Update: The MoJo 400

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This is big. Mother Jones just merged with the Center for Investigative Reporting, and this is the first time we’re asking for the donations we rely on. So we lay it all out for you in “Less Dreading, More Doing,” and we need to raise the First $500,000 in online donations by June 22. It won’t be easy. Please help if you can.

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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.”