Show me the money: Mandels, McMahons are CT’s leading political donors
Greenwich hedge fund manager Stephen Mandel Jr. and his wife, Susan, are the state”™s top political contributors to Democrats, while WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon and his wife, Linda, are its No.1 political contributors to Republicans, according to a newly released study.
The Center for Responsive Politics reports that Mandel, who founded Greenwich”™s Lone Pine Capital, and his
wife have donated $9.3 million to Democrats and $100 to Republicans this year, making them the nation”™s 20th most active political contributors.
The Stamford-based McMahons have given Republicans $5.6 million, placing them 34th. Linda McMahon was head of the Small Business Administration under President Donald Trump from 2017 to 2019, and now heads the pro-Trump Super PAC America First Action.
Other Fairfield County residents making the list”™s Top 100 are former investment banker Mary Moran (79th, $2.3 million to Democrats); and Thomas and Paula McInerney, CEO and president, respectively, of Westport”™s private equity firm Bluff Point Associates (91st, $2.2 million to Republicans).
Topping the Center for Responsive Politics list are Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, founders of Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, packing supply company Uline, who gave over $58.3 million to Republicans, followed by hedge fund manager and former Democratic presidential candidate Thomas Steyer and his wife, Kathryn Ann, who donated over $54.5 million to Democrats.
Other notable names on the list include Las Vegas Sands Corp. founder, Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam (3rd, $53 million to Republicans); Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, co-founder of Bloomberg LP, and briefly a Democratic candidate for president (10th, $19 million to Democrats); News Corp. owner/media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who despite being famously conservative gave $11 million to Democrats, according to the report (15th); Soros Fund Management founder George Soros (26th, $8 million to Democrats); “Family Guy” creator and Litchfield County native Seth MacFarlane (53rd, $3.3 million to Democrats; and “Lost” co-creator and movie producer/director J.J. Abrams (93rd, $2 million to Democrats).