A Good Harvest: Ernest J. Gallo (#384)

Ernest J. Gallo: 86, Modesto, Calif. $53,490. Party: Both

The winemaking brothers Ernest and the late Julio Gallo have spent years making sure that Sen. Bob Dole's cup runneth over. According to The Buying of the American President (New York: Avon, 1996) by Charles Lewis and the Center for Public Integrity, the Gallo family (which produces one out of three bottles of wine purchased in the U.S.) has given $1.3 million to Dole's campaigns, foundations, and PACs since 1979 (also in the Mother Jones 400: #304 Ofelia Gallo, wife of Ernest's son, Joe). Dole, in turn, helped pass a 1986 inheritance tax bill designed specifically to allow the Gallo brothers to pass their fortune down to family members, tax-free. Nicknamed the "Gallo Amendment," it saved the brothers an estimated $104 million.

Dole has also consistently opposed efforts to eliminate the Market Promotion Prgoram, an agricultural subsidy that has been widly criticized as wasteful, but has added $23.8 million to the Gallo bottom line.

Finally, Dole and the GOP protected the Gallos and other alcohol producers by smothering Clinton's proposed "sin tax" on alcohol. As Dole told an alcohol industry convention last fall: "You pay more than your share in taxes."