Major Wall Street firms sharply reduced their campaign donations to candidates for the U.S. Senate and House during April, while shifting what they did spend slightly toward Democrats.
Data filed with the Federal Election Commission ahead of a Thursday midnight deadline showed the political action committees of six Wall Street institutions — Goldman Sachs , Wells Fargo , Bank of America , Citigroup , JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley — spending $25,500 on Republican candidates and $17,000 on Democrats.
Sixty percent of the money went to Republicans, while the remaining 40 percent went to Democrats. That was slightly narrower than the 62-38 percent margin that favored Republicans in March.
But the total was less than one-tenth of the $432,500 that the same six firms spend in March, as congressional candidates headed into a spate of spring primary elections and the Senate took an increasingly hard line on reform measures.
Embattled securities firm Goldman Sachs donated $15,000 to the Democratic Party's campaign committee for Senate candidates in April but said about $17,000 in checks to half a dozen candidates and congressional PACs went uncashed.
Following is a summary of Wall Street's latest PAC filings for April, year-to-date 2010 and full year 2009. Figures for 2009 were provided by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
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