May 1, 1996

The Mother Jones 400 (1996)

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The Mother Jones 400 (1996)

An interactive database of the top campaign contributors

For years Americans have wondered whether a secret elite really runs the country. The Illuminati? The Establishment? The Mob? The answer is less glamorous and more troubling. In the 1990s, influence is available to anyone who can spare, say, a hundred grand to underwrite a few political campaigns.

In the Mother Jones 400, we identify the nation’s largest political contributors. You can check out this list of the fattest of the Fat Cats in its entirety. Or do some investigative work of your own and dig around using our interactive, searchable database of the top 400’s itemized contributions.

Most of these Cats see their donations as sound investments; in return, they ask for – and receive – generous tax breaks or legislation favorable to their businesses. Read about the Top Five donors and get a sense of what influence the bigwigs wield. You can view other members of the 400 that the MoJo crew investigated a little further in our Snapshots section.

The influence of the 400 is fundamentally at odds with the American ideal of popular government and sparked demands for reform. Reform initiatives have had success at the state level, but the Congress has done next to nothing when it comes to campaign reform. We here at the MoJo Wire hope that this feature will fuel the fire of those who want their votes to count as much as that of a New York investment banker. Or a camera-shy Cleveland billionaire…

Acknowledgements | MoJo 400 Overview

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Top_Five

The_Complete_List

Snapshots

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So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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