From: David Goldman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> What's the news in this report? Who did they think the people thought bankrolled Dubya?!! Chicken Little? David Goldman 'Pioneers' Bundle $1,000 Donations From Firms; Special Codes Keep Score NEW YORK, Jan. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- While touted as a sign of grass roots enthusiasm for a candidate, Texas Gov. George W. Bush's fund-raising triumph is actually the product of a group of powerful businessmen who were looking for a candidate to support even before Bush entered the presidential race. About 150 of these fund-raisers, called the "Pioneers" by the Bush campaign, have been "bundling" contributions from individuals in major corporations and industries and each has raised more than $100,000, reports Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff in the current issue of Newsweek. At last count, more than 170,000 individuals have written checks which, by law, cannot exceed $1,000 apiece. (Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000115/HSSA003 ) Bush has raised so much money -- $67 million through 1999 -- that he has been able to forswear federal matching funds, freeing him of campaign spending limits. Under federal law, corporations can't contribute directly to a candidate. But by bundling, Bush's fund-raisers work around those rules. Individual employees at a firm can donate to a campaign and the money adds up. Bundling is legal, and all campaigns do it. But Bush's Pioneers have done it more vigorously than most, Isikoff reports. The core players in the Bush fund-raising machine include: Heinz Prechter, who made a fortune by inventing the automobile sun roof; John Hennessy, a Wall Street investment banker; Brad "Fargo" Freeman, who made millions as a merchant banker in Los Angeles; Don Evans, a Midland Texas oilman who oversees Bush's fund-raising; Peter Terpeluck, a high-energy Washington lobbyist; Tom Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute, lobbying arm of the electric power company; and Ray Hunt, scion of the Texas oil fortune. Many Washington lobbying groups, whose clients will have large stakes in any Bush administration, have jumped on the bandwagon, Isikoff reports in the January 24 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, January 17). The heads of two dozen powerful trade associations have been holding regular conference calls about how to help Bush and have been pushing their members to contribute. The campaign has assigned "tracking code" numbers to these trade association heads. Staffers call the code a bookkeeping device, but the Bush campaign and the lobbyists use the numbers as a kind of scorecard. In an internal Bush campaign memo obtained by Newsweek, Edison Electric chief Kuhn, a Bush classmate at Yale, reminded power company executives to include the industry's tracking code on the bottom of their checks for a Bush fund-raiser. Written on Bush campaign stationery, the May 27, 1999 memo states, "It does insure that our industry is credited, and that your progress is listed among the other business/ industry sectors." Some of the men behind the money are driven less by personal loyalty to Bush than by the need to find an electable candidate -- a conservative without a hard edge. Isikoff reports that Prechter first noticed Bush at meetings of the Republican Governors Association during the mid-1990's. He was struck by how the crowds parted when Bush walked in the room. "I just had a gut feeling," he recalls to Newsweek. "He was a winner. I started quietly networking." In February 1998, Prechter invited a dozen or so of the heaviest hitters in the GOP to his 10,000-acre cattle ranch outside Wheeler, Texas. They watched Bush address some Eagle Scouts and their parents at an auditorium and then peppered him with questions while sitting around Prechter's fireplace. Then they donned camouflage and went bird hunting. They decided that if Bush was willing to enter the race, the big fund-raisers would ensure he had the resources to win, Isikoff reports. "We all looked at each other and thought the same thing," recalled Hennessy. SOURCE Newsweek Web Site: http://www.newsweek.com --------------------------- ONElist Sponsor ---------------------------- Get great offers on top-notch products that match your interests! Sign up for eLerts at: <a href=" http://clickme.onelist.com/ad/elerts1 ">Click Here</a> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
