Black Friday politics: Do some stores le

Black Friday: Its a day in which most American citizens put aside politics in pursuit of shopping bargains. But inwe can sort almost anything in thein terms of partisan proclivity, and temples of commerce are no exception. Want to know whether the big box store where youre waiting in line leans Democratic or Republican? The folks at the invaluablehave compiledbased on campaign contributions.

, 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 youll see that Toys R Us is not so much Democratic as Klobucharian. All that $36,000 went to one candidate,of . (Thats kind of odd, isnt it? The retailers corporate headquarters are in .) Other than that,got $1,750 from Toys R Us workers.got zilch, according to CRPs .

Macys employees, on the other hand, were big Obama fans. They donated $28,870 to the presidents reelection campaign, as opposed to $16,390 tonominee Mr. Romney. This Democratic lean was counterbalanced to a certain extent by the stores corporate political action committee, however. (Toys R Us doesnt appear to have a central PAC.)gave $12,000 to Republicans, and $4,000 to Democrats.

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

But theres Senator Klobuchar again shes the individual candidate to whom Best Buy-related entities donated the most. Yes, shes chairperson of a Senate Commerce subcommittee on competitiveness, so that might have something to do with it. Maybe the money comes due to her political affiliation with Minnesotas ? Governor Dayton is the scion of the Dayton retail empire, which among other things founded Target.

Hmm, we see thatleaned GOP as well, so maybe that theory isnt right. Of the stores $483,777 in individual and PAC contributions, the majority went to the right side of the aisle, . And the top recipient is not Sen. Klobuchar, but Rep. Eric Paulsen a Twin Cities Republican.

Then theres . s empire has acompared with its big box brethren. Its employees and PAC gave $2.7 million to candidates in the 2012 cycle.

Employee donations skewed Republican which might not be surprising, since Wal-Mart is a big employer in the exurban/rural areas where Romney ran strongly. The firms PAC gave roughly equal amounts to candidates of both parties, however. That might be because Wal-Mart lobbies hard in Washington and needs relationships on both sides of the aisle.

In fact, Wal-Mart has spent more than $12 million on lobbyists in the past two years. It has its own Washington office, with 15 employees, and pays hundreds of thousands of dollars in retainers to such top outside lobby firms asand the .

The firms No. 1 issue is sales taxes specifically, getting states to slap sales taxes on web retail. Rep. Steven Womack (R) of , whose district includes Wal-Martsheadquarters, has long pushed national legislation that would force out-of-state online retailers to collect sales tax. Hes one of the top recipients of Wal-Mart campaign contributions.

The traditional brick and mortar retailer is not asking for special treatment. They know they have to compete against a number of consumer criterion. What they dont want and should not compete against is a disadvantage based on a tax loophole, said Congressman Womack earlier this year duringon the issue.

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Black Friday politics: Do some stores le