Updated: 6:12 p.m.

In a town where he now owns one of the biggest megaphones, Jeff Bezos has kept a low political profile.

The Amazon founder, who on Monday announced that he's buying the Washington Post, has made relatively few political contributions, most of them in the other Washington -- Washington state, where he makes his home. But Bezos has made up in size what his influence profile lacks in quantity.

Last year, he gave $2.5 million to Washington United for Marriage, a group that successfully defended a state law allowing same-sex nuptials, singlehandedly underwriting one-fifth of ...