GOP Ally Reports $40 Million in Pledges

The largest of the Republican independent groups raising money to help reelect President Bush set up shop this week at the Ritz Carlton Hotel -- where top Bush-Cheney campaign fundraisers were staying for the Republican National Convention.

“We received a lot of enthusiasm for what Progress for America is doing,” said Brian McCabe, president of the Progress for America Voter Fund.

McCabe said the group had received commitments of about $10 million from convention visitors, part of what he said were overall pledges of $40 million.

Progress for America is a 527 group, named after the provision in the U.S. tax code that regulates them. They have gained prominence since campaign finance reforms banned unlimited donations to campaigns from individuals, corporations and unions to political parties. The 527s have contended that the law did not apply to them.

The Bush campaign filed suit in federal court this week challenging the legality of the 527 organizations working on behalf of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John F. Kerry.

The campaign has alleged that the groups, which include America Coming Together and the Media Fund, were illegally coordinating with Kerry’s campaign.

Kerry’s campaign in turn has accused another conservative 527, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, of illegally coordinating with the Bush campaign.

Progress for America has its own ties to the Bush campaign. One of its advisory board members and large donors, Marilyn Ware, also is a top fundraiser for the Bush campaign. And Benjamin Ginsberg, the lawyer who resigned as the president’s top outside counsel after he was identified as a legal advisor to the Swift Boat group, has given legal advice to Progress for America as well.

McCabe said his group had several million-dollar donors. Among them are Californians Alex Spanos, the owner of the San Diego Chargers, and Dawn Arnall, co-chairwoman of mortgage lender Ameriquest Capital Corp. Each gave $5 million.

McCabe said he agreed with the Bush campaign’s legal objection to the 527s.

“But we feel we cannot unilaterally disarm,” he said.