{"id":45806,"date":"2021-07-12T17:12:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T23:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/politics-brought-the-all-star-game-to-denver-heres-how-sports-leaders-donated-to-campaigns\/"},"modified":"2021-07-12T23:12:00","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T23:12:00","slug":"politics-brought-the-all-star-game-to-denver-heres-how-sports-leaders-donated-to-campaigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/politics-brought-the-all-star-game-to-denver-heres-how-sports-leaders-donated-to-campaigns\/","title":{"rendered":"Politics brought the All-Star Game to Denver. Here\u2019s how sports leaders donated to campaigns."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Coors
Coors Field, photographed on Dec. 21, in downtown Denver. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Politics played a central role in Major League Baseball\u2019s decision to move its 2021 All-Star Game to Denver from Georgia, where state lawmakers passed a law restricting voting.<\/p>\n

The league\u2019s interest in politics doesn\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n

In the run up to the All-Star Game on Tuesday night, The Colorado Sun took a look at political spending by Denver professional sports people from 2011 through this year.<\/p>\n

Dick Monfort gives to GOP<\/div>\n

Colorado Rockies co-owner Dick Monfort may not be willing to spend big on Nolan Arenado, but he has dropped a lot of money on state and federal political candidates.<\/p>\n

Politics runs in the Monfort family, which built a Greeley agriculture business into a fortune. Dick\u2019s father, Kenneth Monfort, served in the Colorado House in the 1960s. He was an \u201canti-war Democrat,\u201d according to The Denver Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n

These days, Dick Monfort is known as a supporter of Colorado Republican politics.<\/p>\n

Monfort gave $20,000 to the state GOP from 2016 to 2018, and $6,200 to former U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner\u2019s 2014 and 2020 campaigns. He\u2019s donated another $20,000 to other Republican candidates since 2011.<\/p>\n

While Monfort gives big to Republicans, three people who said they work as Colorado Rockies ushers donated a total of nearly $1,800 to Democratic candidates at the federal level. None of the current or recent star players for the Rockies came up in a federal donor search, but former first baseman Todd Helton donated $550 to former state Treasurer Walker Stapleton, a Republican, in 2014 and $500 to a national veterans\u2019 PAC in 2017.<\/p>\n

At the state level, Monfort has donated more than $10,000 to Republican candidates and committees since 2011 and about $2,800 to Democratic candidates. His brother and Rockies co-owner, Charlie Monfort, gave $3,400 to Republicans and nearly $1,400 to Democrats.<\/p>\n

Both Rockies\u2019 owners donated to Democractic U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper\u2019s gubernatorial campaigns, but they didn\u2019t give to his successful 2020 defeat of Gardner at the federal level.<\/p>\n

Dick Monfort\u2019s biggest giving in the last 10 years is to state-level ballot initiatives, more than $80,000. Most of that, $50,000, went to last year\u2019s successful campaign to raise nicotine taxes to pay for universal preschool in Colorado.<\/p>\n

But at the federal level, the MLB political action committee is the biggest Monfort beneficiary. Dick and Charlie Monfort each donated $40,000 to the PAC from 2011 through this year.<\/p>\n

Charlie Monfort\u2019s only other federal donation was $5,000 to the Colorado Republican Party in 2016.<\/p>\n

MLB spends on politics<\/div>\n

MLB spent $8.6 million on lobbying the federal government over the last 10 years, and the league\u2019s federal political action committee donated nearly $1.5 million to candidates during that span, according to OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics.<\/p>\n

But money isn\u2019t the only political force in baseball.<\/p>\n

An MLB survey sent to fans who attend games this year ends with this question: \u201cDo you consider yourself to be a Democrat, a Republican, an independent or a member of a Third Party?\u201d<\/p>\n

According to league spokespeople, the question is an attempt to gauge views about returning in-person to watch baseball games, with people\u2019s political affiliation playing a key factor that \u201coften impacts their views about the pandemic.\u201d They wouldn\u2019t share the results.<\/p>\n

Elway biggest pro-sports spender<\/div>\n

The Bowlen family, which owns the Denver Broncos, donated $65,000 to the NFL\u2019s Gridiron PAC over the last 10 years, according to Federal Election Commission records. And numerous Broncos players donated a total of nearly $34,000 to the NFL Players Association PAC.<\/p>\n

But that giving is overshadowed by former Super Bowl-winning quarterback John Elway, now president of football operations for the team.<\/p>\n

Elway tops Colorado pro-sports donors at the federal level. He has donated nearly $154,000 to Republican candidates and committees in the past 10 years.<\/p>\n

That spending includes $32,800 given to the Republican National Committee. Another $14,825 of Elway\u2019s money went to a federal leadership committee formed by Stapleton when he ran for governor in 2018. Most of those dollars ended up with the Colorado Republican Party.<\/p>\n

Federal Election Commission records show Elway gave $11,200 to a committee supporting Republicans in the Georgia U.S. Senate runoffs last year, and more than $11,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2020.<\/p>\n

Elway donated more than $10,000 to Gardner\u2019s Senate campaigns, and $8,800 to former Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman\u2019s campaigns through the years. Elway also donated $7,700 to former GOP President Donald Trump\u2019s campaigns.<\/p>\n

The Broncos\u2019 other Super Bowl winning quarterback, Peyton Manning, gave more than $23,000 to GOP candidates between 2012 and 2017.<\/p>\n

The Kroenkes<\/div>\n

Meanwhile, Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche President Josh Walton Kroenke gave $33,400 to the NRSC in 2016.<\/p>\n

His sister, Whitney Kroenke, donated $19,000 to Democratic candidates and committees in 2018 and 2020.<\/p>\n

Josh, Whitney and their mother, team owner Ann Kroenke, each gave $5,000 to the NFL\u2019s Gridiron PAC at the end of 2020. They also donated $5,000 each in 2015, as did Josh and Whitney\u2019s father, Stan Kroenke.<\/p>\n

Kroenke, the family patriarch who owns the Los Angeles Rams, the Colorado Rapids, Colorado Mammoth and other teams, also donated $33,400 to the NRSC in 2016. But he also donated $100,000 to Democratic Party committees and Hillary Clinton\u2019s presidential campaign the same year.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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