Comey’s Conservative Chops

President Barack Obama’s planned nomination of James Comey to be the next FBI director, which administration officials confirmed this week, has been portrayed as a reach across the aisle, since Comey was deputy attorney general in George W. Bush’s Justice Department.

But Comey is even more thoroughly a Republican than many observers — even those steeped in the partisan ways of the nation’s capital — may realize.

A U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York before his stint at DOJ, Comey worked extensively in the private sector afterward. He made stops at Bridgewater Associates, which was the biggest hedge fund in the nation in 2011, as well as Lockheed Martin. Political contributions from both organizations trend conservative, according to data from OpenSecrets.org, and Comey’s own donations to federal candidates over the last several years also went to Republicans.

In fact, the apparent nominee-to-be has contributed to Obama’s opponents in each of the past two elections. In August 2008, Comey sent $2,300 to the GOP presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.). A few years later, Comey did his part to try to prevent Obama’s re-election, maxing out to Republican Mitt Romney with $5,000 in donations. Comey also gave $2,500 during that cycle to Susan Brooks (Ind.), a Republican with whom Comey had worked at DOJ. Brooks went on to win a House seat.

Comey spearheaded the litigation efforts of Connecticut-based Bridgewater Associates as general counsel from 2010 to early 2013. Bridgewater employees contributed a total of $177,551 in the 2012 election cycle to various candidates and committees — 81 percent of which went to Republican causes.

As senior vice president and general counsel at Lockheed Martin from 2005-2010, Comey was a top executive at one of CRP’s Heavy Hitters — one of the biggest contributors to federal elections. In 2012 alone, the organization devoted more than $15 million to lobbying efforts. Lockheed Martin’s PAC spent more than $3.5 million that year, and 59 percent of its contributions to federal candidates went to Republicans while just 41 percent went to Democrats. The organization consistently leaned to the right in that campaign cycle: Romney pulled in $165,000 from the firm, exceeding Obama’s $127,000.

The icing on the conservative cake when it comes to Comey’s time in the private sector may be his 2009-2010 stint as chairman of the board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce‘s National Chamber Litigation Center. A lobbying behemoth and unabashedly conservative in its campaign contributions, the Chamber created the litigation unit to aggressively advocate in the courts on behalf of business, and hasn’t been afraid to take unpopular positions. For instance, in July 2010 the Chamber pushed for the continuation of offshore drilling following a six month moratorium after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The organization’s litigation arm filed an amicus brief supporting Hornbeck Offshore Services, a company that almost exclusively supported Republican political candidates in the most recent election cycle.

Some liberals have found things to praise about Comey, but there’s no questioning his conservative credentials.