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) [1] 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, [1] 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.