Ooh, yeah! All right! We're jammin':
I wanna jam it wid Mercer Reynolds .
We're jammin', jammin',
And I hope you like jammin', too.
Ain't no rules, ain't no vow, we can do it anyhow:
I'n'I will see you through,
Jammin' till the jam is through.
Bush's Top Moneyman Reels In Dough Using Amway Model
WASHINGTON -- In the 2004 race for the White House, President George W. Bush is counting on Mercer Reynolds to be the man with the golden touch. So far he isn't disappointing.
After six weeks as the top fund-raiser for the president's re-election team, Mr. Reynolds has the campaign on course to collect $27 million to $30 million by the end of June, with Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney on the road Monday making money-raising appeals. The fast start makes Bush insiders more confident that they can collect more than $150 million total, which would be more than a 50% increase over Mr. Bush's record-breaking $100 million four years ago.
The Bush campaign is able to raise such enormous sums by using a structure that is somewhat similar to the Amway business model. Top fund-raisers sign up medium-size ones, who sign up smaller ones. At the peak of the pyramid is Mr. Reynolds, who is putting together a web of money men across the country.
The most aggressive are the so-called Rangers who promise to raise as much as $200,000, typically in chunks of $2,000, the maximum allowed by law. But the "backbone" of the organization, he says, are the local networks built state by state, and dedicated to vacuuming funds back to the national campaign.
The Bush team's systematic approach to fundraising in 2000 allowed Mr. Bush to take the unusual step of breaking from the public campaign financing system, which delivers matching federal funds to candidates but is designed to cap the cost of campaigns. That enabled him to spend freely to overcome Arizona Sen. John McCain in a hard-fought series of primaries, and then turn his well-funded ammunition on Al Gore during the spring and summer when the Democratic candidate was cash poor.
This time around, Bush fund-raisers have different goals: giving an air of inevitability to the Bush re-election effort, and forcing would-be Democratic challengers to spend so much time raising money that they aren't able to engage the president on issues that might matter to voters. Such Bush fund-raising success could even force some Democratic hopefuls to forego federal matching funds as well, because it would cap their campaign budget for the primaries at about $50 million. But that would open them to charges that they are as beholden to big money interests as Mr. Bush.
The Bush campaign's fund-raising push will be evident in second-quarter financial disclosure reports made to the Federal Election Commission, which are made public July 15. "The FEC reports are defining events in national politics," says Scott Reed, who served as Bob Dole's presidential campaign manager. "The Bush team is focusing on it like a laser beam, to not only raise as much money as possible but to humiliate the nine Democrats out running for their party's nomination."
No single Democrat challenger is likely to collect more than $4 million or $5 million for the period, and collectively they may not raise as much as Mr. Bush by himself. New campaign fund-raising rules also may hinder Democrats more than Republicans. Neither party now can accept large contributions from individuals, corporations and unions -- sometimes more than $100,000 each -- which were used to buy political advertising. But the Democrats have fewer wealthy contributors who can make up the gap by contributing up to $2,000 each to the candidates themselves.
Guiding Mr. Bush's efforts is the 58-year-old Mr. Reynolds, a Cincinnati financier who is a longtime Bush friend, Two decades ago, the two men were partners in a Midland, Texas, oil business, and later became investors in the Texas Rangers baseball team. Mr. Reynolds's current investments range from a stake in the St. Louis Cardinals to real-estate developments in Georgia. During the 2000 presidential campaign, Mr. Reynolds and his wife collected $600,000 in contributions, more than any other Bush fund-raiser. Mr. Bush rewarded Mr. Reynolds by naming him ambassador to Switzerland, one of the cushiest diplomatic assignments.
Mr. Reynolds gave up his Bern posting in April, and took the finance job a month later when Mr. Bush formed his re-election committee. As the top moneyman, Mr. Reynolds has the final say on how to structure the financing effort, and he sees himself as Mr. Bush's "personal representative" in the effort. "The president is looking to me," he says.
So are the critics, who argue that the breathless chase for dollars underscores the deep influence money has in politics. Mr. Reynolds says he isn't seeking another high-profile post should Mr. Bush get re-elected. But many of the top fund-raisers from 2000 -- including the top fund-raisers then dubbed Pioneers, who raised $100,000 each -- found favor in the Bush administration. A liberal watchdog group, Texas for Public Justice, says 43 of the 226 individuals originally identified by the campaign as Pioneers either were appointed to the Bush transition team, which smoothed the change in government after Mr. Bush's victory, or to administration posts. Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao both were Pioneers.
Since mid-May, when the current campaign was formally organized, Mr. Reynolds and a handful of aides have been rushing to build the local networks needed to fund the Bush operation. A top priority has been seeking out individuals to serve as state finance chairmen. Los Angeles investor Brad Freeman, a longtime Bush friend, is leading the effort in California. Real-estate magnate Al Hoffman Jr., who has deep ties to the Bush family, is shaking the trees in Florida. Bill DeWitt, Mr. Reynolds's longtime business associate, is working Ohio, along with W. R. "Tim" Timken, an executive who was close to the first President Bush.
In addition to making appeals themselves, the state chairmen are lining up their own networks of fund-raisers to go in search of big spenders. At the kickoff June 17 event in Washington, 220 lobbyists and businessmen signed up as co-chairmen, each agreeing to raise at least $20,000. The Washington event ultimately raised $3.5 million.
Mr. Reynolds spends two to three days a week on the road, jetting around the country to stoke enthusiasm among local moneymen or flying with Mr. Bush. He jumps into the organizing of specific events, such as the $2.2 million fund-raiser held June 20 in Georgia. And he will reach out to donors directly himself. His pitch: "This is the opportunity for them to say, Mr. President, job well done. I want to support you with my wallet -- one more time."
Write to Greg Hitt at greg.hitt@wsj.com |
