A memo sent out to vice-presidents and higher-level employees at Barclays Capital provides a rare glimpse into how Wall Street flexes its political muscles around election times.

While Wall Street has traditionally been regarded as a bastion of free-market Republicanism, this impression has largely been disproved in recent years. Wall Street invested far more in Democratic candidates and campaigns in the 2008 election cycle, when Barack Obama was elected president.

Goldman Sachs [GS  169.20    -1.87  (-1.09%)   ], for instance, saw 75 percent of its donations go to the Democratic political machinery in 2008. And in this cycle, the latest figures available show 54 percent of Wall Street contributions going to Democrats. The political action committee money is even more skewed toward Democrats, with 57 percent hitting in that direction. (Those numbers don’t include the third-quarter contributions, which may have balanced out the numbers a bit.) (more…)