A 2002 article in Texas Monthly, by Karen Olsson, gives you a good background about Leininger with some interesting tidbits like: Over the next six years Leininger launched Texans for Judicial Integrity, the Committee for Governmental Integrity, and Texans for Governmental Integrity. In 1994, after his tort reform efforts had begun to bear fruit, KCI won an $84.75 million settlement in a patent infringement case in federal court the sort of windfall that, when awarded to a personal-injury plaintiff, causes apoplexy in tort reformers.
In 1994 Texans for Governmental Integrity sent out a mail piece in East Texas, illustrated by a photograph of a black man and a white man kissing, which warned voters that Democratic State Board of Education (SBOE) incumbent Mary Knott Perkins had voted to approve textbooks that promoted abortion and homosexuality. Leininger also directly supported conservative SBOE candidates to the unfamiliar tune of tens of thousands of dollars, in races that had previously been low-key. "He single-handedly changed the composition of the State Board of Education," says Samantha Smoot, the executive director of the Texas Freedom Network, an organization founded in 1995 to counter religious-right initiatives. "It went from a body that had been dominated by parents and teachers to a group characterized by a bloc of members who are there simply to push a right-wing ideology."
In 1989 Leininger was instrumental in founding the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), because, he later told the Houston Chronicle, "I realized there wasn't any intellectual capital in the state of Texas." (Alas, he is neither the first nor the last to arrive at that conclusion.) Taking the Heritage Foundation, the conservative national think tank, as its model, the TPPF aimed to influence policy by publishing research reports on state issues; its early preoccupations mirrored several of Leininger's own: tort reform, vouchers, and reduced government. Working in tandem with the new SBOE members, the TPPF began objecting to textbook material deemed liberally slanted or morally suspect. The Legislature retaliated in 1995, forbidding the SBOE to question any aspect of textbook content other than "factual errors." Despite the restriction, the TPPF continued to analyze proposed books, hiring researchers to ferret out errors both of fact and of insufficient patriotism.
A 1997 article (next few articles are at the same site) from the Houston Chronicle tells a little about Leininger's then holdings in KCI: Leininger 's personal fortune and cash flow is on the verge of improving on the eve of the 1998 election season. A consortium of investors led by the financier husband of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, has offered a friendly buyout of Leininger 's Kinetic Concepts, according to records at the federal Securities and Exchange Commission.
Leininger owns about 47 percent of Kinetic Concepts' stock, with a market value of more than $350 million, according to SEC documents. The value of Kinetic Concepts stock in the past has put Leininger among the 100 wealthiest Texans.
Donations of Kinetic Concepts stock have financed Leininger 's two personal foundations, the Covenant Foundation and the JCL Foundation, formerly known as the Kinetic Concepts Foundation.
Since 1991, the two foundations have made $5.6 million in contributions. About 57 percent of that money has gone to politically oriented nonprofit organizations, with the remainder being given to churches and Christian ministries, studies and missionary activities...His diversified investments now included San Antonio real estate and a variety of food companies: dairy products with Promised Land Foods Inc., mail-order turkeys with Sunday House Foods Inc., and seafood through Seafood Wholesalers of Houston and Plantation Seafood Co.
Leininger also owns a direct mail firm, Focus Direct Inc., and a television station, Mission City Television Inc., which in the past have worked for Leininger 's political committees, according to records at the Texas Ethics Commission.
An article in the Austin Chronicle noted: In 1992, Forbes magazine hailed Leininger as one of the 400 wealthiest entrepreneurs in the country, and reckoned his worth at $285 million (the Express-News recently upped that figure by $55 million). Texas Monthly has listed him among the 100 richest people in the state and the top five in San Antonio.
Another Austin Chronicle article listed some of Leininger's then 1999 holdings: James Leininger owns all or part of a dizzying array of companies. Here's a partial list for consumers who want to know if they are doing business with him and helping fund his political projects:
Promised Land Dairy. Leininger is sole owner of this Floresville company that makes ice cream and milk in glass bottles emblazoned with Biblical verses. Products are distributed throughout Texas, at grocery stores such as Sun Harvest, Albertson's, H.E.B., and Whole Foods, and by the scoop at some places.
Whole Foods private label milk. Promised Land Dairy provides all the milk that Whole Foods markets under its own label in Texas, Colorado, and Louisiana. When asked about the company's relationship with Leininger's dairy, Whole Foods spokeswoman Patty Lang said in a written statement, "We do not boycott companies. We carry products that meet our core values." She praised Promised Land's quality standards and treatment of its livestock.
Home Court America. Leininger is part owner of the San Antonio basketball and gymnasium facility located in the northwest suburbs.
Focus Direct. A San Antonio direct mail facility, owned wholly by Leininger. Clients include Delta Airlines, Ralston-Purina, the Texas Republican Party, Oregon Public Radio, and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)/Klan Watch, an Alabama-based nonprofit that monitors far-right, potentially violent groups. (Mark Potok, SPLC spokesman and editor of its magazine, Intelligence, said his organization was "completely unaware" that Leininger owns Focus Direct. "We will be looking into the matter," Potok said.)
Kinetic Concepts International (KCI). The medical bed and supply company was sold for $875 million last year and is no longer public, but Leininger still owns about a third of it.
Mission City Properties. A San Antonio office-building rental agency.
Sunday House. Leininger co-owns this Fredericksburg company that makes and markets smoked turkeys.
Mission City Television. This San Antonio company produces videotapes for commercials and other TV formats.
The Beginners Bible. Children's Bible and coloring books. Leininger holds the license to the trademark name of these products.
TXN (Texas Network). A television news service that will air statewide on 16 stations, including KTVT in Dallas, KTRK in Houston, and KMOL in San Antonio, beginning in January. TXN officials insist that although Leininger owns the company, he will have no input into the production of the news.
The Spurs. Leininger holds an estimated 10% interest in the San Antonio basketball team.
A 1997 article from Health Industry Today explains about the sale of KCI: Probably the biggest winner of all is KCI's chairman and founder, Dr. James R. Leininger, who reportedly stands to walk away from his company with a sum rumored to be in the neighborhood of $200 million. He will also retain a 33.5% stake in the company. Leininger, a physician who left his practice years ago, is a familiar figure in Texas with wide-ranging interests from dairy to real estate.
KCI won $84.75 million in a previous patent lawsuit. Just image PACs and candidates he could fund with his share, especially if this is settled this summer. And with the lawsuit centering around an item that makes KCI about $900 million, you know the settlement will be large. |
