At Philadelphia Fundraiser, Public Interest Groups Blast Bush for
Selling Access and Favors at the White House
WhiteHouseForSale.org Web Site Predicts Monday's Philadelphia Event
Will Push Bush Campaign Haul Over $62 Million
WASHINGTON - President Bush is expected to collect more than $1.5
million at a $2,000-a-plate fundraiser outside Philadelphia today,
pushing his re-election total more than $62 million. That would put him
about $17 million over the maximum that participants in the presidential
public financing system will be allowed to spend in pursuit of their
party's nomination, according to WhiteHouseForSale.org.
Representatives from a coalition of organizations concerned about the
influence of special-interest money on presidential politics scheduled a
news conference at 5 p.m. today in Springfield's Rolling Green Park -
along the road to the Drexelbrook event center where the Bush fundraiser
is being held. The backdrop for the news conference will be a giant,
inflatable White House with a "For Sale" sign on the front. The news
conference will feature speakers from Public Citizen, the Sierra Club,
the Clean Air Council and Citizens for Consumer Justice.
Public Citizen, a national consumer group with 5,900 Pennsylvania
members, recently launched the WhiteHouseforSale.org Web site to track
contributors to Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, particularly those
dubbed Rangers or Pioneers for steering hundreds of thousands of dollars
toward the campaign. Public Citizen's accounting of Bush's fundraising
total is drawn from Federal Election Commission (FEC) data, statements
from the campaign and press reports.
"President Bush is making a dash for cash across the country, courting
corporate and other wealthy interests at every stop," said Frank
Clemente, director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch. "These rainmakers
who raise $100,000 or $200,000 anticipate a return on their investment
in the form of tax breaks, loosened regulations and lucrative government
contracts."
The administration's efforts to weaken clean air and water rules to
benefit some of the president's biggest backers will have long-term
ramifications, said Arthur Stamoulis of the Clean Air Council. "Time and
again, the Bush administration has let its supporters in the oil, coal
and power industries off the hook for their pollution," he said. "When
the White House allows big corporations to rewrite the nation's
environmental laws, it is children's health that suffers."
"America has made great progress cleaning soot and smog from our air,
pollution from our water and toxic chemicals from our communities,"
added Diana Silbergeld of the Sierra Club. "But the Bush administration
has put that progress in peril and communities at risk. They are
allowing polluting corporations to benefit at our expense."
WhiteHouseForSale.org focuses on Bush's fundraising because he is the
only major candidate who has opted out of the public financing system
during the primaries. According to press reports, Bush plans to collect
as much as $200 million during the primary season - more than four times
the amount that a candidate who remains in the public financing system
can raise and spend - even though he faces no opposition in the
primaries. The president is raising money at nearly double the rate
needed to reach $200 million by September 2004, according to Public
Citizen's calculations.
Much of Bush's cash is coming from wealthy donors and interest groups
that bundle $2,000 contributions from many individuals. Those who raise
$200,000 this way are designated as Rangers by the Bush campaign; those
who raise $100,000 are called Pioneers. Bush disclosed the names of 241
individuals who achieved Pioneers status in 2000. A lawsuit revealed the
names of another 310 people who pledged to raise $100,000. The Ranger
category is new for 2004, now that the individual contribution limit has
been doubled from $1,000 to $2,000. The 2004 Bush campaign has
identified 23 Rangers and 45 Pioneers.
"The amount of money President Bush - or any other candidate - can
raise from wealthy special interests should not determine who gets
elected president," Clemente said. "Elections should be based on a
candidate's ideas, vision and priorities for America. That's why we need
a full public financing system for presidential elections - so that
average citizens, not the donors behind candidates, choose their
leaders."
The only Pennsylvanian to make the list of 2004 Pioneers so far is
lobbyist David Girard-DiCarlo, chairman and CEO of the law firm Blank
Rome - whose employees and their spouses gave $143,250 to Bush in the
last 10 days of June, according to FEC data. Bush named Girard-DiCarlo,
who was also a Pioneer in 2000, to the Transportation Department
transition team as well as the boards overseeing Amtrak and the Kennedy
Center. Blank Rome - whose attorneys played a key role on the Bush team
during the 2000 Florida recount - lobby in Washington on behalf of
clients such as Aetna, Raytheon and World Wrestling Entertainment.
In 2000, 15 Pennsylvanians were named Pioneers. The list includes a
who's who of state power-brokers, including state GOP Chairman Alan P.
Novak, Pittsburgh Republican matriarch Elise Hillman and Philadelphia
developer Manny Stamatkis. Other notable Pennsylvania Pioneers were
attorney Martin J. Silverstein, appointed by Bush as ambassador to
Uruguay, and former Gov. Tom Ridge, who now heads the Department of
Homeland Security.
Monday's event - which follows a $600,000 Philadelphia fundraiser
headlined by First Lady Laura Bush in June - is expected to add more
individuals to the ranks of Rangers and Pioneers for 2004. Their names
should be disclosed when the campaign makes its next quarterly report to
the FEC in mid-October.
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Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization
based in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit
www.citizen.org. |
