Already the #1 corporate political contributor at the federal level, Wal-Mart is getting into the state money game in a big way - particulary in California.  This article in BusinessWeek (via MSN) gets into what they're going shopping for.

With federal government backing off efforts around the minimum wage and healthcare, Wal-Mart has taken its checkbook to state and local races as it looks to protect its financial interests by beating back bills aimed largely at the mega-retailer: minimum wage increases, worker health care bills, zoning restrictions etc.  Among Wal-Mart's notable donation recipients are California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ($22,300) and the state Republican party ($300,000).   Another notable recipient is New York gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer who, just three months after getting Wal-Mart money, came out in opposition to a bill to tax corporations that don't provide their workers with healthcare.

John Simley, a Wal-Mart spokesman is quoted in this article on Wal-Mart's decision to pump huge amounts of money into local politics: "Now we're participating in the same political process as any citizen, in this case a corporate citizen."  $1.25 million in political giving in the 2006 cycle alone?  That's not "any citizen" - that's a company buying into elections to protect its bottom line.

Wal-Mart is turning its focus to the states - that's where our focus on changing the system has always been.  Proposition 89, the Clean Money and Fair Elections Act, is on California's ballot this November.  And this is further evidence that the election-as-auction model must give way to a system that puts the power back in the hands of the citizens.