Top Fundraisers Earn Right to Party

Cincinnati businessman Ron Beshear never thought he’d be chosen as a delegate to the Republican National Convention. But after raising more than $150,000 for President Bush’s reelection effort, he got a phone call from the Ohio Republican Party.

“They just called and asked me if I wanted to be a delegate,” said Beshear, 57. “I didn’t ask.”

Beshear is part of a new breed of fundraiser receiving special attention at this year’s political conventions. Like his Democratic counterparts who are collecting money for John F. Kerry, he and other Republican fundraisers are being rewarded with coveted slots in state delegations.

Roughly one out of every five of Bush’s top fundraisers -- individuals who have raised $100,000 or more -- is a delegate here.

When the Democrats held their national convention in Boston, about 17.5% of Kerry’s top fundraisers -- who raised $50,000 or more -- attended as delegates.

Although delegates pay their own way to the conventions, they are wined and dined at dozens of lavish corporate parties, many thrown in their honor.

They get special access to the convention floor, the right to cast a vote for the party’s nominee and a chance to schmooze with politicians and other heavyweights from around the country.

“It’s another aspect of the integration of these top fundraisers into the campaign,” said campaign finance expert Anthony Corrado, a political science professor at Colby College in Maine.

“If you’re going to the convention, the best way to go is to go as a delegate.”

The presence of high-powered fundraisers in state delegations reflects the changing nature of the political parties themselves.

Instead of relying on volunteers who knocked on doors and stuffed envelopes, the campaigns are dependent more and more on CEOs, lawyers, lobbyists and others who can turn to their Rolodexes or Christmas card lists to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars -- money that is essential for television and other advertising.

Those fundraisers who are not tapped as delegates also get special treatment at the conventions, including private briefings and exclusive cocktail parties with prominent Republicans.

In New York, the number of top fundraiser-delegates is 121, about 2.5% of the 4,852 delegates and alternates at this week’s Republican convention, according to a study by The Times. In Boston, 99 top fundraiser-delegates attended the Democratic National Convention, about 2% of the total 4,964 delegates and alternates.

Each campaign identifies top fundraisers based on different thresholds of money -- a minimum of $100,000 collected on behalf of Bush, $50,000 for Kerry.

The Times study identified dozens of other delegates at each convention who were family members of fundraisers. It also found that some states sent a disproportionate number compared to the size of their delegation.

New Jersey, for instance, has 52 delegates. Six are Bush fundraisers, about 12% of the total. Two alternates are also top money-raisers for the Bush campaign.

“It’s a way of rewarding the faithful, in this case, the financially faithful,” said John S. Jackson, a political science professor and authority on presidential conventions at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

Each state has its own rules for choosing delegates. Some elect delegates; others select them at state conventions. Still other states allow party leaders to pick them.

Members of Congress are usually given a slot. Delegates have been active politically, though the route to the conventions in years past more often involved grass-roots organizing than collecting checks.

Alaska, Idaho, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Vermont and New Mexico had just one top fundraiser in the state -- and that person was also included as a delegate to the Republican convention. All of Hawaii’s four fundraisers for Bush are convention delegates, out of 37 state delegates and alternates.

In Tennessee, the Bush campaign gave guidance to the party on delegate selection. Seven fundraisers are among Tennessee’s 55-member delegation and two others are alternates.

Mark Tipps, a Nashville lawyer who raised $100,000 for the Bush campaign, said he wasn’t sure what criteria was used to select him as a delegate. “I was asked to be a delegate and was pleased to do so,” he said.

Although the 43-year-old Tennessean said he had been “around the fringes” of politics for a decade, this presidential race was the first time he had raised money.

Beshear, the Cincinnati fundraiser, said the campaign was so pleased with an information guide he and his wife put together for a Christian outreach session that they duplicated it in other cities nationwide, an effort that drew $3 million in donations to the Bush-Cheney campaign.

But he was surprised, he said, when Ohio Republican Party Chairman Robert Bennett called inviting him to be a delegate.

For the campaigns, the importance of men like Beshear and Tipps cannot be overstated this year, the first presidential race since a new campaign finance law limited corporate, union and unlimited donations to political parties. That put a premium on raising individual contributions in chunks of $2,000 or less.

Today’s fundraisers are being rewarded in much the same way that ward chairmen were once thanked. “Money has become so much more of a grinding obligation,” Jackson said.

Bush and Kerry each raised more than $230 million prior to their conventions, all in individual donations. To do that, both campaigns assembled a vast cadre of fundraisers across the country, asking them each to contact as many people as possible to collect hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of personal checks.

The benefits were not limited to the fundraisers. One relative was featured on the Republican convention website -- as a symbol of the diversity of delegates at the convention.

The website proudly noted that Zara Kozlov, 24, was the youngest member of New Jersey’s state delegation. What it didn’t say was that her father, Cherry Hills attorney Hersh Kozlov, raised more than $100,000 for Bush.

“He put me in touch with the people I needed to know,” said Zara Kozlov, a law student. She said she had her own credentials too -- working for a Republican congressman when she was 20.

“Growing up with my dad so involved in politics piqued my desire to get involved at a young age.”

Bush calls his 544 top money-raisers Pioneers and Rangers. Those who aren’t delegates still get special treatment here. They get access to the swankiest hotels, the flashiest parties and private meetings with top campaign strategists.

Florida lawyer Alberto Cardenas, the chairman of the state Republican Party in 2000 and a Florida delegate, said the state’s fundraisers were just as happy in a special skybox for the Pioneers and Rangers as they were sitting on the convention floor as delegates. Florida has 14 fundraiser-delegates, including Cardenas -- the most of any state.

Rangers and Pioneers were feted at a Welcome to New York concert Sunday night at Lincoln Center featuring singer Linda Eder. Other events include lunches at Tavern on the Green, Sotheby’s and the New York Historical Society, and cocktail parties at the New York Stock Exchange and the University Club.

Top fundraisers have also been invited to a cocktail party with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a reception with the president’s father and a private Bush-Cheney party at the Four Seasons restaurant.

This year’s package of perks, however, came with a price. Rangers were asked to pay a $4,500 convention fee; Pioneers were asked to pony up $4,000.

They were also given the option of spending even more money for optional private events: a six-hour $125 wine and cheese tasting; a $175 Barneys fashion show that promised to include a gift bag that would be “the talk of the convention”; a $350 day at the Trump National Golf Course, or $50 for several shopping tours of New York.

When some fundraisers complained about the convention entry fees, the party offered scaled-down plans. Florida lobbyist Justin Sayfie, a Ranger, said he paid $1,000 for a cheaper package of perks. It includes a lunch with Bush’s chief political strategist, Karl Rove.

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In faith

Most of the 4,853 Republican delegates and their alternates in New York this week identify themselves as belonging to a particular religion:

Protestant 61%

Catholic 26%

Jewish 2%

Mormon 2%

Muslim 0.2%

None/not specified 8.8%

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Breakfast at Tiffany’s

The Republican Host Committee is spending $63.5 million on the party’s national convention in New York City. (The event’s total expense is about $100 million.) On the bill:

$5 million: Madison Square Garden rental

$1.5 million: transportation for staff and delegates

$8 million: parties, receptions and events

SOURCE: Campaign Finance Institute