Martha Stewart: Democrat Mega-Donor

NewsMax ^ | 6/25/02 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[NormsRevenge]

Tuesday June 25, 2002; 5:29 p.m. EDT

Martha Stewart: Democrat Mega-Donor

Embattled doyenne of domesticity Martha Stewart has been a major Democratic Party donor for most of the 1990's, giving the legal maximum to the campaigns of Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Al Gore, along with more than a hundred thousand dollars in additional cash to related Democratic causes.

Federal Election Commission records reviewed by NewsMax.com showed that Stewart has given nearly $170,000 to Democratic Party accounts since 1992, including $3,000 to Bill Clinton for his 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns, $2,000 for Gore's 2000 White House bid and $1,000 for Hillary Clinton's New York Senate campaign.

Stewart's donations to combined Democratic accounts were much more generous, with her largest single contribution - $75,000 - funneled into the Democratic Party's "Unity" account in 2001. She gave another $25,000 in 2001 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

In September 2000, the lifestyle diva also kicked in $10,000 to the Democratic National Committee.

Since insider trading charges began to swirl around the home advice maven two weeks ago, the price of her stock in Martha Stewart Omnimedia has fallen by some $200 million, according to the New York Daily News.

On Monday alone she lost $105 million on paper.

Stewart is accused of selling her investment in ImClone based on an insider tip from the company's owner, Sam Waksal, a close Stewart friend who was arrested on insider trading charges last week.

A phone log uncovered by investigators Monday suggests that on Dec. 27, Stewart got a call from her broker, Peter Baconovic, telling her the bottom was about to drop out of the stock's price.

The log undermines Stewart's claim that she had a standing stop-loss order with Baconovic to sell ImClone stock when it dropped below $60 per share.

Baconovic, who also sold ImClone stock for Waksal and his daughter, was suspended by brokerage house Merrill Lynch last Friday.

Stewart's donor records showed no contributions to Republicans.

[NormsRevenge]

Stewart's donor records showed no contributions to Republicans.

She IS So Skrewed !

[aShepard]

She IS So Skrewed

"And that's a good thing!"

[stubernx98]

My Martha sympathy meter just went to zero.

[Biblebelter]

She cannot buy a pardon now that she has put all her eggs in one basket. She could flee the country before she is indicted and live happily ever after with Marc Rich.

[RooRoobird14]

No surprise here. I've always loathed the whole Martha Stewart schtick--she's a typical "I Live in the Hamptons" lefty elitist snob. I also find most of her ridiculous "projects for homemakers" to be incredibly impractical and not worth the time and effort it takes to complete them.

But what would she know--she has a staff of twenty doing these projects for her off-camera.

[Illbay]

Didn't realize she was in the "flaming" category.

So that's it: No more "Martha Stewart Collection" crap for the ILLBAY household!

[RedWhiteBlue]

I've always loathed the whole Martha Stewart schtick

She talks "down" to her audience, as if they are all ignorant children ... just like albore.

[John Jorsett]

Looks like she should have dumped her own stock before it tanked.

[Illbay]

BTW, I want to let you FReepers in on a little personal knowledge ol' Illbay happens to possess. This is NOT about Dame Martha Her-Own-Bad-Self, but about her younger brother, Frank.

In the late 80s, Frank lived in a small city in south Alabama, where I was living at the time. I had recently remarried, a girl from down there, and her sister was dating Frank. In fact, they got so lovey-dovey that they started shacking up.

At that time, as I recall, Frank had his own business, bought with family money, where he went around in about a six-state area putting out those dumb little "TEST YOUR LOVE POWER" machines you would see in malls, where you put 50 cents in the slot and it measures your body heat through your palms, or whatever.

A real contribution to society.

Anyway, he'd just travel around, gone for weeks at a time collecting the money from these machines and putting out new ones.

In the meantime, my sister-in-law got pregnant. He wasn't real happy with that, but he finally agreed that they could buy a nice, big house filled with all sorts of "Martha-Stewarty" gew-gaws (which my sister-in-law just loved)--Martha was just then becoming a fixture through her appearances on the Today show; some may recall that's where she got her big start.

Anyway, before too long, my s-in-l began to suspect something was up, when he'd get a phone call on his private office phone, and go into his office and close and lock the door.

Turned out he had a girl in just about every city.

Eventually, he left her and the little daughter they had, and went on to "bigger and better" things (I guess).

Anyway, this guy might have been the "Black Sheep" of their family for all I know, but he was really a peace of work. He was very abusive to my sister-in-law, once punching her down the stairs.

As far as I know the little girl (my daughter's first cousin) never sees him--she's about eleven now--and no one in Frank's family even acknowledges she's alive.

I can't help it: That's the sort of behavior I identify with Democrats.

[Illbay]

Looks like she should have dumped her own stock before it tanked.

Um, she DID. That's why she's in trouble.

[FastCoyote]

Martha Stewart Holiday Calendar
December 1 Blanch carcass from Thanksgiving turkey. Spray paint gold, turn upside down and use as a sleigh to hold Christmas Cards.
December 2 Have Mormon Tabernacle Choir record outgoing Christmas message for answering machine.
December 3 Using candlewick and handgilded miniature pine cones, fashion cat-o-nine-tails. Flog Gardener.
December 4 Repaint Sistine Chapel ceiling in ecru, with mocha trim.
December 5 Get new eyeglasses. Grind lenses myself.
December 6 Fax family Christmas newsletter to Pulitzer committee for consideration.
December 7 Debug Windows '95
December 10 Align carpets to adjust for curvature of Earth.
December 11 Lay Faberge egg.
December 12 Take Dog apart. Disinfect. Reassemble.
December 13 Collect Dentures. They make excellent pastry cutters, particularly for decorative pie crusts.
December 14 Install plumbing in gingerbread house.
December 15 Replace air in mini-van tires with Glade "holiday scents" in case tires are shot out at mall.
December 17 Child proof the Christmas tree with garland of razor wire.
December 19 Adjust legs of chairs so each Christmas dinner guest will be same height when sitting at his or her assigned seat.
December 20 Dip sheep and cows in egg whites and roll in confectioner's sugar to add a festive sparkle to the pasture.
December 21 Drain city reservoir; refill with mulled cider, orange slices and cinnamon sticks.
December 22 Float votive candles in toilet tank.
December 23 Seed clouds for white Christmas.
December 24 Do my annual good deed. Go to several stores. Be seen engaged in last minute Christmas shopping, thus making many people feel less inadequate than they really are.
December 25 Bear son. Swaddle. Lay in color coordinated manger scented with homemade potpourri.
December 26 Organize spice racks by genus and phylum.
December 27 Build snowman in exact likeness of God.
December 31 New Year's Eve! Give staff their resolutions. Call a friend in each time zone of the world as the clock strikes midnight in that country.

[pt17]

She IS So Skrewed !

So who's coming to her next soiree?

[AdA$tra]

I want to fell sorry for the poor woman....then that grin just pops onto my face....I can't help it. I would like to see her non-political donations as well. Planned Parenthood...hmmm, what else I wonder?

[Mamzelle]

--from a Martha fan--

Yup. Now look how they treat her, how they mock her!

She's an artist, I have lots of admiration for her work. But I have to chuckle at the direction things are taking.

I don't think she's in serious legal trouble, though.

[Mamzelle]

donations other than political)))

Pretty much nada, or so I've read. She'll cater a fundraiser, but isn't into charity.

[Xenalyte]

Welcome to the I Hate Martha Club! Shall we send you your membership info via FReepmail?

Seriously, I can't stand the woman, and never have been able to.

[Xenalyte]

Holy cat! Sounds like the Stewarts have two problem kids. For fun, any guess on how much younger Frank is than Martha?

[Illbay]

I looked it up, and her maiden name is "Kostyra," that's an unusual name (Polish), and it is, indeed, the name I remember for Frank.

I would judge he is about ten years younger than she. Her bio said she had a "large family."

[Illbay]

Hey, something just occurred to me! Since Michael Skakel, who was actually only the NEPHEW of a woman who MARRIED into the Kennedy family, does that mean that my DAUGHTER, who is niece of a woman who was the common law wife of someone in Martha Stewart's family, is a STEWART?!?!?

(That's the logic some FReepers were using).

[PJ-Comix]

The odd thing is that I don't think Martha Stewart even gives a damn about politics one way or another. However, she has noticed that a celeb must donate to the Demmycrats to be accepted by the in-crowd and all the networking business opportunities that opens up (such as a gig on CBS). So to Martha, giving money to the Demmycrats is nothing more than a selfish business consideration.