Chicago Cubs Owner Joe Ricketts’ Anti-Obama Plot Risks Stadium Growth [View all]

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) For two years, Joe Ricketts has been building a political operation seeking to curb government spending that could have reached a crescendo in August with an unexpected, multimillion dollar attack on President Barack Obama.

The admission by a Ricketts’ spokesman yesterday that one proposed advertising campaign focused on the president’s relationship with a Chicago preacher known for racially charged sermons removed the element of surprise, increased scrutiny of his political activity and put at a negotiating disadvantage one of the Ricketts family’s prized possessions -- the Chicago Cubs.

“Not only was this plan merely a proposal -- one of several submitted to the Ending Spending Action Fund by third- party vendors -- but it reflects an approach to politics that Mr. Ricketts rejects, and it was never a plan to be accepted but only a suggestion for a direction to take,” Brian Baker, president of the group, said in a statement issued on Ricketts’ behalf.

The denunciation of the proposal underscores the risks some wealthy donors, freed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010 to spend unlimited amounts of money on politics, are taking as they use their fortunes to drive election outcomes. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-18/cubs-owner-ricketts-anti-obama-plot-risks-stadium-growth.html