Although Target made several changes to its corporate political contributions policy, they recently gave $50,000 to the Republican Governors Association (RGA), and those funds have been used anti-gay candidates such as Virginia's Ken Cuccunelli.
The RGA's primary mission is, according to its website, "to help elect Republicans to governorships throughout the nation, but we are also dedicated to providing our governors with the resources to help them govern effectively."
During the 2010 election cycle Target came under fire for a $150,000 donation to Minnesota Forward, a pro-business group who had ties to anti-LGBT Minnesota GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer. This sparked off protests and calls for Target to re-evaluate its political donation practices.
Other anti-LGBT Republican gubernatorial candidates running for re-election in 2014 are Chris Christie (N.J.), Rick Scott (Fla.), John Kasich (Ohio) and Scott Walker (Wis.). These candidates have all benefitted from RGA's multi-million dollar funding efforts over the years. Target also gave $50,000 to the Democratic Governors Association during the same time period (since the beginning of 2013).
In an email statement to Windy City Times, Target Manager of Communications Molly Snyder said, "Target's commitment to the LGBT community is long-standing and unwavering. We also believe strongly in our civic responsibility to engage in a bipartisan manner at the state and federal level in order to learn about public policy priorities and advocate on issues that affect our business, such as e-fairness legislation. One of the ways we do this is through membership in both the Democratic and Republican Governors Associations, both of which include several hundred other corporate members.
"When paying for our memberships, we explicitly require that our dues not be used for any individual electoral campaigns or other electioneering efforts. It would therefore be wrong and inaccurate to associate our membership dues with any particular political candidate or campaign." Snyder also noted that the $50,000 donation is an annual membership and the entire amount is a membership fee.
HRC's Corporate Equality Index for 2013 states that Target got a 100-percent score; however, during the 2012 election cycle Target chose not to speak out against the same-sex marriage ban amendment that was put before voters. (Voters struck down that amendment and in May of this year the Minnesota legislature passed a same-sex marriage bill Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton signed into law.) Conversely, Minnesota-based companies such as Thomson Reuters, Carlson Companies and General Mills chose to speak out against the bill.
Target has a history of donating to anti-LGBT candidates and organizations over the years through its TargetCitizens Political Forum PAC. According to the Open Secrets website, as late as the 2012 election cycle the TargetCitizens Political Forum PAC gave money to a number of anti-LGBT members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.
Those Congressmen include Sens. John Barrasso (Wyo.), Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), Bob Corker (Tenn.), John Cornyn (Texas), Orrin Hatch (Utah) and Jerry Moran (Kan.) as well as Reps. Spencer Bachus (Ala.), John Boehner (Ohio), Erik Paulsen (Minn.), Peter Roskam (Ill.) and Aaron Schock (Ill.). HRC has given each of these representatives a score of 15 percent or less out of 100 percent for the 112th Congressional cycle (the last cycle on record).