Once specific thing from the Bloomberg article Jen references below that caught my eye … it was the first time I had ever seen a numerical breakdown of the PPA\’s money. (I know these are mostly public figures, because of the nature of political finance … but as far as I know, none of us had bothered to look.)
The poker alliance, headed by former New York Republican Senator Alfonse D\’Amato, spent $729,750 on lobbying during the first half of 2008, after spending $900,000 in all of 2007. Its political action committee, PokerPAC, began April 11 and raised $43,226 through Aug. 12.
Cool. Rough math … $50 here, $20 there, $5k from Howard Lederer … yep, it all seems to add up to me.