This is the second time Donald and Doris Fisher have made the Mother Jones 400 -- they placed 131 on the list in 1998. The Fishers own fashion retailer Gap Inc., which they founded in San Francisco in 1969. Last year wasn't very good for the company -- its stock plunged by nearly 50 percent in July -- but it was excellent for the Republicans, thanks in no small part to the Fishers. The couple donated most of its $260,800 to GOP candidates and congressional committees, although nearly 20 percent of their donations during the last election cycle went to Democrats.
Fisher has reason to befriend the Democrats. Gap, already the target of a much publicized class-action lawsuit over labor violations committed by its manufacturers in Saipan, has put pressure on Governor Gray Davis to exempt it from a state law making California retailers liable for labor violations at its in-state manufacturers. Watchdog groups such as Sweatshop Watch and the South Coast Fair Trade Network are urging the governor to hold Gap to the law.
The Fishers have also tried to influence education in California, offering $25 million to the state's school systems if they turn themselves over to Edison Schools, the nationšs largest private manager of public classrooms. Their son, John, owns 4 percent of Edison, which operates 113 schools with 57,000 students nationwide.
Fisher has also wielded considerable influence in privatizing other public works in San Francisco. He reportedly played a key role in privatizing development of the University of California's new campus at Mission Bay, and he was appointed by the Clinton administration to head real estate and housing for the Presidio Trust, the group transforming the city's former military base into the nation's first privatized national park.
-- Brett Coker
