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YES!
Key Donors Break Ranks, Criticize Gore
By ELIZABETH SHOGREN, Times Staff Writer
The Democrats' top donor is disappointed in Vice President Al Gore's conduct since the presidential election and believes that the candidate bears responsibility for the stalemate because he failed to give Americans a "compelling reason" to choose him.
And Peter Buttenwieser, whose $1.3 million in donations put him at the top of the list of individual donors to the election--Democrat or Republican--is apparently not alone. While much of the Democratic establishment has been presenting a united front during the Florida recount, several of Gore's biggest contributors and fund-raisers are quietly or openly expressing dissatisfaction with him, blaming him for the murky outcome.
Among Republicans, donors are apparently still united in supporting Texas Gov. George W. Bush's call to end the voting and declare a victory. "I think it's time to bring it to a conclusion," said Howard Leach, a veteran GOP major donor and a San Francisco investment banker.
"I'd do anything if I thought I could help," said Bradford Freeman, a Los Angeles merchant banker who is a donor and leading fund-raiser for Bush.
Among critical Democrats, no one was more sweeping in his criticism than Buttenwieser: "My own feeling is that Gore had a really terrific chance to win, and I think he squandered that chance.
"We ran a bad campaign at virtually every level."
Buttenwieser, heir to a New York financial fortune who works as a consultant to struggling urban schools, scolded the camps of Gore and Bush for fomenting division and partisanship. Neither candidate, he stressed, has exhibited the statesmanship required at such a moment.
Other Democratic donors stayed with the party songbook by expressing support for Gore's behavior thus far, but stressing that it will soon be time to stop.
"I am supportive of what's happened so far in the process," said Marvin Lender, the retired bagel magnate who emerged as a substantial donor and fund-raiser for the Democrats after Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut was added to the ticket. "But I think at some point it has to come to an end, and it needs to be relatively soon."
(cont)
latimes.com |
