For the Really Big Donors, It’s Dinner With Clinton

The Democratic National Committee is offering to sell private dinners with President Clinton, places on foreign trade missions and other forms of exclusive access to senior officials to party donors willing to pony up $100,000 or more.

In a recent fund-raising letter, the party offered big contributors a pricey catalogue of favors, including high-level briefings, VIP status at the Democratic National Convention and a “personal DNC staff contact” to help cut through red tape in the Washington bureaucracy.

Lesser donors receive lesser privileges, such as lunch with Tipper Gore, wife of Vice President Al Gore. For $1,000, a donor can get an invitation to events with First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Tipper Gore and female political appointees, according to the letter, which was first disclosed by the Chicago Sun-Times.

The high-roller solicitation comes just weeks after Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) promised during a public forum in New Hampshire to create a bipartisan commission that would recommend ways to clean up campaign financing practices and end the sale of influence and access in Washington.

It also flies in the face of then-candidate Clinton’s 1992 pledge in his campaign manifesto, “Putting People First,” to end the “cliques of $100,000 donors” buying access to Congress and the White House.

Republicans have long rewarded big-dollar donors with access to top officials, including photo opportunities and receptions with President George Bush at the White House during his tenure and seats near him at public events. But critics said the new Democratic letter had taken the practice to new lows of influence-peddling and assailed Clinton for making promises of places at the presidential dinner table and on government-sponsored trade missions.

“This is outrageous,” said Ann McBride, president of Common Cause, a nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog group. “They’re auctioning off access to the President of the United States to the highest bidder.”

McBride called on Clinton to disavow the fund-raising tactic and announce that neither he nor any member of his Administration would participate in the promised dinners, briefings, trade missions or other activities.

“Clinton gave a speech today about building community among people. He should remember that one thing that helps build community among average citizens is the belief that they have access to their government and their voices will not be drowned out by the rich and powerful,” McBride said.

A White House aide defended the practice as legal under current campaign financing laws and as a legitimate use of incumbency.

“We support the party and conduct normal fund-raising procedures that have been used by both parties,” spokeswoman Mary Ellen Glynn said. She said the Democrats must employ whatever tools they have to compete with aggressive Republican fund raising.

“Until the system is changed, we will not unilaterally disarm,” said Donald Fowler, co-chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Republicans have long courted wealthy donors with membership in such exclusive clubs as the Eagle Forum or Team 100, which entitle big donors to private receptions with top party leaders and attendance at policy forums. But Republican National Committee spokeswoman Mary Mead Crawford said she reviewed years of fund-raising letters and had not found any that offered such specific promises of access.

The closest parallel was a 1992 Republican appeal in which those who gave or raised at least $92,000 received a photo opportunity with Bush, lunch with then-Vice President Dan Quayle, a reception with Cabinet officers and breakfast with congressional leaders.

The Democratic fund-raising letter, mailed in late June over the signatures of Fowler and general party Chairman Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), offers to make $100,000 donors “managing trustees” of the party.

That contribution entitles the donor to two meals with the President, two meals with the vice president, one dinner with top Administration officials, honored guest status at the 1996 Democratic Convention, two annual retreats with top policy-makers, exclusive issues briefings, a daily fax on Administration activities and political announcements, a DNC staff contact to assist in handling “personal requests” and a spot on annual foreign trade missions. Donors must reimburse the government for the cost of the missions.

For $50,000, the contributor gets a presidential reception, dinner with Al Gore, two high-level briefings and special--but not “honored”--treatment at the 1996 convention.

“In spite of the fact that both Democrats and Republicans have pledged many times to change business as usual, everything just seems to go along the same path,” said Ellen Miller, director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign finance watchdog group. “If anything has changed in Washington, it’s that everything has become so much more obvious.”