May 14, 2003
BASEBALL/POLITICS: Fields of Cash
SO, IT TURNS OUT that Major League Baseball has been berry berry good to members of Congress (about 60/40 to the Democrats), notably Dick Gephardt and James Sensenbrenner (the latter is chairman of a committee that oversees baseball's antitrust exemption), although frankly the amounts of money involved (at least for the individual members) isn't that much (you can't buy a guy like Gephardt for $5,000).
$5000 is the maximum contribution that a PAC can make to an individual Member of Congress. Interesting that the max was given to the Minority Leader and only $2000 to the Speaker. Jim Sensenbrenner is not only the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, but is also Bud Selig's representative--he represents suburban Milwaukee.