Silicon Valley generally leans left of center in its politics, and Facebook, the web’s leading social utility valued at an estimated $85 billion, hasn't often seemed inclined to be an exception. After all, Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s CEO, has himself gone out of his way to make supportive appearances with President Obama. During a town hall meeting at Facebook in April, Obama emphasized the necessity of a tax plan that includes higher income tax percentages for the rich, to which Zuckerberg—who’s worth an estimated $17.5 billion—replied, “I’m cool with that.”

But increasingly, Facebook isn’t just a Silicon Valley company anymore. The company has made no secret of its desire to increase its presence and influence in Washington D.C.—and it seems to be preparing the ground there by shifting its ideological allegiances. Indeed, many of the new hires that Facebook has placed in its new 8,600 square foot office in downtown D.C. turn out to be lobbyists with longstanding ties to the GOP. All of which begs the question: Is Facebook updating its status to Republican?

Certainly, the ties between the company and the Democratic Party are more than skin deep. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg—Zuck’s right-hand woman—not only sits on President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitivenes and previously served as chief of staff for former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers during the Clinton administration, she recently hosted a fundraising dinner at her home that the President himself attended. Joe Lockhart, Facebook’s Vice President of Communications, was the White House press secretary for President Clinton, and Erskine Bowles, a Facebook board member, was Clinton’s chief of staff.

Between 2007 and 2010, Facebook’s D.C. lobbying outfit appeared to reflect that leftward political bent. The company had just two registered, and clearly liberal, lobbyists: former American Civil Liberties Union senior legal counsel Tim Sparapani, who was also a policy advisor for the Kerry/Edwards ’04 and Edwards ’08 campaigns; and a spunky George Washington grad named Adam Conner, who felt no qualms being candid about his politics on Twitter. “Looked down and realized I was wearing this same down vest on election day and night. Kept that Obama 08 sticker on for years,” reads one recent entry.

By early 2011, however, Facebook had upped its staff to seven after hiring several public policy and communications staffers—and the political tide began to shift. It brought on Joel Kaplan, former deputy chief of staff for President George W. Bush, as head of public policy at the D.C. office. Other additions included Myriah Jorden, who had previously served as Republican Senator Richard Burr’s general counsel, and Kathie Harbath, a former digital strategist for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The new GOP hires supplement the all-Republican lobbying firm, Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock, that Facebook commissioned to lobby on “legislative and policy issues related to technology and Internet policy, including personal privacy, protecting children, and advancing online security,” according to a disclosure form. Then Sparapani, one of Facebook’s first public hires, left the company in October, making the balance of ideology even more lopsided.