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washingtonpost.com: Bush Courts Big Donors in Presidential
Modewashingtonpost.com
Bush Courts Big Donors in Presidential Mode
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 22, 2003; Page A11
President Bush embarked last night on a packed schedule of fundraising events
designed to showcase him as commander in chief even as he builds a
record-breaking financial advantage over his future Democratic opponent.
Bush's goal is to collect about twice as much as he did for his last race.
Campaign sources said his fundraising strategy is built for speed so he can
finish most of the events and return to full-time governing just as the
Democratic nominating contest is peaking.
Bush will headline $2,000-a-ticket receptions next month in New York,
Washington, Miami and Tampa, and White House officials said they expect that
pace to continue through the summer and into the fall. Vice President Cheney
also will begin a heavy schedule of fundraisers at about the same time,
Republican sources said.
Less than a week after Bush created his campaign committee, his aides made it
clear they plan to build his treasury by making frank use of the White House's
unique advantages.
Donors who raise at least $50,000 for Bush's kickoff dinner in Manhattan on June
23 will be treated to a "leadership luncheon" with Karl Rove, Bush's senior
adviser, who plans to remain on the government payroll throughout the campaign.
Rove, besides serving as Bush's political guru, is deeply involved in deciding
administration policies.
"Details regarding the luncheon will be provided upon receipt of your commitment
pledge," the solicitation said.
Donors who raise at least $20,000 for the Manhattan luncheon will be taken
backstage for a photograph with Bush.
Last night, plunging into fundraising after a five-month break for the Iraq war
and its buildup, Bush spent about 40 minutes posing with top fundraisers for
"The President's Dinner," which raised about $22 million for House and Senate
candidates.
Republican officials said money for Bush's reelection began gushing in this
week. More than 1 million fundraising letters were mailed beginning last
weekend. Invitations to the fundraising events were faxed to top-dollar donors
this week.
"There was this bottleneck of people who wanted to help," a Bush strategist
said. "It's almost a contest to see how quick you can send it in. We have all
these people who want to be first."
Aides involved in planning the fundraising events said they will be similar to
last night's filet mignon dinner at the new Washington Convention Center, where
Bush went light on politics in his 24-minute remarks to the crowd of 7,500 and
instead focused on praise for the military and on his determination to win the
war against terrorism.
Bush's aides want him to continue to rise above the uproar of the Democratic
contest and said the rapid-fire fundraisers will allow him to maintain his
public-image advantage as president instead of politician. "This is going to be
quick," a senior Republican official said. "He'll be able to focus on his
presidency while these guys are scrambling for money and clanging away at him.
It's part of showing leadership."
Bush's campaign raised $100 million last year, shattering records and allowing
him to reject the public matching funds that would have subjected him to
state-by-state spending limits. With Republicans holding the White House and
both chambers in Congress, and a new campaign finance law that doubles to $2,000
the amount an individual can give a campaign directly, some party officials hope
the president will raise more than his goal of $170 million.
Officials in both parties said they plan to make an issue of how the other side
is raising money. Republican officials said they plan to attack the Democratic
candidates as beholden to liberal interest groups and a few industries.
"The fact that there's such heavy focus on trial lawyers, on labor and on the
entertainment industry is not signs of a healthy party," said a Republican
involved in Bush's campaign.
Chris Lehane, a senior adviser to Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who is seeking
the Democratic nomination, said Bush's opponents will lob similar charges at
him. "We're going to point out that his policies disproportionately benefit
energy companies, HMOs, tobacco companies and the wealthy executives who are his
chief contributors," Lehane said. "He's doing more to stimulate his campaign
than he is to stimulate the economy."
GOP strategists said they expect the Democratic nominee, who could be determined
by March after a bruising schedule of primaries, to be out of money just when
Bush begins to advertise heavily on television.
Bush's fundraising team will benefit from the GOP power structure in each state
he visits, starting with New York, where he will appear with Gov. George E.
Pataki, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and former mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.
In an invitation typical of ones that will be going out across the country,
Pataki wrote to major donors to urge them to help organize the June 23 event by
raising $20,000 as a member of the host committee, $50,000 as a vice chair,
$100,000 as a co-chair and $200,000 as a general chair. "Since early money is so
critical, we ask that you make your commitment now and begin fulfilling your
pledge as soon as possible," Pataki wrote.
Bush's first fundraiser for his reelection campaign will be June 17 in
Washington, and some events will take place as late as next spring, sources
said. To keep Bush in governing mode as long as possible, aides plan to delay
his ceremonial announcement until next year.
In a trend that Bush aides expect will continue through next year's elections,
the three major Republican Party committees -- national, congressional and
senatorial -- continued to far outpace their Democratic rivals in April,
according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.
PoliticalMoneyLine, a Web site that tracks campaign contributions, reported
that, overall, the three GOP committees raised nearly four times what the
Democratic committees raised, $19 million to $5 million. The biggest disparity
was between the congressional committees, where the Republicans outraised their
Democratic counterparts by 5.5 to 1, or $8.3 million to $1.5 million.
Staff writer Thomas B. Edsall contributed to this report.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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