 from Toys R Us workers. President Obama got zilch, according to CRP?s Open Secrets blog.

Macy?s employees, on the other hand, were big Obama fans. They donated $28,870 to the president?s reelection campaign, as opposed to $16,390 to GOP nominee Mr. Romney. This Democratic lean was counterbalanced to a certain extent by the store?s corporate political action committee, however. (Toys R Us doesn?t appear to have a central PAC.) Macy?s PAC gave $12,000 to Republicans, and $4,000 to Democrats.

Best Buy seems more of a red retailer. Both it s employees and the company?s PAC had a slight preference for Republicans, according to CRP. Store employees gave $17,662 to Democrats and $22,419 to the GOP, for instance.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/nYy539pCRQE/Black-Friday-politics-Do-some-stores-lean-Democratic-or-Republican

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