Big Five favour Republicans in US race
George W Bush's presidential campaign won the lion's share of almost $4m contributed by accountants to this year's US election, a Washington-based watchdog has revealed.
The Republicans emerged as the Big Five’s party of choice clawing in 64% of political donations as Democrat candidate Al Gore won a crucial Florida Supreme Court ruling allowing more time for hand recounts in three of the state’s counties.
As usual the Big Five balanced contributions between both parties, but the traditional party of business, the Republicans, swelled its war-chest with $2.5m compared to $1.5m poured into the Democrat coffers.
Ernst & Young’s public accounts committee was the biggest giver, contributing $850,886, with $545,396 going to Republicans and also gave the largest contribution of any firm to Al Gore’s campaign, at $304,000.
The figures compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics from federal statistics found the Democrats raking in $1.4m.
Arthur Andersen contributed $164,000 to the Democrats and $317,120 to their rival, Deloitte & Touche found $261,671 for the Gore camp compared to $502,024 for the Bush bid, while PricewaterhouseCoopers found $216,204 and $358,749 for the respective campaigns.
The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) also kept the US election machine oiled with a generous $677,116 donation split $247,665 and $429,451 between Democrats and Republican.
KPMG and PwC in September were exposed as significant donors to the pro-euro Britain in Europe campaign.
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