April 28, 1997

Frequent Fliers

The White House flights <a href="/cgi-bin/Database_search/db_search.cgi?setup_file=airforce.setup"> database</a> — fully searchable by passenger, date, or miles traveled. <font color="red">Plus</font>, in collaboration with <a href="http://www.tray.com/fecinfo/">FECInfo</a>, view 1995-1996 itemized campaign contributions from each frequent flier.

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We’ve given you the coffees and the sleep-overs, and now, to complete the package tour (food, lodging and travel), the MoJo Wire presents another Web exclusive: the searchable database of White House flights taken by financial supporters of Clinton and Gore.

Throughout the 1995-96 campaign season, Air Force One criss-crossed the country shuttling the president from one canned stump speech (and fundraiser) to another, while Air Force Two did the same for Al Gore. Turns out, a few big spenders got to hitch a ride: This month the White House released a list of 56 fliers who gave at least $5,000 to the Democratic National Committee or raised at least $25,000 for the DNC or the Clinton/Gore campaign.

Who were the lucky travelers? Well, 39 of the 63 went to White House coffees, and eight appear on this year’s MoJo 400. Some were DNC finance staff and other political operatives, including our No. 2 frequent flier, Terry McAuliffe.

Curious about our “frequent-flier” mileage winner? Hint: He hitched a ride all the way to Moscow, he’s a diamond dealer, and he’s an old friend of both Jackie O and ailing Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. Wondering who rubbed elbows with Spam heir James Hormel on a June 22, 1995 flight from San Francisco to Portland? Find out here. Or just browse the list and imagine yourself sipping, napping and jetting through friendly skies — with America’s elite campaign contributors.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

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