Americas Network :: How much money the telecommunications industry has contributed to various Congressional campaigns. Top recipients have included Chip Pickering (R-Miss.) and Billy Tauzin (R-La.) in the House and Max Cleland (D-Ga.), John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Jean Carnahan (D-Mo.) in the Senate; not surprisingly, all are members of the two telecom-related subcommittees. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, telecom carriers have given $9 million thus far in the current election cycle.

According to his financial disclosure forms, John Dingell (D-Mich.), a member of the House telecom and Internet subcommittee, holds as much as $15,000 in WorldCom stock, as does John Breaux (D-La.), a member of the Senate’s communications subcommittee. Three members of the Senate subcommittee own stock in AT&T, as do three members of the House subcommittee, including Chairman Fred Upton. Upton also owns stock in SBC, Verizon and BellSouth, albeit as part of a family trust. And Sen. Kerry owns up to $1 million in stock in CenturyTel and Williams Communications. WorldCom alone has given more than $1 million of that windfall, including $10,000 to John Ashcroft before his appointment as attorney general.