When the Boss Is on Team Romney

Few who work for David Siegel would likely mistake their boss for a man of the people. The Florida time-share titan is building himself a 90,000-square-foot house modeled on Versailles and claims he personally got George W. Bush elected in 2000. Back then he’d slip partisan articles inside the pay envelopes of employees of his Westgate Resorts and helped Republicans on staff register to vote. Siegel’s political tactics made headlines this month when he sent thousands of employees an e-mail that promised dire consequences should Barack Obama win reelection. “If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, as our current President plans,” he wrote his workers, “I will have no choice but to reduce the size of this company.” That’s right: Vote Democrat and your job could be at risk. “I wanted to let my employees know what will come if they make the wrong choice. They need to worry if Obama gets reelected,” explains Siegel in an interview.

While Siegel is especially blunt about asking workers to vote for his man, he’s not the only employer sharing his political preference with the folks on his payroll. Earlier this month, Georgia Pacific’s 45,000 employees each received a packet in which David Robertson, president of Georgia Pacific’s parent, Koch Industries, warned of “higher gas prices, runaway inflation, and other ills” if they elect candidates who spend “billions in borrowed money on costly new subsidies for a few favored cronies.” Lest anyone working for a company controlled by the conservative billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch be confused about who they support, the packet—obtained by nonprofit political magazine In These Times—also listed favored candidates including Mitt Romney. (Georgia Pacific spokesman Greg Guest responded that the packet was informational, while noting unions and newspapers go further in actually endorsing candidates.)