President Bush’s re-election campaign has coupled the time-honored tradition of the chicken-dinner whistle-stop tour with the 21st-century technology of electronic check-tracking and a bit of Texas terminology to produce a monster of political fundraising.
“Soft money” has been outlawed. And individual contributions are limited to $2,000 each. Now the key word is “bundling.”
Bush has three levels of bundlers who woo friends and allies to high-ticket (usually $1,000-a-plate) campaign lunches and dinners. Rangers are those committed to raising at least $200,000 each for the campaign; Pioneers have a goal of $100,000; and Mavericks are the under-40 crowd aiming at $50,000 each. (During the 2000 campaign, Bush had only the Pioneer category, of which Enron’s Ken Lay was a member.)
Donors at the rallies put special tracking numbers on their campaign checks so that Dubya’s workers can credit bundlers as they try to meet their goals. Scores of top Republicans, including elected and appointed officials, are already Rangers and Pioneers, of course, and their loyalty is still tallied. Donors get the thrill of hearing either George W. Bush or Dick Cheney at the event. Bundlers get hang time with party and business celebrities, perhaps even with Dubya or Dick.
Bush-Cheney 04 Inc., the official name of the president’s campaign, has hauled in more than $70 million of its total $84.7 million war chest from the nationwide Dubya-Dick tour alone. And that’s just through September 30. The president may top $200 million, twice what he spent in 2000, when he had primary opponents.
“Ohhhh, I think we’ll raise about a gazillion dollars. Maybe three or four gazillion,” Al Hoffman, finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, said of an upcoming stop by Bush at Hoffman’s Florida home.
Following is the Bush campaign’s official list of 100 Rangers, 185 Pioneers, and 20 Mavericks. Watchdog groups suspect that there are hundreds more. But who’s counting?
MAVERICKS
Bush-Cheney 04 Inc. is breeding another generation of Al Hoffman- type fundraisers, the under-40 Mavericks. Here are the 20 that the campaign lists “as of September 30”:
Tony Antone, Michigan: A top aide to a developer, and already a Pioneer. (The Bush campaign’s data on who’s a Pioneer, Maverick, or Ranger contains other such inconsistencies.) He’s a former aide to fellow Arab American Michigan pol Spencer Abraham, now secretary of energy.
Jeff Ballabon, New York: Rising star among what The Forward calls “a cadre of Generation X Republican Jewish activists, many of them Orthodox.” A hawk on Israel — even The Forward refers to him as a right-winger in that sense. “The president will give the Palestinians as much slack as they need to have a fair shot at success, or to hang themselves,” Ballabon has said. Co-chaired a June 23 fundraising dinner starring Bush in Manhattan that raked in $4 million. Heads the public-policy department at magazine and Web behemoth Primedia. As a Court TV executive, was a key figure early on in negotiating with states to allow cameras in their courtrooms.
David Catania, District of Columbia : One of the most visible openly gay politicians in D.C., the Republican member of the D.C. Council was first elected in 1997. Supports school vouchers.
Marshall Cooper, New Hampshire: Executive at Kennedy Information. Was the original publisher, a few years ago, of Consulting magazine, now a bible of the industry. The magazine’s Top 25 consultants of 2002 included Rudy Giuliani, ex-New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik, and current Iraq pasha, L. Paul “Jerry” Bremer.
Husein Cumber, Florida: Listed by the campaign as both a Pioneer and a Ranger. Assistant vice president for public affairs for Florida East Coast Industries (FECI), a key branch of Florida’s largest private landholder, the St. Joe Co. Former campaign aide to Governor Jeb Bush. “What you’re seeing,” Cumber has said of his fundraising for Dubya, “is a group of people that all have distinct Rolodexes as well as the ability to reach out into their communities.” This past July, a Miami/Dade County environmental agency reached into the low-income Hialeah community to begin investigating whether FECI, which is facing whistle-blower lawsuits, has covered up hazardous-materials spills at its rail yard there since the mid 1990s.
Paul Dickerson, Texas: Houston tax, contracts, and business-planning lawyer. Already a Pioneer. Appointed in 2001 to the Texas Board of Chiropractic Examiners. Told Texas Lawyer magazine in December 2002 that one of his five favorite Web-surfing sites was appointee.brookings.org. Why? “This nonpartisan site helps presidential nominees during their political appointment process. It is an amazing resource for those interested in presidential appointments.” Six months later, Dickerson, only five years out of law school and just an associate at Houston firm Haynes and Boone, was appointed to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative’s Industry Sector Advisory Committee on Services for Trade Policy Matters, where he rubs elbows with such fellow members as Donald A. Deline, director of government affairs for Halliburton, and Laura Lane, Time Warner Inc.’s vice president for international public policy.
Christopher Egan, Massachusetts: Son of Richard Egan, founder of Massachusetts computer database firm EMC and appointed by Bush as ambassador to Ireland after being fined by the FEC for exceeding contribution limits. Richard Egan, who had no diplomatic experience, served for two years before retiring. Chris, brother Mike, and Pop are all Rangers — the only such family trio in the country. Since 1999, the Egans have given almost $900,000 to federal candidates and party committees, 91 percent of it to Republicans.
Lisa Gable, Virginia: Expert in “brand consultancy” for financial and high-tech firms. Strong fundraiser for Bush in California during the 2000 campaign, when she was Silicon Valley “e-chair” for the ticket. Member of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships, which (in an e-mail sent out far and wide, naturally) she calls “America’s most prestigious program for leadership and public service” and notes that they are are handed out on a “strictly non-partisan basis.” Also raises funds for other fundraisers: She hosted a fundraising event late last month for Virginia house speaker William J. Howell, the most prolific GOP fundraiser in her adopted state.
Todd Huston, Indiana: Already a Pioneer, he’s got the pedigree — his uncle Tom was a counsel in the Nixon White House; his sister, Julie Huston Thomas, works for Dubya. Class of ’94 at Indiana University, Todd, director of business operations at Komputrol, unsuccessfully tried to bring Pat Buchanan to campus to counter appearances by the likes of Spike Lee and Angela Davis. Unbowed, back in 2001 he refused to donate to his alma mater because an IU branch in Fort Wayne was putting on a production of Terrence McNally’s Corpus Christi. “If they want to have a play like this,” Huston told The Indianapolis Star, “they should next put on a play with a true biblical representation of Christ.”
Mary Kate Johnson, Maryland: Finance director of Bush’s Presidential Inaugural Committee in 2001.
John Kelly, Washington: Treasurer of Microsoft’s political action committee. Personally donated $100,000 to Bush’s 2001 Presidential Inaugural Committee, which raised a total of $28.8 million. Member of Washington state’s “magnificent seven” cadre of young GOP strategists.
John Kern, Ohio: Business partner of Mercer Reynolds and (St. Louis Cardinals owner) Bill DeWitt Jr., the Cincinnati duo who helped Dubya get started in the oil business. Reynolds isn’t listed as a Ranger, but he’s a better fundraiser than any of them, having been termed in the press as Dubya’s “$170 million man.” Cincy donors have given Bush’s 2004 campaign $814,600 so far. Kern’s zip code, 45243, has given the most money to Bush outside of New York City.
Craig Kunkle, Indiana: Operations and finance director for the Indiana Republican Party.
Rob Leebern, Georgia: Already a Pioneer, Leebern managed Saxby Chambliss’s successful U.S. Senate bid in 2002. (He had been Chambliss’s chief of staff when the pol was in the U.S. House.) A year ago, Leebern was hired as a D.C. lobbyist for the Atlanta powerhouse law firm Troutman Sanders, which represents, among many other corporations, energy giant Southern Co. The 500-person law firm has 54 attorneys in D.C., many of them dealing with Southern’s numerous regulatory issues. Troutman Sanders was cited as one of Southern Co.’s primary litigators in the National Law Journal‘s annual listing “Who Defends Corporate America.” Troutman Sanders also defended Georgia Power Co. against what the Fulton County Daily Report called “a potential class action by African American workers who claimed that hangman’s nooses were hung in their workplaces and that they were harassed and systematically shortchanged in promotions and pay.” The suit was dismissed.
Paul Maynard, Minnesota: A Deloitte & Touche executive in the Twin Cities who moved over from Arthur Andersen in the summer of 2002.
Stephen Payne, Texas: A Houston business consultant who already made Pioneer and, as a result, got invited to an August 9 barbecue in Crawford, where he and 350 other bundlers mingled with Bush and his top aides and were herded to the Broken Spoke Ranch, just down the road from Bush’s spread.
Don Peay, Utah: Known as the person who “dictates wildlife policy in Utah,” Peay heads the politically active, 10,000-member Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife. “Our focus is to grow more critters and have a fair way to divvy them up,” he said. A Western Wildlife Conservancy spokesman told The Salt Lake Tribune that Peay bullies his opponents as “wild-eyed environmentalists and extremists.” But pro-basketball star Karl Malone, a hunting buddy of Peay’s, said, “The day I met him is the day I said, ‘He’s a leader.’ So am I.” Malone, a longtime Utah Jazz player now with the Los Angeles Lakers (and a contributor to the Utah GOP), is pondering a run for Utah governor; he’s discussed it with Peay. “Governor Ventura — he was a wrestler, and he won it,” Malone told a reporter. “So why not?”
Bryan Pickens, Texas: Already a Pioneer.
Eric Tanenblatt, Georgia : Among the first 23 Rangers, along with Bill DeWitt Jr. and Chiquita banana boss and former S&L figure Charles Keating partner Carl Lindner. A transplant from Long Island, Tanenblatt is chief of staff for Governor Sonny Perdue, the first Republican to hold that office in more than a century. Raised a Republican, Tanenblatt found his ardor intensified when he ran into a president during a D.C. internship. “I met Ronald Reagan,” he recalled for The Los Angeles Times, “and I don’t know what it was, but something came over me.” Tanenblatt co-chaired Bush’s 2000 campaign in Georgia and then worked on Perdue’s historic gubernatorial bid last year.
George H. Walker IV, New York: Dubya’s second cousin and already a Pioneer, he lives on Greene Street in Soho and, still in his early 30s, is co-head of Goldman, Sachs & Co.’s Hedge Fund Strategies Group, which services wealthy investors. A Phi Beta Kappa grad of the Wharton School, he became a Goldman partner at age 29 — one of the youngest ever. “I’m very proud of my family, but I don’t talk about them,” he says. “That’s not something that is going to make our clients money.”
RANGERS
Of the 100 listed by the Bush campaign, 14 are from Florida, 12 from Texas, 11 from California, and eight from New York.
Duane W. Acklie, Nebraska
W. Andrew Adams, Tennessee
Dawn and Roland E. Arnall, California
Alfred S. Austin, Florida
Cathy Bailey, Kentucky
Lawrence E. Bathgate II, New Jersey
Bruce D. Benson, Colorado
Teel Bivins, Texas
Michael M. Boone, Texas
Katherine E. Boyd, California
Elliott Broidy, California
Steve Burd, California
Marvin P. Bush, Virginia
James P. Cain, North Carolina
Joseph C. Canizaro, Louisiana
Charles Cawley, Delaware
John D. Collins, Florida
Peter R. Coneway, Texas
Dan Cook, Texas
Husein Cumber, Florida
Richard K. Davidson, Nebraska
William O. DeWitt Jr., Ohio
Jennifer Dunn, Washington
Buzz duPont, California
Christopher F. Egan, Massachusetts
Richard J. Egan, Massachusetts
Michael J. Egan, Massachusetts
Richard T. Farmer, Ohio
Robert Fee, New York
C. Edward Floyd, South Carolina
Frank E. Fowler, Tennessee
Sam Fox, Missouri
Bradford M. Freeman, California
Yousif B. Ghafari, Michigan
David F. Girard-di Carlo, Pennsylvania
Charles L. Glazer, Connecticut
Stephen Goldsmith, Indiana
Robert T. Grand, Indiana
Joseph Grano, New York
Hank Greenberg, New York
Jon D. Hammes, Wisconsin
J. Dennis Hastert, Illinois
Michael Hightower, Florida
Al Hoffman, Florida
Richard F. Hohlt, D.C.
Al Hubbard, Indiana
Kathy Hubbard, Indiana
Robert W. Johnson IV, New York
John C. Kern Jr., Ohio
Nancy G. Kinder, Texas
Mark Kirk, Illinois
Jim Kittle Jr., Indiana
James R. Klauser, Wisconsin
C. Michael Kojaian, Michigan
Fred W. Lazenby, Tennessee
Michael Lebovitz, Tennessee
Stephen Lessing, New York
Carl H. Lindner, Ohio
Carl H. Lindner III, Ohio
Tom and Nancy Loeffler, Texas
Bob and Mary Jane Martinez, Florida
Susan McCaw, Washington
Mayer Mitchell, Alabama
Allen Morgan Jr., Tennessee
Dennis E. Nixon, Texas
Stan O’Neal, New York
Bill Owens, Colorado
George E. Pataki, New York
Thomas F. Petway III, Florida
Sergio Pino, Florida
Van B. Poole, Florida
Ralph Reed Jr., Georgia
Jamie Reynolds, Georgia
Thomas M. Reynolds, New York
Dub Riter Jr., Texas
Raul R. Romero, Texas
John D. Rood, Florida
Larry Ruvo, Nevada
Patrick G. Ryan, Illinois
Kenneth R. Satterlee, California
Justin J. Sayfie, Florida
W. Richard Scarlett III, Wyoming
Dwight Schar, Virginia
William Scherer, Florida
Ned L. Siegel, Florida
Gregory W. Slayton, California
Gordon Smith, Oregon
Alex G. Spanos, California
Manuel Stamatakis, Pennsylvania
Shawn and Michelle Steel, California
John T. Steen Jr., Texas
Marc I. Stern, California
William H. Strong, Illinois
Eric Tanenblatt, Georgia
W.R. Timken Jr., Ohio
Ben Whitney, Minnesota
David H. Wilkins, South Carolina
J. Roger Williams, Texas
Zachariah P. Zachariah, M.D., Florida
Frederick Zeidman, Texas
PIONEERS
Bush’s campaign has been lauded for releasing its bundler lists. But watchdogs such as Texans for Public Justice and The Nation contend that there are hundreds more Pioneers and have pressed the campaign to release a full list. TPJ’s extensive website (tpj.org) on the campaign includes a spreadsheet tracking what it says are more than 500 Pioneer program participants.
Jack Abramoff, D.C.
Anthony Alexander, Ohio
Teresa Amend, Texas
Tony Antone, Michigan
Alexander Arshinkoff, Ohio
Robert H. Asher, Illinois
Bob Asher, Pennsylvania
Edward G. Atsinger III, California
Lee M. Bass, Texas
Frank Baxter, California
Louis A. Beecherl Jr., Texas
Dee Dee Benkie, Indiana
Robert T. Bennett, Ohio
Dennis R. Berman, Texas
Wayne Berman, D.C.
Ron Beshear, Ohio
Bruce L. Bialosky, California
Carole L. Bionda, California
Molly Bordonaro, Oregon
Rudy Boschwitz, Minnesota
David L. Brennan, Ohio
William O. Brisben, Ohio
Les Brorsen, Virginia
August Busch III, Missouri
Wendy Cantor Hales, California
Al Cardenas, Florida
John D. Carswell, Georgia
James Cayne, New York
James H. Click, Arizona
Norman Coleman, Minnesota
Robert J. Congel, New York
John Connors, Washington
Fred Cooper, Georgia
Douglas E. Corn, Ohio
Lucia Cottone, Florida
Jim Culbertson, North Carolina
Alfonse D’Amato, New York
John C. Danforth, Missouri
William Danhof, Michigan
Robert A. Day, California
Dwight W. Decker, California
Fred Decosimo, Tennessee
Betsy DeVos, Michigan
Paul Dickerson, Texas
Charles E. Dorkey III, New York
Craig J. Duchossois, Illinois
Patrick J. Durkin, New York
James C. Edenfield, Georgia
Lewis Eisenberg, New Jersey
John Etchart, Montana
Dwight H. Evans, Georgia
Thomas Everist, South Dakota
Itchko Ezratti, Florida
Mallory Factor, New York
Pepe Fanjul, Florida
T. Martin Fiorentino Jr., Florida
Peter Fitzgerald, Illinois
Richard Fore, D.C.
Tillie Fowler, D.C.
Barbara Franklin, Connecticut
Bart Friedman, New York
Lisa Gable, Virginia
Frank Gargano, New York
Ronald Gidwitz, Illinois
Roy Goodman, New York
Michael Govan, Virginia
Lanny Griffith, D.C.
James Grodnick, Alabama
Adele Hall, Kansas
Kent Hance, Texas
David Hanna, California
Bill G. Hartley, Texas
Beth Harwell, Tennessee
Malik M. Hasan, M.D., Colorado
James A. Haslam II, Tennessee
Donald P. Hinson, Florida
Ben and Vicki Hinson, Georgia
Mark A. Holman, Pennsylvania
Mori Hosseini, Florida
Gaylord T. Hughey Jr., Texas
Todd Huston, Indiana
Frank Jao, California
Thomas L. Johnson, Texas
Chip Kahn, D.C.
Sheldon Kamins, Maryland
Ron Kaufman, D.C.
Munr Kazmir, Ph.D., New Jersey
John Kelly, Washington
Bobbie & Bill Kilberg, Virginia
Richard R. Kilgust, New York
Robert A. Kotick, California
Hersh Kozlov, New Jersey
Edward D. Kratovil, Connecticut
Henry Kravis, New York
James Langdon, D.C.
Charles W. Larson Jr., Iowa
Rob Leebern, Georgia
Edward C. Levy Jr., Michigan
Robert Liggett, Michigan
Jeff B. Love, Texas
L. Ben Lytle, Indiana
James P. MacGilvray, New York
John Mack, New York
John B. Mahaffey, Missouri
Thomas P. Marinis Jr., Texas
Fernando A. Mateo, New York
Bill McCormick, Oregon
Drayton McLane Jr., Texas
Kevin P. McMahon, Virginia
David Metzner, D.C.
Fred Meyer, Texas
Arlene Mitchell, Alabama
A. Maurice Myers, Texas
Terry Neese, Oklahoma
James Neis, Illinois
Andrea Fischer Newman, Virginia
James B. Nicholson, Michigan
Alan Novak, Pennsylvania
Erle Nye, Texas
Walden W. O’Dell, Ohio
Michael O’Halleran, Illinois
Duane Ottenstroer, Florida
Henry M. Paulson Jr., New York
Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota
Bill Paxon, D.C.
Marshall B. Payne, Texas
Stephen P. Payne, Texas
Don Peay, Utah
Jerry Perenchio, California
Wayne M. Perry, Washington
Stanley Davis Phillips, North Carolina
J. Bryan Pickens, Texas
Bo Pilgrim, Texas
Alec Poitevint, Georgia
Timothy Powers, D.C.
Annie Presley, Missouri
David Pringle, D.C.
Paulette L. Pyle, Oregon
John Rakolta Jr., Michigan
Thomas Renyi, New York
J. Christopher Reyes, Illinois
Harold Reynolds, Georgia
Duane R. Roberts, California
Corbin J. Robertson Jr., Texas
Matthew K. Rose, Texas
John Saltsman, Tennessee
Stephen A. Schwarzman, New York
Peter F. Secchia, Michigan
Stephanie Siegel, Florida
Samuel K. Skinner, Illinois
Stephen B. Smith, Tennessee
Frederick Smith, Tennessee
Barbara Sobel, New Jersey
David L. Sokol, Nebraska
Ronald P. Spogli, California
Peter Starrett, California
Nicholas F. Taubman, Virginia
Thomas R. Tellefsen, California
William A. Terlato, Illinois
Michael D. Thompson, Alabama
Jayne Carr Thompson, Illinois
John Thrasher, Florida
J. Mark Tipps, Tennessee
John B. Tsu, M.D., California
Bob Tuttle, California
Rodolphe M. Vallee, Vermont
Dirk Van Dongen, D.C.
Elliot Vernon, New Jersey
Ann and Ray Wagner, Missouri
George H. Walker, New York
Roger W. Wallace, Texas
Jonathan Ward, Illinois
Ray Washburne, Texas
M. Keith Weikel, Ph.D., Ohio
Ted Welch, Tennessee
Paul F. Welday, Michigan
Robert Whilden Jr., Texas
Edward E. Whitacre Jr., Texas
Brent R. Wilkes, California
George M. Williams, Texas
Virgil Williams, Georgia
Aldona Wos, M.D., North Carolina
Rodger Young, Michigan
Mammen P. Zachariah, M.D., Florida
George C. Zoley, Florida
Sources include Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Bushwatch.org, Center for Responsive Politics, FEC, Fortune, Forward, Houston Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The News-Press (Fort Myers, Florida), Orlando Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Public Citizen, South Florida Business Journal, St. Petersburg Times, Texans for Public Justice, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Whitehouseforsale.org
Sidebar: “Green With Envy: Change Is in the Air for Democratic Challengers” by Ward Harkavy