Google Increases Donations to Norquist, Conservative Groups

Google has donated money to Heritage Action for America, a conservative political action committee created by the conservative think-tank The Heritage Foundation, and one of the groups that pushed for the government shutdown in October.

According to The Center for Media and Democracy based in Madison, Wisconsin, Google has also given "substantial" funding to other conservative groups such as Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, the Federalist Society and the American Conservative Union, which organizes the annual CPAC conference in Washington.

Heritage Action is a new addition to the list of organizations that have been receiving grants from Google since 2012, The Washington Post reported.

"Our U.S. Public Policy and Government Affairs team provides support to a number of independent third-party organizations whose federally-focused work intersects in some way with technology and Internet policy," Google states.

The list also includes libertarian groups such as the Cato Institute and liberal groups such as the Center for American Progress.

The Center for Media and Democracy notes that while "Google has a distinctly progressive image," the company hired former Republican Rep. Susan Molinari of New York in 2012 as head of Google's lobbying arm, primarily to have someone who could reach out to Republican lawmakers and groups, who have historically been skeptical of the internet giant, The New York Times reported

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