Oil company BP continues its slow climb out of political purgatory, as its political action committee on Friday reported donating thousands of dollars in May to federal-level politicians hailing from a variety of states, a Center for Responsive Politics review of federal campaign records indicates..

The eight contributions during May — all to Republicans — are the greatest number of donations BP’s PAC has made to federal-level politicos since it voluntary ceased contributing money to congressional candidates between July 2010 and February.

BP’s PAC, which has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to politicians during recent election cycles, started again making federal-level political contributions in March, then attempted to make more in April.

The company is reeling from the explosion of, and subsequent oil spill from, the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform BP operated in the Gulf of Mexico.

Among the congressional members receiving BP PAC contributions in May are:

Candidate BP contribution Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) $2,000 Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) $2,000 Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) $2,000 Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) $1,500 Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) $1,000 Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) $1,000 Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) $1,000 Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) $1,000

In addition to its federal-level contributions, BP’s PAC contributed to the campaigns of 16 state-level political candidates and committees in California, federal records show. BP’s PAC had continued to donate to state-level political candidates throughout 2010 and early this year, although some recipients declined the money.

Many members of Congress have been reluctant to associate themselves with BP, with some returning money from BP’s PAC or even divesting of their personal BP stock holdings.

OpenSecrets Blog reported this week that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) were among several politicians to either significantly reduce or altogether dump their BP stock shares.



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