Does LL Bean Spend a Portion of Its Profits on Anti-Choice Orgs?

[BurtWorm]

I heard this from a fairly reliable source in Maine. If true this would devastate our family, since we rely on LL Bean for a lot of our daughter's wardrobe and our own outerwear. But if true, I'll be damned if I'm going to allow them to donate one thin dime of the profit they make off me to a cause I loathe.

However, I don't want to smear them if it's not true, and I'm hoping it's not. Does anyone know? This is the first I ever heard of this, and I grew up one town away from their HQ.

[elfwitch]

1. check www.snopes.com

If it is a hoax it will be there. If it isn't it will be there too.

[BurtWorm]

4. Snopes doesn't cover this rumor.

Oddly enough, a pro-choice site (http://www.prochoiceresource.org/about/char_ml.html) links to the following:

GreaterGood.com is one of the largest charity malls with merchants including Amazon.com, Dell Computer, L.L. Bean, 1-800-FLOWERS, OfficeMax, REI, and Gap. Becoming a partner is free when you include their banner on your Web site and "regularly promote shopping on behalf in marketing materials and supporter communications" (contact them to find out exactly what this means!). March of Dimes, UNICEF, and the World Wildlife Fund are a few of their present partners.

:wtf:

[hackwriter]

2. The owners are right-wingers

Linda Bean-Jones, who is a director of the company, was a conservative Republican candidate for Congress in 1992. According to the Planned Parenthood Association of Pennsylvania, she is the director of Maine Christian Coalition.

My parents were living in Maine at the time, and she would get up at stump speeches and shout "I'm pro-life and pro-gun!" (sic)

I don't give a rat's butt how good their stuff is, I won't give them a nickel.

[BurtWorm]

5. Linda Bean's money definitely goes to Scaifean-type causes

http://www.anotherperspective.org/advoc416.html

"Linda Bean Folkers, the granddaughter and heiress to the fortune of L.L. Bean, has always been a supporter of the most radical and insane right wing causes and politicians. She has contributed thousands of dollars to such miserable groups as our old buddy Newt Gingrich's GOPAC, the Republican Coalition for Life (anti-abortion only - not anti-war or anti-disease or anti-starvation or the like), and that sad and silly old ultra-conservative "matriarch", Phyllis Schlaffly's "Eagle Forum (the group of misguided conservative women who really appreciate being paid less than men and having fewer rights than men and allowing men to control their bodies and its functions on and on)."


But does the company give its money to anti-choice causes?

[Bombtrack]

3. Well if people get abortions who parents buy backpacks for?

.

[SOteric]

6. I've found nothing on opensecrets

to confirm or deny that LL Bean supports this or any other issue. Of course, that's not conclusive. They could support through Political Action Committees, or they could support as individuals.

Keep this link handy, though. http://www.opensecrets.org/index.asp

They're indespensable when it comes to researching who really walks the walk and who's just talking the talk.

[BurtWorm]

9. Thanks!

Eyesroll posted similar info.

[eyesroll]

7. Nothing on Snopes

An opensecrets check shows the chairman is a Kerry donor; others with the company have donated to Susan Collins (moderate, pro-choice R) , Mike Richaud (D), the Maine Republican Party, Chellie Pengree (D candidate). I couldn't find specific PAC donations.

http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?NumOfThou=0&txtName=&txtState=%28all+states%29&txtZip=&txtEmploy=l.l.+bean&txtCand=&txt2004=Y&txt2002=Y&txt2000=Y&Order=N

I did a google search and came up with Linda Bean Folkers, an heir to LL Bean. This article makes her look like Gingrich on steroids:

http://www.anotherperspective.org/advoc416.html

However, other hits for Linda Bean Folkers on Google are about her art collection. This was the only "wow, is she nuts" site I found in the first 30 hits. (3 pages.)

On OpenSecrets:
These are the four recent hits for Linda Folkers of Maine (which may or may not be the same person, but probably is):
FOLKERS, LINDA
FALMOUTH,ME 
SELF
4/21/2002
$1,000
Mendros, Stavros J

FOLKERS, LINDA B
ROCKLAND,ME 04841
SELF/REAL ESTATE
2/19/2002
$1,000
Paul, Ron

FOLKERS, LINDA B
ROCKLAND,ME 04841
SELF/REAL ESTATE
2/19/2002
$1,000
Paul, Ron

FOLKERS, LINDA B
TENANTS HARBOR,ME 04860  
10/30/2000
$500
Paul, Ron

Ron Paul, if you remember, is a Republican representative who's more of a libertarian and who has ranted about PNAC and Iraq on the house floor.
Stavros Mendos is a Republican state representative, again from Maine, who has run for the U.S. House. I found no PAC info.

I can't draw a conclusion. This is a decidedly mixed record, and nothing out of the ordinary.

[BurtWorm]

8. Well, she has definitely given money to some looney tunes

like Rushdoony's US Taxpayer's or Constitution Party--as blatantly racist, frothing, right-wing an organization as exists anywhere. She heads the Christian Coalition in Maine (if it still exists). She is a loon, no question about it. But it's not evident that Bean's the corp funds right-wing causes.