FORTUNE MAGAZINE'S ANNUAL Fortune 500 issue (a list of the top 500 public companies, based on revenues) hit newsstands across America last month. The esteemed list, topped off with companies like General Motors, Wal-Mart, and Philip Morris, features 10 Puget Sound area firms, including one in the top 10 (Boeing). The list, a celebration of profits, assets, and "market cap," provides a snapshot of the most powerful force in our country: corporate wealth. Fortune 500 dollars dominate our political system in the form of campaign cash and lobbying expenditures, overwhelm our legal system with highly paid attorneys, and shape our culture with advertising.
The impact of this power is tangible. For example, one of Seattle's Fortune 500 companies, Washington Mutual (which spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on lobbying in 1998), worked to push through the Financial Services Act of 1999. This bill frightens privacy and consumer advocates, because it allows banks, insurance companies, and security firms to merge and share information. Among the fears: Health insurance companies may peruse applicants' mortgages while deciding whether or not to insure them, health and auto insurance companies could base rates on credit-card and mortgage data, and mortgage lenders can check out health records while making lending decisions. Despite these problems, companies like Washington Mutual supported the sweeping bill because it heralded the elimination of barriers to competition. It is often bottom-line interests like these that, thanks to the influence of corporate dollars, shape public policy.
However, for such a brazen and ubiquitous force in society, the corporations who spend all this dough are aloof when it comes to public scrutiny. After all, they aren't bound by the same standards of public disclosure as government agencies. (Not a single CEO agreed to be interviewed for this article.)
The following list, which spotlights Washington entries in the Fortune 500, is an attempt to add some context to Fortune's annual exercise in shareholder cheerleading. -- JOSH FEIT
| Total '99 Revenues | ProÞt Increase Since 1998 | Slogan | Total Federal-Level Political Contributions Since 1998 | Favorite Party | Top Recipients in ’99 Rep. | 1998 Lobbying Expenditures | Gender Makeup of Board | CEO and Salary (Not including stock options) | |
|
(10th outof 500) | $57.9 billion | 106.2% | "Changing the Way You Travel" | $2,417,341 | Republicans | Jennifer Dunn ( R-WA), Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA) | $8,440,000 | 11 men 1 woman | Phil Condit $4.5 million |
|
(44th out of 500) | $27.4 billion | 13.6 % | "Costco Guarantees Your Satisfaction" | $297,146 | Democrats | Unsuccessful Rep. candidate Heidi Behrens-Benedict (D-WA) | $0 | 10 men 1 woman | Jeffrey Brotman $568,000 |
| (84th out of 500) | $19.7 billion | 73.4 % | "Empowering People through Great Software—Any Time, Any Place, and on Any Device" | $3,477,901 | Republicans | Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA), Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA) | $3,740,000 | 7 men 1 woman | Steve Ballmer $665,000 |
| Washington Mutual (127th out of 500) | $13.5 billion | 22.2% | "Establishing Meaningful Relationships with Community Leaders in Our Longtime Markets in the Northwest" | $438,572 | Republicans | Rep. John LaFalce (D-NY), Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA). | $260,000 | 15 men 3 women | Kerry Killinger $1.9 million |
| Weyerheauser (145th out of 500) | $12.2 billion | 79.3% | "The Future is Growing" | $324,509 | Republicans | Rep. Jennifer Dunn (R-WA), Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA) | $1,040,000 | 10 men 1 woman | Steven Rogel $1.7 million |
|
(189th out of 500) | $9 billion | 40% | "World’s Leading Truck Manufacturer" | $188,715 | Republicans | Rep. Jennifer Dunn (R-WA), Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA) | $80,000 | 10 men | Mark Pigott $1.8 million |
| (233rd out of 500) | $7.9 billion | 66.7% | "A Sound Strategy, Rooted in Existing Expertise, Executed with Discipline. It just makes sense." | $28,860 | Republicans | Rep. George Nethercutt Jr. (R-WA), Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) | $40,000 | 9 men 1 woman | Thomas Matthews $1.5 million |
| (259th out of 500) | $6.7 billion | 28.3% | "Shape Your Dreams" | $159,068 | Republicans | Rep. Jennifer Dunn (R-WA) | $0 | 10 men 2 women | Roger Eigsti $1.5 million |
| (320th out of 500) | $5.1 billion | 2% | "One of the Nation’s Leading Fashion Retailers" | $31,350 | Republicans | Rep. Jennifer Dunn (R-WA), Sen. candidate Raymond Neal Haynes Jr. (R-CA) | $50,000 | 7 men 2 women | John Whitacre $658,000 |
| (489th out of 500) | $3.1 billion | 33.6% | "Distribution Solutions for Business" | $71,249 | Republicans | Rep. Ted Strickland (D-OH), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) | $0 | 7 men 2 women | Robert Cline $1.1 million |
| Red text = What's up with THAT?! | Pat Kearney, Nif Rios, Josh Feit, and the Center for Responsive Politics contributed to this report. |
