Jeff Bezos Donates $ 10 Million to a Great Veteran-Centered CAP in the First Great Political Adventure

The founder and CEO of Amazon.com, Jeffrey P. Bezos, and his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, make their first major political contribution with a $ 10 million donation to a great election-focused PAC. from veterans to public functions.

The super PAC, With honor, works with candidates from all political parties. Unlike other mega-donors who have invested tens of millions of dollars in Republican or Democratic campaigns, the Bezoses have chosen a group whose mission in 2018 is to reverse "the declining trend of veterans in Congress."

Earlier this year, Forbes ranked Bezos – which owns the Washington Post – the richest man in the world, with a net worth of more than $ 150 billion. On Tuesday, Amazon became the second US-listed company to reach a value of more than $ 1 trillion.

Bezos' first major incursion into electoral politics comes at a time when his influence and wealth are increasing.

Last year, Bezos announced its intention to increase its charitable donations, tweeting a "request for ideas" to his supporters, saying that he "thinks of a philanthropic strategy in the opposite of what I spend most of my time".

In recent years, Blue Origin and Amazon.com have increased their lobbying spending to influence policy makers and decision-makers in the areas of air transport and Internet policies, according to documents analyzed by the Center not responsible for reactive policy.

Now, Bezos goes straight into electoral politics, massively becoming a bipartisan group to elect members of Congress. Among the candidates that the group supports, there are veteran Democrats in some of the most competitive races of the fall. But the group also supports Republicans in home runs across the country.

The most important political gift of Bezos prior to this cycle was in 2012, when he donated $ 2.5 million to the campaign to defend gay marriage in Washington State. Bezos has already given to Republican and Democratic candidates in Congress. He and his wife gave the political action committees of Amazon.com and Blue Origin, the commercial space company created by Bezos. Both committees supported Democrats and Republicans, including this election cycle.

Before their new donation of $ 10 million to With Honor, the Bezoses made sporadic contributions to the federal campaign committees. Since the 2014 election cycle, the Bezoses have donated $ 37,600 to four federal candidates, according to CEF records: Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.).

The contribution, reported Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal, was confirmed by a spokeswoman for Amazon and With Honor. Bezos declined to comment by the spokesman of Amazon.

[The politics of Jeff Bezos]

With Honor's site, it is said that the country was torn apart by hyperpartisanship and that the Americans know that extreme partisanship has eaten away at our national legislature. The fund maintains that no national institution suffers from a greater lack of mutual trust than Congress. .

According to With Honor, veterans accounted for more than half of Congress for most of the 20th century. But according to the group, the decline of veterans in Congress far exceeded the decline of veterans in the US population. The Brookings Institution has calculated that veterans' representation in Congress is 19%, a near-historic trough.

With honor, at least 25 candidates will be nominated in 2018, for their leadership record and alignment with the fund's commitment to integrity, civility and courage. This promise includes meeting with a person from a different political party at least once a month and sponsoring legislation with a member of an opposing party at least once a year.

The super PAC has already received about $ 2 million from parents of Bezos, Jacklyn and Miguel. This is the first electoral cycle that the Bezos family has dedicated to super PAC, according to the records of the Federal Election Commission. In previous years, Bezos' parents supported individual candidate committees, whose donations are capped at $ 5,400 per cycle.

With the last donation to With Honor, Bezos and his wife are now among the biggest donors for the super PACs this cycle.

The $ 10 million donation marks the largest contribution to the super PAC so far this election cycle. Previously, the super PAC's biggest donors were retail magnate Leslie Wexner and his wife, Abigail, a lawyer and philanthropist, who donated $ 2.8 million to the group, according to the FEC's archives.

With the support of Honor, many veterans presented themselves at the Congress, and most of his expenses paid for advertisements for Congressional veterans or advertisements against their opponents.

As of Wednesday, With Honor has identified 33 candidates for home racing across the country. Among the group-backed candidates are some of the most prominent veterans of both parties, such as Democrats Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey, MJ Hegar in Texas, Amy McGrath in Kentucky and Republican Jim Baird in Indiana.

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, associate dean of the Yale School of Management, said that the heads of state-owned companies had "civil liability" and that on trade and immigration issues, some business leaders "got their voices back". Sonnenfeld said that while rich executives "should not be flamethrowers", they owe it to their clients and investors to engage in debates with the nation.

"They can not be neutral," said Sonnenfeld. "Their silence takes advantage."

Bezos' choice of a super PAC that aims to elect veterans who will cross the political radius sends a message about its values, said Jason Schloetzer, a professor at Georgetown University.

But the decision was probably heavily endorsed given its dominance and the "people watching every move you make," he said.

"I do not think too many CEOs have reacted very well on one side or the other in terms of politics, so you have to be careful," Schloetzer said.

Schloetzer stated that entering the political waters of Bezos was different from that of Amazon as a company enrolling in a political or social cause, and that the personal gift would not be inextricably linked to the Amazon brand. "

But Tom Lin, a law professor at Temple University who has studied corporate governance, said it was difficult to "separate Amazon from Jeff Bezos, and Jeff Bezos from Amazon."

Lin said companies and their leaders need to be aware of how political affiliations can harm their business and risk alienating customers and investors, or even spurring activism against society. Lin also noted that companies and their leaders were directly attacked by President Trump during tweet storms that sparked online vitriol.

On Monday, for example, Nike revealed that Colin Kaepernick, the unemployed NFL quarterback who had been controversial for kneeling during the national anthem protesting racial injustice and police brutality, would be included in the "Just Do It" campaign. Wednesday morning, Trump doubled his criticism of Nike and the NFL, tweeting that the giant sportswear "was completely killed by anger and boycott."

"Just as our policy has divided the country into red states and blue states, red counties and blue counties," said Lin, "we can see that the political commitment of leaders can fragment the red business market. and blue ".