Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

The Google Inc. logo in Washington.

The price of persuasion went down in 2012, the second consecutive year of declining spending on lobbying, according to figures released today by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Total spending to try to influence Congress, the White House and federal agencies fell to $3.28 billion last year, compared with $3.33 billion in 2011 and $3.52 billion in 2010.

High-tech companies such as Google Inc., whose lobbying expenditures increased to $18.2 million from $9.7 million a year earlier; and Facebook Inc., which spent $4 million in 2012 compared with $1.4 million in 2011, went against the overall pattern.

“It’s a continued slide, but there are industries that are ramping up, like the tech industry, where some companies are opening up shops and some are expanding,” said Viveca Novak, editorial and communications director at the Center for Responsive Politics.

General Electric Co. was the biggest corporate spender on lobbying, as it was in 2011 and 2010. It reported $21.1 million in lobbying expenses in 2012, down from $26.3 million the year before.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce again spent more than any other entity. The largest U.S. business lobby and its affiliate spent $135.5 million, up from $65.8 million a year earlier.

Original post is Price of Persuasion Down Year to Year by Political Capital.

Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, on the Capitol.

The official biography of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s newest senior staff member is just a bit incomplete.

The Nevada Democrat announced today the hiring of Cathy Koch, former chief tax counsel to the Senate Finance Committee, as his adviser on tax and economic policy.

In a statement calling her his “go-to person” on taxes, Reid noted Koch’s experience in the public and private sector and her doctorate in economics.

What he didn’t mention is what Koch has been doing for the past few years.

Since 2010, she has been a registered lobbyist for General Electric Co., which has a long list of tax policy preferences in front of the Senate.

Original post is Reid’s Tax, Economic Adviser: Via G.E. by Political Capital.

Photograph by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Jeffrey "Jeff" Immelt, chairman and chief executive officer of General Electric Co. (GE), speaks during a keynote address at the Minds + Machines 2012: Unleashing the Industrial Internet conference in San Francisco, California, on Nov. 29, 2012.

Stipulate that Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, chairs the White House’s council on jobs and competitiveness.

Then hear what the chief executive had to say this morning about the budget talks in Washington.

“Everybody knows we need revenue,” Immelt said on CBS News’s “This Morning.”  House Speaker John Boehner, he said,  “has got to take the heat, and I trust that he can do it. We trust Speaker Boehner to do it, and he shouldn’t spend one minute using political capital to keep my rates low.”

Original post is Immelt to Boehner: Tax Me by Political Capital.

The latest companies to withdraw from the public policy organization include General Electric Co., Sprint Nextel Corp., and Western Union Co., according to ColorofChange.org, a New York-based civil rights organization that has been pressuring corporations to end their membership.

ALEC has come under fire for championing voter identification laws, which studies have shown disproportionately affect minority voters, and “Stand Your Ground” laws that gained public notoriety after a killing in Florida. A state version of the law was cited by authorities in Sanford, Florida, when they didn’t initially arrest George Zimmerman, who claimed self-defense in the killing of teenager Trayvon Martin in February. Zimmerman later was charged with second-degree murder and pleaded not guilty.

The corporate exodus has continued even after Washington-based ALEC dropped the task force that drafted the voter-ID and “Stand Your Ground” laws and announced it would focus exclusively on economic issues. More than two dozen other companies previously said they were stopping their support of ALEC, including the Coca-Cola Co., General Motors Inc. and McDonald’s Corp. ALEC charges corporate dues of up to $25,000 a year, which allows company representatives to help draft bills that lawmakers then try to enact in their home states.

Original post is General Electric, Sprint Nextel Latest Companies to Leave ALEC by Political Capital.

It initially seemed fitting for President Barack Obama to accept his party’s nomination for re-election at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, on the last night of the Democratic National Convention.

Employees of the Charlotte-based bank whose name is on the stadium and their families made 59 percent of their $3 million in campaign donations to Obama and the Democrats during the 2008 election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research group.

This time around, however, Bank of America Corp. employees and their families have switched sides, giving 72 percent of their $2.2 million in campaign contributions to Republicans.

Obama’s expected Republican opponent, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, got $465,850 of that total, his fourth-largest source of campaign donations, according to the center.

The Democrats’ reversal of financial fortune among Bank of America employees is the third largest among financial institutions, behind employees of Goldman Sachs Group and General Electric Co., as Bloomberg reported today.

A spokeswoman for Bank of America, Shirley Norton, said: “Employees make the decisions about to whom those contributions are made, not the corporation.”

Original post is Obama’s Address at Bank of America — or, Bank of Romney, Stadium by Political Capital.

Photograph by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

Ursula Burns, chairman and chief executive officer of Xerox Corp.

Written by Molly Shiels

The campaign fuss over the president’s Jobs Council — the one that hasn’t met for several months — led to a new question today:

Does the White House even know who is on its Jobs and Competitiveness Council?

Bloomberg reached out to every member of President Barack Obama’s Jobs Council.

At least, we thought they were members. Using the White House’s own Web-site for the council chaired by General Electric Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt , one of the names listed under “Members” is Ursula M. Burns, Chairman and CEO of Xerox.

Well, apparently she isn’t a member.

A representative from Xerox tells us Burns is an “ex-officio member” and has “never attended a meeting.”

Xerox has asked the White House numerous times to take Burns’ name off the Web-site, but alas, her name was still there today.

Burns, however, is an active member of the Export Council.

Original post is Obama’s Jobs Panel: Members Only by Political Capital.