Target CEO Apologizes For Company's Support Of Tom Emmer

If Gregg Steinhafel genuinely believes "that a business climate conducive to growth is critical to our future," he should donate money exclusively to Democrats. Since he apparently can't read the simple charts and graphs that demonstrate how Democrats are better for the economy, he's not smart enough to be a CEO and should be replaced.

Talk is cheap. If he's really sorry, how about a matching donation to a pro-equality candidate, or at least to a pro-equality organization?

Has he apologized for donating to that blithering idiot Michelle Bachmann by chance?

Does this mean it is OK to shop at Target again?

I won't shop at Kmart or Walmart, so losing Target is a big blow to my shopping habits. Can I go back to Target?

Kudos to Target for admitting they were wrong. Sure I'd like to see a matching donation to whoever wins the Democratic primary, but honestly the politics of this is even better. It's got to be pretty embarrassing for the Emmer campaign that Target has to apologize for supporting them. How can you sell yourself as a mainstream candidate when Target has to apologize for being associated with you? I want to see DFL ads that include this.

Here is the full statement by Steinhafel. I didn't see it linked in the article.

http://pressroom.target.com/pr/news/civic/default.aspx

No surprise here. This is exactly the kind of situation mass newspapers found themselves in a century ago. If they took an advocacy position in presenting the news then they would automatically alienate customers and advertisers. The result was the adoption of "objective" journalism and the professionalism of journalists.

Every mass retailer is going to have to make the same calculus when deciding which candidates to publicly support. (The other alternative is to support cut-out organizations that then support the candidates the corporation wants to support. Chamber of Commerce for example.)

But the newspaper industry continues to provide a guide to what companies can and will take direct advocacy positions. When the customer base is a niche base, then advocacy positions will increase revenue. This is what FOX has proven on one side, and TPM on the other side politically.

Southern and Texas companies will support the most popular political positions until they try to expand beyond that niche or geographic area. On the Internet companies will choose which customers to go after and they will mimic their political positions.

But all the national big box stores are going to have to be very careful who they appear to be supporting politically through the Citizens United loop hole. Or they are going to have to do it with laundered money to hide their involvement. Since that won't be a crime but rather just bad business judgment, journalists will need to ferret out the sources of corporate money even more than they do now.

I'm sure there are other implications for corporate strategies and political involvement, but I don't yet see them myself.

I have been shopping elsewhere for some time when I learned that the majority of Targets political donations go to the right. Try Costco, nearly 100% to Dem candidates.

The apology isn't enough. The only thing Steinhafel is sorry about, as with most conservatives these days, is that he got called on it, it made him and his company look bad to shareholders, and it wouldn't just blow over in a few days. He got his ass chewed out and it was a business decision to apologize.

Sadly, there are just a few things that I can't buy anywhere else. But, I've stopped going there for the regular grocery, clothes, and household necessity shopping. It's a reduction of about 90% in my Target expenditures. And, that doesn't change until they even out the campaign donations.

I agree with your more optimistic read of this. But we'll watch and see what they do in the future.
And I may wait a while before shopping at Target again, just to make sure their actions follow their words.

1: Ask for and confirm in public the return of the $150k.
1a: Donate $151k to the other side if they won't return it.
2: Apologize to the CUSTOMERS.
3: Commit in writing to no more donations to candidates or groups except those that disavow hateful positions.

Tom Emmer thinks the minimum wage is creeping socialism. How is being anti-labor any better than being ant-gay? America is going to the politically correct poorhouse!

Target, as it happens, has a quite good corporate record on LGBT issues and workplace policies.

Well that, with the apology, is a relief. I've been boycotting Wal-Mart for some years now; it would greatly complicate things to be boycotting Target as well.

You are missing the most important piece of the story.
Target is apologizing, but is NOT taking back the money!!!
MN Forward gets to KEEP the money, and Target will use this brouhaha as an excuse to NOT donate to any more "liberal" causes.

Have we forgotten to think? Corporations don't make donations. People do that. When Target "donates" to a campaign, it is the CEO who is donating stockholder assets to his preferred campaign. It has nothing to do with the corporation. It has everything to do with the Repub CEOs of almost all corporations gaining more money to use to support their political biases. Given how utterly stupid one has to be to support Repubs on anything, that goes a long way towards explaining why US corporations are so inept in the business world.

At least he didn’t do what Josh Marshall at TPM did when he excused taking money for running Yes on Proposition 8 ads. Saying its just business. Classy

"I firmly believe that a business climate conducive to growth is critical to our future..."

Translation: "I firmly believe in unregulated free market capitalism, huge tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and large corporations, and the death of labor unions."

Homosexuals are here to stay whether in this country or around the world.

The CEOs and the politicians who pander to the religious right to get their votes and the religious right itself, might as well get used to it.

You would think that the CEO of a retail operation would realize that his company does well when ordinary people have money in their pockets. Republicans don't even want the unemployed to get help, and a lot of the help that Democrats pushed thru will be spent at places like Target.

I'm glad they did this. Target has been very supportive of the LGBT community in Minneapolis, and I was surprised when I heard they had donated to Emmer's campaign. I have no problem if a corporation wants to support a business-friendly (read "owned") candidate, but Emmer is just a nutcase. I'll take them at their word that it was an honest mistake. And honest mistake they're not likely to repeat.

I work across the street from a Target and I won't, absolutely won't shop there again.

This really, really pisses me off.

The guy apologized, whether it was sincere or not, I don't know. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

I'm surprised that no one on FOX, like O'Reilly, didn't start a counter boycott. Hey, O'Reilly could then brag how the non existent Paris Business Review raved about O'Reilly's successful counter move.

A leftie friend of mine send me an email about a big protest happening tonight in Minneapolis. I deleted it without reading it, so I don't know where or when, but if you're into this sort of shit, you might want to check it out.

Hopefully this is a lesson. If you give money, you endorse these crazies opinions. Curse that Citizens United opinion.

http://thebeardedcrank.blogspot.com/

Remember, even their idea of a business-friendly environment is pretty much the embodiment of evil: Emmer is the guy who wanted to reduce wages for waitstaff by $10K a year.

So the real message is "We're sorry we gave money to a bigot, you should forgive us because we thought he was just a robber-baron who wants to grind poor people into the mud."

WCCO just reported on 13 other corporations that have donated to Emmers' campaign. They include Best Buy (who have NOT apologized) and 12 others. I wish I'd made a list, but I was cooking when it came on. Anyone know who they are?

In completely unrelated news, Koua Fong Lee has been set free.

Boycott Target and Best Buy, which did the same thing.

I don't want to contribute to Target's bottom line so that they can support people whose positions I abhor. But...it's back to school time. Serious question -- does anyone know where to buy notebooks, etc. besides Target or Wal-Mart (where I already don't shop)? And no, there are no locally owned stores around for that kind of merchandise. Is there a website that can help us make responsible shopping decisions?

It is interesting that all this anger is focused on Target and not on other businesses who made this same bone-headed decision.

Target is usually a visible and courageous supporter of the gay community. The money Target provides in domestic partnership benefits alone likely dwarfs the donation to MN Forward. Target is a generous and courageous corporate sponsor of gay pride events here in Minnesota and nationwide. They scored 100% on the recent HRC survery of Gay-friendly corporate cultures.

It interests me that we are focusing our anger on this relative friend of the gay community who dissapointed us this time, and not on the others, who have not consistantly demonstrated their support.

We're always having fun up here in Minnesota!