This summer and fall, political candidates from Iowa to North Carolina have
delivered blistering attacks against Wal-Mart and its record on health care,
wages and benefits.
Now, with congressional midterm elections just 25 days away, Wal-Mart is
fighting back.
The world's largest retailer is about to take the unusual step of
distributing information about specific candidates to its 1.3 million
employees nationwide, according to a company official. The information,
which is still being prepared, likely will include quotes from elected
officials who have been critical of Wal-Mart, as well as information about
their voting record concerning legislation that has affected Wal-Mart's
business.
Wal-Mart said it will specifically target local, state and national leaders
who appeared this summer at a series of anti-Wal-Mart rallies organized by
Wake Up Wal-Mart, a union-backed group that has called on the retailer to
offer workers better pay and benefits. In August, state Representatives Rick
Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul, Sheldon Johnson, DFL-St. Paul and Tim Mahoney,
DFL-St. Paul, spoke at a Wake Up Wal-Mart rally in St. Paul.
"Our associates are very proud of the Wal-Mart they work for and we feel
they have a right to know what some politicians are doing and saying about
the company," said David Tovar, director of media relations at Wal-Mart
Stores Inc. Even Chicago aldermen, many of whom this summer supported a
measure to increase the minimum wage for big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart,
could be targets, Tovar said.
Taking it up a notch
The move signals a new willingness on the part of Wal-Mart to confront
political opponents, primarily Democrats, who say the company is offering
its employees substandard wages and health care benefits. In the past,
Wal-Mart has engaged elected officials directly and through lobbyists, but
it has rarely tried to influence elections by appealing directly to its
workforce, Tovar said.
Last month the company announced that it would launch a voter registration
drive, hoping to sign up all its employees, including nearly 18,000 in
Minnesota at 66 stores.
But trying to sway political opinions takes a giant step forward. Some
retail observers say the strategy could prove effective in small towns and
cities where Wal-Mart is a large employer, and where local residents might
oppose attacks against the Bentonville, Ark.-based company. "This puts
elected officials across the country on notice that, if you attack Wal-Mart,
then there's going to be retaliation," said Ken Bernhardt, a professor of
marketing at Georgia State University. "It could make some [political
leaders] think twice before attacking the company."
However, critics of Wal-Mart said the move could backfire, by making the
company appear overtly partisan and offending its workers who vote for
Democrats. Nearly 17 percent of its workers in 2005 were blacks,
traditionally a strong Democratic base.
"There's an old adage that there are two things you don't talk about at
work, and that's religion and politics," said Chris Kofinis, communications
manager at Wake Up Wal-Mart. "Once they've told people they support
Candidate X instead of Candidate Y, they'll upset everyone who supports
Candidate Y."
Many of the most outspoken critics of Wal-Mart are leading Democrats and
possible presidential contenders in 2008, including former Sen. John Edwards
of North Carolina, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware and Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana.
Last year, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York returned a $5,000 campaign
donation from Wal-Mart to protest what she called the company's inadequate
health care benefits.
Wal-Mart has a history of supporting Republican candidates, although it has
become more bipartisan in the current election cycle. Republicans have
received 71 percent of the $1.06 million that Wal-Mart's political action
committee and its employees have contributed to federal candidates and
parties in 2005 and 2006, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a
nonpartisan research group in Washington. That's down from 80 percent during
the 2003-2004 election cycle, the center found.
Tovar insists that the new informational campaign will be nonpartisan and
will not include endorsements of specific candidates or parties. Instead,
the company will seek to correct inaccurate claims made by elected
officials, he said. Wal-Mart hasn't determined how it will distribute the
information, but it could be in the form of pamphlets or through a separate
website, Tovar said. Employees and others can currently sign up for notices
at http://walmart.helpingamericansvote.org.
"We're not going to say who to vote for, but we're going to lay it out for
them," Tovar said. "If someone said something on the record or took a vote
on legislation that impacted our company, our employees will know about it."
Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., a member of the House Committee on Education
and the Workforce, called it "surprising" that Wal-Mart would try to sway
voters toward "politicians who support their pro-China, corporate welfare,
poverty wage strategy to maximize profits." She didn't seem concerned that
Wal-Mart would influence voters in her district. "Since their 'always low
prices' slogan appears to also apply to their politicians, I hope Wal-Mart
endorses every Republican running in Minnesota."
Chris Serres • cserres@startribune.com • 612-673-4308 Rob Hotakainen •
rhotakainen@ startribune.com • 202-383-0009
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Wal-Mart preparing voter drive of its own
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Wal-Mart preparing voter drive of its own
By Chris Serres and Rob Hotakainen
Minneapolis Star Tribune, October 12, 2006
Straight to the Source
