members of the family that owns the chicago cubs <u+2014> facing heightened scrutiny of their big-money support for donald trump<u+2019>s presidential campaign during their team<u+2019>s world series run <u+2014> are working to separate their politics from baseball. the billionaire ricketts family <u+2014> who have become major players in big-money republican politics in recent years <u+2014> decided to cease political fundraising at the cubs<u+2019> historic ballpark, wrigley field, during the team<u+2019>s playoff run, according to a family spokesman. story continued below and the family has instructed a media buyer placing ads for a ricketts-helmed pro-trump super pac to refrain from airing any spots during cubs<u+2019> playoff game broadcasts, according to a media buying source. the advertising directive came after the family drew some unwanted attention when the super pac aired a brutal ad attacking trump<u+2019>s democratic rival hillary clinton during the cubs<u+2019> last playoff series. after highlighting the ad<u+2019>s content and placement, the city<u+2019>s influential liberal alternative weekly newspaper the chicago reader, charged the rickettses with <u+201c>funneling fans' hard-earned money toward an effort to elect trump,<u+201d> and wondered why left-leaning fans weren<u+2019>t more upset. a smattering of fans have vowed to withdraw their support, even as the ricketts family member most active in running the cubs, team chairman tom ricketts, has stayed out of the race and downplayed the family<u+2019>s support for trump as <u+201c> no big deal <u+201d> for the cubs. dennis culloton, a ricketts family spokesman, wouldn<u+2019>t comment on the ads. he explained the fundraising ban by saying <u+201c>there have been some at the ballpark through the season but through the world series they<u+2019>ve just focused on family, friends, and fans.<u+201d> an associate of the family added that <u+201c>baseball flies above politics. the ricketts family, like the families of many cubs fans, has diverse political views. but they put aside their political differences to cheer together for a w!<u+201d> indeed, while tom ricketts<u+2019>s sister laura ricketts is a liberal donor who is raising money for clinton and even hosted the democratic nominee at a fundraiser in july , the other politically active members of the clan are republicans. by cristiano lima family patriarch joe ricketts and matriarch marlene ricketts have been among the top donors on the right, drawing upon a fortune amassed by joe ricketts through his founding of td ameritrade to donate about $31 million to conservative candidates and causes since the beginning of 2011, according to federal election commission filings. their youngest son todd ricketts has become a leading big-money player in his own right, helping to shape various outside spending groups. the oldest ricketts sibling, pete ricketts, 52, was elected governor of nebraska in 2014, and has become an adviser to trump<u+2019>s presidential campaign on agriculture issues. late last month, during one of the cubs<u+2019> final regular season games <u+2014> and just before the family<u+2019>s self-imposed playoff fundraising blackout window took effect <u+2014> pete ricketts<u+2019> reelection campaign held a fundraiser in the wrigley owners<u+2019> box, sources who attended the event told politico. but the cubs didn<u+2019>t really get caught in the political crossfire until it was revealed late last month that the ricketts family was taking control of a big-money outfit to elect trump. the outfit is comprised of a super pac called future45 <u+2014> which would eventually run the ad during the nlcs <u+2014> and a linked non-profit group called 45committee. joe and marlene ricketts donated at least $1 million to the groups, while todd ricketts reportedly has helped the groups raise nearly $30 million from other donors. the support for trump shocked the political world, since the republican rickettses were leading funders of the conservative effort to stop trump from winning the gop nomination. their support for a super pac that aired ads during the primary season highlighting trump<u+2019>s offensive comments toward women and accusing him of encouraging violence prompted attacks from trump, who tweeted that the family <u+201c>better be careful, they have a lot to hide!<u+201d> later, he threatened to fund ads attacking the family , <u+201c>telling them all what a rotten job they're doing with the chicago cubs. i mean, they are spending on me. i mean, so am i allowed to say that?<u+201d> trump changed his tune after the family took over future45 and the 45committee, calling to thank todd ricketts for his support. ricketts responded that trump could thank him by winning, according to someone briefed on the call. but a few days after the news about the family<u+2019>s involvement in the effort, laura ricketts, whose giving pales in comparison to that of her parents, staged what was seen as a silent protest, showing up at a cubs home game wearing a clinton baseball hat , while the chicago sun-times published a pair of outraged letters to the editor . <u+201c>it makes me sick knowing that every time i go to a cub game i am helping the ricketts family fund a dangerous con man and bigot like donald trump,<u+201d> wrote tom minnerick of elgin, illinois. 2016 by michael crowley tony galati of lemont, illinois, vowed that he <u+201c>will not spend another penny of my money on anything remotely associated with the cubs if the ricketts family is going to spend that money supporting donald trump.<u+201d> galati predicted <u+201c>anti-trump rallies outside wrigley field during the playoffs when the whole country is watching.<u+201d> heading into the first world series game at wrigley set for tonight <u+2014> with the cubs and cleveland indians knotted at one game apiece <u+2014> that has yet to happen. but eddie vale, an official with the pro-clinton group american bridge, suggested the ricketts<u+2019> support for trump could detract from chicagoans<u+2019> enjoyment of the cubs<u+2019> first world series appearance since 1945. <u+201c>can't the rickettses let chicago and wrigley enjoy their world series without attacking clinton?<u+201d> said vale. channeling the legendary late cubs announcer harry caray, vale continued <u+201c>holy cow! it could be, it might be, it is a giant waste of time to spend your money on trump!" the intersection of sports and politics can be fraught for owners who run the risk of alienating their presiding governments or fan bases if they are too closely identified with a polarizing candidate of cause, said roger abrams, a northeastern university professor who<u+2019>s written multiple books on sports and politics. owners <u+201c>will get their glory not when their candidate wins, but when their club wins,<u+201d> he said. nonetheless that hasn<u+2019>t stopped all manner of team owners from diving into politics, with mixed results. some new england patriots fans have expressed disappointment that their quarterback tom brady and owner robert kraft have had kind words for trump, even if they haven't officially endorsed the gop nominee. some boston red sox fans criticized their team<u+2019>s owner john henry for offering his personal plane to then-democratic presidential candidate john kerry's campaign to fly to ohio to determine whether to contest the results of the 2004 election. and the following year, when liberal mega-donor george soros tried to buy the washington nationals, congressional republicans cried foul and some even hinted at revoking the antitrust exemption for major league baseball if it approved soros<u+2019>s bid. then-rep. tom davis, who represented washington<u+2019>s virginia suburbs, told the washington post that mlb should try to avoid "a political fight." during the first presidential election after the ricketts family bought the team in 2009, they got a taste of political backlash at a time when they were trying to get the city of chicago to allocate public funding to help upgrade wrigley field. congress by john bresnahan and rachael bade chicago mayor rahm emanuel became <u+201c>livid<u+201d> and stopped communicating with the family when the new york times reported that a political operative from whom joe ricketts solicited a pitch had proposed a multi-million dollar ad campaign that would have tied president barack obama to his controversial former pastor jeremiah wright. joe ricketts rejected the proposal, the ads were never produced, and since then, the rickettses have mostly stayed on the good side of cubs fans and chicago public officials. many top illinois democrats credited tom ricketts with deftly dividing the two worlds. <u+201c>i would assume that tom is a pretty conservative guy, but he has done masterful job of kind of separating himself from the political piece of the family, i.e. his parents and his brother,<u+201d> said william daley, a former white house chief of staff to obama, and a chicago white sox fan. david axelrod, another former obama adviser who now runs the university of chicago<u+2019>s institute of politics, said the family <u+201c>have been assiduous about keeping things separate.<u+201d> axelrod, a big cubs fan, also pointed out that the team<u+2019>s much-celebrated president theo epstein supports hillary clinton. and though the ricketts<u+2019> political giving has escalated during their years owning the cubs, thomas bowen, a chicago-based democratic strategist and white sox fan, pointed out that the family was politically involved before buying the team. <u+201c>they are right wing conservative-economic-scott-walker-republicans,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>and outside of laura, who obviously is very into lgbt issues, and is the democrat of the family, they're always going to be doing this. and in fact, as the owners they have to deal with the city every day in all kinds of measures and they play heavily in politics.<u+201d> by bill scher by thomas wright by joshua zeitz by jack shafer
trump looms over cubs world series - politico
kenneth p. vogel daniel strauss cristiano lima michael crowley john bresnahan rachael bade jack shafer