Google's Campaign Spending Is Exploding, But Is It All Going to Democrats?

Google's campaign spending has grown fortyfold in the past eight years.

Google's political action committee, called NetPAC, hit a high-water mark this campaign cycle by giving nearly $1.6 million to date, according to campaign finance disclosures. That's up from $1 million spent on the 2012 cycle -- a presidential-election year. And it's orders of magnitude beyond the $37,000 Google spent the first time it ventured into political contributions: the 2006 midterm elections. This election cycle, Google's political giving places it slightly ahead of Goldman Sach's PAC -- a frequent target of those who claim corporate cash translates into too much corporate influence into government. And it's quickly catching up with Microsoft, the longtime leader in tech spending.

But though Google's top brass have ties to President Obama's White House and the company has a reputation for leaning left, the tech giant's campaign spending isn't all heading to the left.