Special Interests Pump Cash Into Inaugural Fetes

By Nick Anderson

Jan. 15, 2005 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON —

Nearly three years after Congress outlawed six-figure contributions to national political parties, dozens of corporations and Republican financiers have given a quarter million dollars each to President Bush’s inaugural fund.

At least 54 donors have written checks for $250,000, the maximum Bush imposed for donations to the inauguration Thursday, according to figures released Friday. Four years ago, Bush set the limit at $100,000.

The contributions are legal, and donors and Bush inaugural officials say they are meant to help celebrate an event that rises above electoral politics.

The 2002 McCain-Feingold law barred national parties from collecting the unregulated campaign funds known as soft money, but it set no caps on inaugural fundraising.

Critics say that means special interests are able to write big checks in an effort to expand their clout in a Republican-run capital.

Among the top donors for the $40-million inaugural bash are Ameriquest Capital Corp., of Orange, and Occidental Petroleum Corp., of Los Angeles, two examples of companies from the financial and energy sectors that stand to benefit from Bush administration policies through legislation and regulation.

Ameriquest, a financial-services company with at least two subsidiaries that also gave $250,000 checks to the inaugural fund, declined to comment on the donations.

An Occidental spokesman said the company, which specializes in oil and gas exploration and production, had a history of bipartisan giving to inaugurals dating to the swearing in of Jimmy Carter in 1977.

“It’s democracy in action,” said Larry Meriage, Occidental’s vice president for communications and public affairs.

“We view this as not a partisan event.”

Still, he acknowledged that the company probably would benefit from helping to underwrite the festivities.

“There’s some recognition that you do get, to be seen in a positive light inside the Beltway,” Meriage said. “We see it as a good thing to get some exposure at events like this.”

Advocates of limits on political donations decry the large contributions to Bush’s inauguration. They liken the inaugural festivities to the carnival of lobbying, donating and party-going that prevails at the major-party presidential nominating conventions.

“It sends absolutely the wrong message to the public,” said Fred Wertheimer, a longtime Washington activist who helped lobby for the McCain-Feingold law.

“Inaugurations are for the whole country, and there shouldn’t be big donors who are able to be first-class citizens because of the amount of money they are able to pay.”

Wertheimer said the big donors were “buying chits” for “favors down the road.”

Tracey Schmitt, a spokeswoman for the Bush 2005 inaugural committee, said the large donations served a populist purpose even though many of the inaugural functions would be exclusive black-tie affairs.

Support from major donors, she said, helped keep prices down for such events as a $10-per-ticket youth concert and bleacher seats along the inaugural parade route that cost as little as $15 each. She dismissed critics who contended that the major inaugural sponsors were seeking to win access or influence at the White House through donations.

“This is a week that transcends partisan politics,” Schmitt said.

President Clinton accepted $250,000 from at least one donor, the Merrill Lynch brokerage house, to help underwrite his 1993 inauguration, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that monitors political contributions. Many other companies, labor groups, trade groups and wealthy individuals gave or loaned as much as $100,000 that year.

AT&T;, for instance, contributed $50,000. It gave Bush $100,000 for his first inaugural in 2001 and has given $250,000 for his second.

The telecommunications giant has a wide range of interests in Washington. It will undoubtedly be tracking efforts now brewing in Congress to update a landmark 1996 telecom law.

A company spokeswoman declined to comment on its inaugural donations.

Several energy companies are among the businesses helping to finance the inauguration. Many of them back efforts in Congress and by the administration to open more public lands for oil and gas exploration; a long-stalled energy bill to do that is a top priority for Republican House and Senate leaders.

Industry donors who gave the maximum $250,000 to the inaugural committee include ChevronTexaco of Concord, Calif., Exxon Mobil Corp. of Washington, New Energy Corp. of South Bend, Ind., and Southern Co. of Atlanta.

The committee also got $100,000 from the Nuclear Energy Institute; the administration is a strong backer of nuclear power.

In all, the Bush inaugural committee website lists more than 145 donors who have given at least $100,000, among them many individuals likely to have benefited from Bush’s tax-cutting policies. The website list includes donations totaling about $25 million, helping Bush’s committee with its goal of raising from $30 million to $40 million in private funds.

The city of Washington and the federal government will spend many millions more in taxpayer dollars for security.

Among individuals and companies in California who gave at least $100,000 to the Bush committee were A.G. Spanos, of Stockton ($250,000); Alagem Capital Group of Beverly Hills ($250,000); Bradford M. Freeman, a top Bush fundraiser, of Los Angeles ($100,000); the California Farm Bureau Federation of Sacramento ($100,000); Charles D. Miller of Pasadena ($100,000); Cherie and Robin Arkley of Eureka ($100,000); Cisco Systems Inc. of San Jose ($100,000); and defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. of Century City ($100,000).

“We get the opportunity to show our support for the election of a president and promote Northrop Grumman’s name here in Washington,” said Randy Belote, a spokesman for the aerospace company.

For all the donations to the inaugural committee, which is sponsoring 21 official events from Tuesday through Friday, much of the revelry is expected to take place in a blizzard of other fetes sponsored by business groups and others.

The National Assn. of Manufacturers is sponsoring four private events: a luncheon the day before the swearing-in; a “denim and diamonds” evening reception for new members of Congress the night before; a party to watch Thursday’s inaugural parade from a sixth-floor view of Pennsylvania Avenue, and a black-tie gala Thursday night.

Officials say that $995-tickets will get association members into all four, with leftover funds to be given to charities for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

On the group’s agenda this year are items that dovetail with Bush’s, including tax cuts, international trade deals and limits on civil lawsuit liability awards.

“We want to make sure the [manufacturing association] is visible in Washington with new members of Congress, returning members and with the administration,” said Dana Lee Cole, the group’s vice president and corporate secretary. “You always have to let people know you’re out there.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Giving big

More than 50 individuals and corporations have contributed $250,000 to President Bush’s inaugural fund, including eight from California. Here are the state’s major donors:

$250,000

A.G. Spanos, Stockton

Alagem Capital Group, Beverly Hills

Ameriquest Capital Corp., Orange

Argent Mortgage Co., Orange

ChevronTexaco, Concord

Elliott Broidy, Los Angeles

Occidental Petroleum Corp., Los Angeles

Town and Country Credit, Irvine

$225,000

Thomas F. Stephenson, Atherton

$125,000