Interactive: BP's $400,000 in gifts to California leaders | The Sacramento Bee

It's been a tough week for oil giant BP. It's trying to clean a huge spill off the coast of Louisiana, and the 40-year moratorium on expansion of California offshore drilling will likely remain intact after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger withdrew support for another company's project. Few large corporations have done more to woo the state's leaders than BP. Besides the millions of dollars it has spent directly lobbying lawmakers, BP has bought more than $400,000 worth of tickets to basketball games, concerts and other events for California legislators, their staffers and their families during the past 10 years. The table below shows every gift BP has reported giving state leaders between 2000 and 2010, sorted in chronological order. It scrolls automatically.

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BP's $400,000 in gifts to state leaders

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Note: To avoid gift limits, BP and other lobbyist employers often give gifts directly to the wives and children of state leaders. The Bee has truncated the first names of all individuals identified as sons and daughters of state leaders. Some of these children, however, may be grown.

Source: Bee research;

California Secretary of State