Nine days after celebrating his 80th birthday, George Steinbrenner died Tuesday morning after suffering a heart attack.

Steinbrenner has owned the New York Yankees since 1973, buying the team for about $10 million. Forbes estimates the team — which won seven World Series championships under his ownership — is now worth more than $1 billion.

Steinbrenner’s history with politics is as long as his history with baseball.

In 1974, Steinbrenner pled guilty to making illegal contributions to President Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign two years prior. He was ultimately fined and briefly suspended from the major leagues. A decade and a half later, he was officially pardoned by President Ronald Reagan — two days before Reagan left office in 1989.

Since 1989, Steinbrenner, along with his wife, Joan, contributed more than $196,300 to federal candidates, parties and committees, according to a Center for Responsive Politics review of campaign finance records.

The top recipient of this cash was the Republican Party of Florida, which received $26,000 from the Steinbrenners since 1998.

Steinbrenner, the son of an Ohio shipping magnate, made his money in the shipping business and for a time headed the American Ship Building Company. Between 1989 and 1992, Steinbrenner contributed $15,000 to the company’s political action committee.

Over the past 20 years, the Republican National Committee received nearly $15,000 from the Steinbrenners and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee received $14,000.

During the 2000 election cycle, Steinbrenner gave $2,000 to the presidential campaign of George W. Bush. Overall that cycle, about three-fourths of the Steinbrenner’s contributions benefited Republicans.

During the 2008 presidential race, Steinbrenner and his wife each contributed the legal maximum of $2,300 to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s campaign, as well as $2,300 a piece to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), after McCain won the Republican nomination.

During the 2006 election cycle, Steinbrenner had also contributed $7,500 to Giulani’s leadership PAC.

Steinbrenner also contributed $2,300 to the 2008 presidential campaign of former Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.).

Other New York Democrats benefited from Steinbrenner’s cash.



Sen. Chuck Schumer collected $11,1000 from the Steinbrenners since 2001, with $9,600 of that coming from Steinbrenner and his wife at the end of last year. Rep. Charles Rangel, who stepped down as the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee earlier this year due to an ethics investigation, has received $9,600 from Steinbrenner since 1998.

Republicans received about 44 percent of Steinbrenner’s contributions over the past two decades. Democrats, likewise, received about 44 percent. And political committee not tied to either Democrats or Republicans received about 12 percent of their donations, the Center found.

Here is a table of the top beneficiaries of the Steinbrenners’ political contributions since 1989:

Recipient Total Republican Party of Florida $26,000 American Ship Building Co. $15,000 Republican National Committee $14,490 Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee $14,000 New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) $12,100 Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) $11,100 Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) $9,600 Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) $6,000 Major League Baseball Commissioner’s Office $5,000 National Republican Congressional Committee $5,000 Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) $4,600 President George W. Bush (R) $4,000 Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) $4,000 President George H.W. Bush (R) $4,000 Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) $4,000 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee $4,000

Under Steinbrenner’s ownership, the New York Yankees have twice hired federal lobbyists for assistance in recent years, a rarity among Major League Baseball teams.

In 2006, they paid Akin, Gump $20,000 for lobbying regarding “federal approvals required to complete stadium relocation.” And in 2008, they paid Stanley Schlein less than $5,000 during two quarters as the U.S. House of Representatives held hearings on the building of the new Yankees stadium.

Just the Pittsburgh Pirates and Oakland A’s have hired lobbyists this year, according to a Center for Responsive Politics review of lobbying records — with the former spending less than $5,000 during the first quarter on “appropriations” and the later spending $20,000 on “baseball related issues.”

The METS Foundation, a nonprofit charity organization affiliated with the New York Mets, has also lobbied the government since 2008. Each quarter it has spent less than $5,000 on these activities.

These teams, however, are not the only baseball-related group with a presence on Capitol Hill.

Both the Major League Baseball Commissioner’s Office and the Major League Baseball Players Association have long hired federal lobbyists.

The Commissioner’s Office spent $160,000 on federal lobbyists during the first quarter of 2010, while the players association spent $15,800 during the same time.

Steinbrenner contributed $5,000 to the Major League Baseball Commissioner’s PAC in June 2009.

Center for Responsive Politics researchers Carolyn Sharpe and Douglas Weber contributed to this report.



For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics.For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: [email protected]

·

·

·

·

·

·

·

Support Accountability Journalism At OpenSecrets.org we offer in-depth, money-in-politics stories in the public interest. Whether you’re reading about 2020 presidential fundraising, conflicts of interest or “dark money” influence, we produce this content with a small, but dedicated team. Every donation we receive from users like you goes directly into promoting high-quality data analysis and investigative journalism that you can trust. Please support our work and keep this resource free. Thank you. Support OpenSecrets ➜

Read more OpenSecrets News & Analysis: