White House For Sale
With Republicans in control of the executive branch and Congress, the Bush administration is raking in contributions from wealthy donors and corporate interests looking for special favors from the White House.
By Jon Melegrito
Last year's overhaul of the campaign-finance law, designed to limit the influence of fat cats, has given Pres. George W. Bush an unintended advantage — by doubling individual donations to a maximum of $2,000. People who are more likely to give higher amounts come from what some call the "political donor class." These wealthy individuals are tied to corporate interests looking for special consideration from the government — such as tax cuts for the rich and elimination of bothersome regulations.
Not surprisingly, Bush has spurned taxpayer money to finance his re-election bid. (After all, this is a man who last summer in Dallas raised $4 million in a single day.) Instead, he has opted to rely on private contributors — a strategy that raked in a record $126 million for his first Presidential campaign. This time, his goal is well in excess of $170 million, and few doubt that he'll reach it.
All Presidents in the modern era have used the influence and prestige of the White House to wangle large political contributions from interest groups. But Bush & Co., bolstered by a relentless GOP majority in Congress, has raised that practice to an appalling new level.
Who's buying the influence nowadays?
The Reform Voter Project, a public interest group, found last summer that an astounding 72 percent of the funds raised came from donors of $2,000 — people who have an agenda that Bush & Co. can fulfill. "This campaign is of, by and for wealthy special interests. ... donors who are not experiencing the job loss, evaporated pension funds and exploding health care costs facing average Americans today," says David Donnelly, the group's director.
BACKERS & BUNDLERS. Central to Bush's success in 2000 were his "Pioneers," an exclusive group of more than 500 supporters who each pledged to raise a total of $100,000. For the 2004 election, he has added the "Ranger" category — contributors who can raise more than $200,000. Most of the 23 Rangers and 538 Pioneers in the Bush camp to date come from the securities sector and the energy industry.
Those loyalists are engaging in a version of the old political practice called "bundling." Since individuals can only give no more than $2,000 directly, the Bush campaign recruits contributions through the efforts of influential bundlers. One such bundler is E. Stanley O'Neal, chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch & Co. This year, Pioneer O'Neal coaxed $264,750 from his employees and their relatives. The Bush campaign gladly accepted their generosity despite the company's admission that it helped Enron commit accounting fraud. Bush also raked in $152,500 in individual and PAC contributions from Lehman Brothers, the large investment firm. Pioneer David Girard-DiCarlo, chairman and CEO of the law firm Blank Rome, bundled another $143,250 in contributions from his employees and their spouses.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, what these donors have in common is "their willingness to connect with money — and deliver it to an appreciative candidate." They also give to Democrats but in much smaller amounts. Investing in the Republicans has proved to be more profitable.
COMPETITIVE GIVING. One feature of the Pioneer program is its use of "tracking numbers," which donors are instructed to write on their checks. According to Newsweek, Edison Electric Institute CEO Tom Kuhn explained the system's importance to 67 other executives. "It does ensure that our industry is credited and that your progress is listed among the other sectors." These Pioneers are no doubt pleased with a Bush administration energy proposal that includes $33 billion in tax breaks and other incentives like oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Democrats and groups like Judicial Watch contend that the plan is "filled with favors for corporate interests." The General Accounting Office sued the White House unsuccessfully to force public disclosure of the minutes of the federal energy task force meetings.
Campaign contributions to the GOP from the energy industry have amounted to $185.5 million since 1989. The Bush administration has responded by rolling back certain laws and regulations at the request of businesses. Recent examples: repealing a key section of the Clean Air Act; exempting industrial sites from installing new pollution controls; scrapping ergonomic standards established by OSHA.
SPREADING THE FAVORS. Other generous contributors with good reason to smile include the credit-card giant MBNA, which received for its $300,000 "investment" in the Bush campaign a bankruptcy bill that will make it easier for such companies to collect money; and the pharmaceutical industry, which invested $950,000 in the 2001 Bush-Cheney Inaugural Fund and got an executive order prohibiting U.S. pharmacies and wholesalers from reimporting prescription drugs from Canada, where costs are lower.
In a 1998 study, Public Citizen pointed out that the overwhelming majority of political contributions come from wealthy and largely white communities and concluded that the disparity had "the potential to skew government policy decisions." This year, a group called Democracy North Carolina sounded a more-pointed alarm: "When [wealthy] donors don't look like voters, that's a problem for democracy — especially when donors can determine who is indeed a viable candidate."
Keeping this President from selling the White House is a large order indeed.
Obviously, forces opposed to working families have a financial advantage. But we can fight back — by mobilizing, volunteering and building our own war chest through AFSCME's legislative and political-action arm, called PEOPLE.
Web Sites that Tell the Tale
For more information about special-interest contributions to President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, check the following Web sites:
Center for the Study of Elections and DemocracyCorporate Crime Reporter
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