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Even though the last election cycle is long over, the country’s biggest political contributors — profiled in the Mother Jones 400 — are still making headlines.

 

WINNERS

  • Clinton nominated meatpacking heir James Hormel (#84; $186,200) as alternate representative to the United Nations (Hormel’s 1992 candidacy for Fiji’s ambassadorship flopped when his gay activism and the country’s sodomy laws didn’t mix).
  • Felix Rohatyn (#4; $471,250) was nominated as ambassador to France, beating out Mary Raiser (#270; $108,000), the White House chief of protocol.
  • Walter Shorenstein (#11; $334,350) and love interest Tippi Hedren shared an April dinner with Hillary Clinton in New York.

SINNERS

  • Matt Fong, California’s state treasurer, returned a possibly illegal $100,000 donation that Jessica Elnitiarta (#329; $100,000) and her father, Ted Sioeng, gave to Fong’s campaign.

    For more on Elnitiarta’s returned contribution, see “Beijing 90210“.

  • Protesting the “total corruption” of political fundraising in the U.S., the Hollywood Women’s Political Committee dissolved. Thirteen MoJo 400 luminaries had given the group nearly $50,000.

SPINNER

  • Lillian Vernon’s (#197; $124,060) son and publicist, David Hochberg, called Mother Jones to say how happy they were with the issue, adding, “If there’s anything else we can help you with, let us know.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

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