Wal-Mart adds lobbyists, ups campaign contributions to help improve image and impact

For years, leaders of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. kept their focus on the company's stores — many of which are in rural areas — and let politics and policy play out in Washington without them. As the economy has slowed, and as critics have grown more vocal in their attacks against Wal-Mart, the company has changed that stance. Now, the giant retailer is taking a more active role in policy by adding lobbyists and increasing campaign contributions, reports The Washington Post.

Wal-Mart calls the philosophy behind the new approach "engaging the opposition," and that includes environmentalists, reports Ylan Q. Mui. "The overarching goal is to improve the company's image so it can operate unhindered by the automatic opposition its reputation has inspired," Mui writes. "It also had a specific legislative agenda spanning issues such as normal trade relations with China and the number of hours truck drivers are allowed to work. In its attempt to make its desires known, it has transformed its lobbying force from a humble two-man shop to a $2.5 million operation that employs some of K Street's heaviest hitters."

Wal-Mart now spends more than any other retailer on lobbying, and in the 2006 election cycle, gave $1.3 million in contributions, mostly to Republicans. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., served on Wal-Mart's board from 1986 to 1992, but returned $5,000 to the company's political action committee during her Senate re-election campaign in 2006. As a presidential candidate, she has received "$19,190 in donations from Wal-Mart executives and employees this year -- more than half of the total Wal-Mart employees have given to all presidential candidates, according to campaign finance records," Mui writes. (Read more)