Target gave money IN SUPPORT of Prop 8

[SocialistLez]

Source:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/05/target-review-process-antigay-donations_n_672643.html

There's a picture that shows a $3,000+ donation in SUPPORT of Prop 8.

[Unvanguard]

1. That's not much in the scheme of things, but, still, inexcusable.

How did this fly under the radar for so long?

[AlabamaLibrul]

4. Not much? Shit, if I could give $3,000 in support of everything I believed in... n/t

[Unvanguard]

5. Not much for a corporate PAC, I mean.

Compare, e.g., Google, which (according to the same website) gave something in the order of $200000 to No on 8.

Obviously it's an immense quantity of money for a single person.

[AlabamaLibrul]

13. Oy. 200,000 dollars. How in the hell are we gonna get rid of Citizens United? n/t

[dsc]

2. I wonder if that is actually Target or Target employees

that would be a big difference.

[Unvanguard]

6. It is both Target's PAC and Target employees.

Good catch.

From the bottom of the page:

"The organizations themselves did not donate, rather the money came from the organization's PAC, its individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals' immediate families."

[jberryhill]

10. You changed "or" to "and"... Why?

Read the caveat you just quoted. Then read your subject line.

[Unvanguard]

12. Because of the rules of English syntax.

I could have written "either... or" or "both... and"... in this case, they are equivalent. To say that any particular donation recorded and aggregated on the page could have come from either Target's PAC or its employees is the same as saying that the donations as a whole are both Target's PAC's donations and the donations of its employees.

I did not mean to suggest that Target's PAC itself contributed to this particular donation. I would clarify the ambiguity, but the edit time has expired.

[jberryhill]

14. Oh

I read your subject line as suggesting that the identified donations came from "both".

It seems to be a general disclaimer intended to guard against the precise impression which is being conveyed by the huffpo piece.

[CoffeeCat]

3. What in theee HELL is wrong with Target?

Does Target want their sales to drop?

Is this economy so healthy and wonderful, that Target doesn't care if it loses an untold number of customers?

Has Target decided that fighting teh gay is it's paramount goal as a company--and that sales and profits really
no longer matter?

Seriously. How could they be so stupid? From a business standpoint, it's such dumb behavior.

Why would a corporation take a position that would cause a large number of their loyal customers to
abandon them and never step foot in their store again?

I just don't get this.

[jberryhill]

9. Sometimes things don't make sense because they are wrong

And in this instance the information is as "accurate" as the "BP donations to Obama".

These are donations made by individual employees.

[Sapphocrat]

7. Wait a minute -- I think the author is dead wrong.

I think the author has jumped to conclusions -- and if I'm right, believing this at face value is going to make a lot of people look like reactionary asses.

I operate Base8, a searchable database of anti-equality donors, with heavy emphasis on Prop H8 donors. I've been eating, breathing and sleeping Prop H8 records for two years nonstop -- and I know of no CORPORATE donation from Target to PH8 or any other anti-gay measure.

A quick glance at my own records shows a total of $3,650.00 (note how close that is to the $3,250.00 the author claims) to Prop H8 by nine individual employees of Target -- not by the corporation itself.

Here are the nine records* from my raw files:

AITOFI VAIOLI - SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO CA 94080-2438 - TARGET - ETL REPLENISHMENT - $100.00 - 10/19/08
ISMAEL MEDINA - VICTORVILLE CA 92392-7904 - TARGET CORP - RETAIL MANAGER - $100.00 - 10/20/08
JANIS WILLIAMS - AUBURN CA 95603-9402 - TARGET - RETAIL - $500.00 - 07/25/08
JANIS WILLIAMS - AUBURN CA 95603-9402 - TARGET - RETAIL - $500.00 - 09/18/08
JANIS WILLIAMS - AUBURN CA 95603-9402 - TARGET - RETAIL - $1,000.00 - 10/24/08
ERIC OLDROYD - BROOKLYN PARK MN 55443-1735 - TARGET - MANAGER - $250.00 - 09/14/08
EVAN DRAPER - LONGVIEW WA 98632-5135 - TARGET - PHARMACIST - $50.00 - 10/15/08
KEVIN RELEFORD - ELK GROVE CA 95758-5238 - TARGET CORPORATION - GENERAL MANAGER - $300.00 - 08/24/08
PAUL BADGER - IRVINE CA 92614-7978 - TARGET - RETAIL MANAGER - $250.00 - 09/04/08
BRANDON LANE - VACAVILLE CA 95687-9450 - TARGET INC - CASHIER - $100.00 - 08/13/08
RENEE SNYDER - UPLAND CA 91786-3052 - TARGET - PRESENTATION TEAM - $500.00 - 10/07/08

Meanwhile, my raw files show a total of $550.00 donated by five individual Target employees to No On 8/Equality for All. That is $200.00 off from the total the author picked up from OpenSecrets -- but the closeness of both the "Yes" and "No" donations are telling enough.

Note that OpenSecrets shows no detail for the donations cited in the article -- I, on the other hand, take all my (PH8) data directly from the Calif. Secretary of State files.

I am convinced the author mistook individual donations for corporate donations. Big, big difference -- and something for which the corporation cannot be held responsible.

Not that I'm defending Target (we are boycotting them over the MN Forward donation) -- but without any supporting data, claiming that the Target Corporation donated money to the "Yes" side, and making accusations of some great anti-gay conspiracy going on during the PH8 campaign, is just reckless -- and to repeat it as fact is going to make us all look like idiots.

Not getting on your case, SocialistLez -- it's the author I believe is in the wrong, and is doing a grave disservice to everyone who reads his piece without questioning his "research."

I don't post on HuffPo, so I hope some DUer who does will take a moment and ask: "Are you absolutely certain you are not mistaking individual donations for corporate donations?"

I'm certain he made a big, big mistake.


* These records are abbreviated for space. The full records show the unique transaction ID # and filing date for each.

[jberryhill]

8. That picture doesn't say by whom

You can search the donation database by the identified employer of donors.

That was the basis of the "BP donations to Obama" thing that was running around a few weeks ago. Any employer with thousands of employees has employees who have donated to anything you want to name.

[myrna minx]

11. K&R n/t