Clinton’s Hard and Fast Ride on Donation Trail

South Korean businessman John K.H. Lee was ecstatic last year when he got word that for $250,000 he could purchase five seats at a small, private dinner with the president of the United States.

Lee boarded a flight from Seoul and, on a chilly April evening, arrived with his guests for the big event at an elegant hotel three blocks from the White House. But bad news came after an hour of waiting: Dinner would not be possible because President Clinton was already tied up in back-to-back banquets at the hotel that evening.

Instead, Lee’s group was squeezed in for a photo opportunity and five minutes of conversation with Clinton. The fund-raiser in charge, John Huang, still collected the full $250,000.

Aside from perhaps setting a record for the world’s most lucrative fund-raiser at $50,000 per minute, the evening was by no means unusual: Clinton attended multiple money-raising affairs on at least 45 nights last year, according to a Times computer-assisted analysis of the president’s activities.

Indeed, by all evidence, Clinton spent far more time in 1996 raising money than any incumbent chief executive in modern history. In a relentless march of coffees, lunches, receptions, dinners and late-night Saxophone Club appearances, Clinton slogged through at least 237 fund-raising events during the 10 months leading up to last year’s election, the data show, raising a total of $119.2 million.

By comparison, available records indicate that President Bush attended less than half as many events when he was defeated by Clinton in 1992.

“It was a massive effort that led to an excessive use of the president’s time but nevertheless provided monies on a scale that the Democrats have never dreamed of,” said Herbert E. Alexander, a USC political scientist and campaign finance expert.

The Democratic and Republican parties’ mammoth solicitations in 1996 produced well-documented consequences, including a large influx of illegal foreign donations, episodes of money-laundering and widespread manipulation of election law loopholes.

But the new study--the first to measure the president’s level of involvement--spurs additional questions about the effect on the fund-raiser-in-chief and on the function of the White House.

“If you feel a need to raise this much money and spend this much time to keep up with the Republicans, then you are not only putting yourself under extraordinary stress, but you are putting the government system under stress,” said Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate committee investigating campaign finance abuses.

“Because, to put it crudely, if you’re soliciting, there are going to be people who are prepared to buy, and some of them are not going to have good motives.”

Moreover, the campaign of ’96 was not a onetime binge. Eager to retire his party’s $13.2-million debt and prepare for the 1998 midterm races, Clinton is again raising money at a furious pace.

In the six weeks ending Dec. 12, Clinton headlined 27 events in 13 cities and raised more than $11.5 million.

Currently, both Republicans and Democrats are on course to shatter previous marks for collecting campaign cash in a non-election year.

The Times’ analysis indicates that Clinton’s 1996 blitz, unlike those of previous presidents, was not concentrated in the months immediately preceding the election. Rather, it was yearlong and occasionally five and six days a week.

In March, for example, Clinton logged 22 fund-raising-related events. He then attended 30 in June and 24 in October.

Administration officials maintain that it is unfair to compare Clinton to previous presidents because of the skyrocketing costs of political campaigns. They point to sharp increases in total fund-raising by both parties over the last four years--from $514 million in the 1992 election cycle to $900 million in 1996.

Besides, the officials say, Clinton has the stamina to maintain such a pace.

“This is a president who has more energy and probably works harder than any of his predecessors,” said White House special counsel Lanny J. Davis. “How many presidents regularly put in 18-to-20-hour days?”

Leon E. Panetta, who was Clinton’s chief of staff during the campaign, said the heavy schedule did not impede presidential decision-making, including oversight of substantive issues ranging from the budget to Bosnia policy.

However, he acknowledged the fund-raising burden is a valid concern.

“The load does increase the risk that the wrong decision could be made,” Panetta said in an interview. “I think that is something the American public has to worry about. Certainly I worried about it.”

‘He Lost . . . All His Down Time’

Dozens of interviews and newly available documents, including confidential e-mail messages, show the strain the fund-raising placed on both the presidency and the operation of the White House.

To make room on Clinton’s calendar, White House schedulers canceled numerous presidential appointments, including morning briefings with his chief of staff and weekly meetings with his Council of Economic Advisers.

In addition, “he lost . . . all his down time,” said one administration official familiar with Clinton’s schedule. “He started getting up earlier and going to bed later. All of his rest was gone.”

For all his endurance, Clinton sometimes was wobbling.

“A lot of times he would complain,” Clinton campaign strategist Dick Morris said under oath to House investigators. “He would say, ‘I haven’t slept in three days; every time I turn around they want me to be at a fund-raiser. . . . I cannot think, I can’t do anything; every minute of my time is spent at these fund-raisers.’ ”

Meanwhile, the onus of hosting 103 coffees, which raised $27 million, fell heavily on dozens of administration staffers who grappled with “a logistical nightmare,” one aide said.

Clinton paid little attention to fund-raising when he first took office in 1993, focusing instead on preparing his legislative agenda. Officials at Democratic Party headquarters said their repeated requests for the president’s help were usually ignored.

“We were very, very frustrated that we seemed like such a low priority in terms of fund-raising events and events at the White House,” said David Wilhelm, who served as Democratic National Committee chairman in 1993 and ’94.

But Clinton underwent an abrupt conversion in late 1994 when the Republicans swept the midterm elections and cast a shadow over his prospects for winning a second term.

In early 1995, Clinton persuaded longtime political supporter Truman Arnold, a Texas oil baron, to become party finance chairman and raise $42 million in mostly unrestricted “soft money” donations to the party within six months.

Clinton helped Arnold accomplish this goal by putting presidential perks in play. Supporters and fund-raisers from the ’92 campaign were showered with goodies, such as state dinner invitations, seats aboard Air Force One, tickets to the White House movie theater and golf or jogging outings with Clinton.

To scare off Democratic challengers, the Clinton-Gore campaign in 1995 arranged eight presidential fund-raising galas and quickly amassed $25 million.

By the time the election year rolled around, Clinton and the DNC moved on to their next goal: $130 million for his reelection and other Democratic campaigns.

“So we can raise the money--BUT ONLY IF--the President and I actually do the events, the calls, the coffees, etc.,” Vice President Al Gore wrote in a fund-raising memo in early 1996.

An Assortment of Fund-Raising Options

The president’s schedule was fair game. The Times study consisted of analyzing White House calendars, previously unavailable presidential papers and internal Democratic Party fund-raising documents. Schedules for donor events such as Lincoln Bedroom sleepovers and monthly movie screenings, which involved presidential time, were not included because the White House refused to make them available.

The survey found that Clinton, faced with an assortment of options for raising cash, seized them all.

Candidates in the fund-raising mode often balance mega-events for big crowds against smaller gatherings with well-heeled donors. On many evenings, Clinton would do both.

On other nights, he would attend two events in the same Washington hotel, staggered by an hour. The first would be in full swing in one ballroom while the second shift would be arriving in another.

The scene was like “a doctor seeing patients in different waiting rooms,” a marveling Sen. Lieberman said.

The result was both efficient and discreet. In the first 10 months of last year, Clinton raised $32.6 million in 54 banquets. No undue attention was attracted. All of the events were closed to the press and public, with Secret Service agents sealing off any outside access to the hallway and dining areas.

The double-dinner plan worked better some times than others.

It was in operation at the Sheraton Carlton Hotel on April 8, 1996, when former Clinton-Gore campaign manager Peter Knight assembled a group of large donors and fund-raisers to haul in $500,000.

Before Clinton entered, he was ushered into an antechamber off the gleaming marble lobby where John Lee, the Korean businessman, and his four guests, who had expected to dine with the president.

Clinton “literally walked in, took a picture, said hello, and walked away,” said a Democratic official who witnessed the incident.

Lee’s representative, former Carson, Calif., Mayor Mike Mitoma, was stunned. The quickie session was “the most unprofessional thing I’ve ever seen,” he told Senate investigators.

Clinton slipped away to the Crystal Ballroom for the first of his two dinners. Attendees said the president seemed at ease as he dined on arugula and yellow tomatoes, chicken breast and sorbet. He was so busy talking, several participants recalled, that he didn’t get around to eating much.

Quay Hays, who runs a Santa Monica, Calif.-based publishing company and attended the first dinner, had no inkling Clinton was hustling through a schedule.

“I didn’t know he had two dinners in the same night,” Hays said.

Clinton then moved on to his next encounter in the intimate Chandelier Room, where a group of about 10 guests and their spouses had been sipping cocktails and eating for nearly an hour. Clinton went around the table shaking hands and posing for souvenir photos with the attendees, who included executives of such corporations as the Travelers Group, Goldman Sachs & Co., Saban Entertainment and Tower Air.

Signs of Strain Showed on Clinton

Clinton likes speaking at these small settings and usually performs flawlessly. The $400,000 take for this dinner brought the evening receipts to $1.15 million.

Taking the high-volume show on the road was more difficult. On eight occasions Clinton did three events in the same evening, often ending around midnight.

Sometimes the strain showed.

One such day occurred in Los Angeles last year. After two evening fund-raisers near Denver pulled in close to $1 million, Clinton was slated on the following night--July 22--to attend a $1,000-per-plate gala at the Beverly Hilton from 5:15 to 7:10 p.m., a large Asian American event at the Century Plaza from 7:15 to 9:15 p.m., and a $25,000-per-couple dinner at the Brentwood mansion of developer Eli Broad, beginning at 9:30 p.m.

But at an appearance at a high school in Monrovia that afternoon to extol local efforts to fight youth crime, the weary president, flanked by local law enforcement officers, began delivering the wrong address--his stump speech on education, rather than crime-fighting.

“It was a real goof,” said one campaign official who was there.

That night, Clinton was running so far behind that the second and third fund-raisers had already started when he arrived at the first.

After racing through the $1-million gala, Clinton arrived late at the Century Plaza for the $700,000 Asian American event. He was pressing to make a good impression: A briefing paper had noted that community members felt “that the only time Clinton comes out is to raise money.”

By the time Clinton reached Broad’s house, he was dragging.

“I recall him being fairly tired,” said one attendee. “It had been a long day for him, and it showed.”

Clinton didn’t leave until midnight. That was late, but not rare.

While in Boston on Sept. 28, Clinton didn’t even arrive at his last fund-raiser--his third of the day--until around midnight.

Clinton often expressed displeasure with the physical grind, aides recalled. One White House administrator, asked how often Clinton complained, said, “Every morning.”

A former political advisor to Clinton said the president was desperate for rest but couldn’t say no to the money.

At times, the advisor recalled, Clinton would say: “I’m walking around here like I’m a mule. . . . Or, “That’s all [I’m] doing is raising money.”

Douglas B. Sosnik, a presidential counselor who accompanies Clinton on most trips, discounted such notions.

“Not only is he able to get through these days, but most nights on the campaign he would unwind by staying up late and playing cards for several hours,” Sosnik said.

The campaign devised two other ways for Clinton to raise money that caused less wear and tear: White House coffees and sleepovers.

The midmorning coffees gathered supporters in the Map Room--only a few steps from the Oval Office. The sleepovers made convenient use of the Lincoln Bedroom and other White House guest rooms.

On about 20 dates in 1996, major contributors who gave about $1.7 million to the DNC slept at the executive mansion, sources said. A presidential chat or tour often came with the package.

“We at least have the damned White House as a magnet and a motivator,” said one administration official. “Has any other Republican used the White House as much as we? No, they didn’t have to.”

Clinton, Gore and their wives hosted 103 coffees during 1995 and 1996. Clinton did by far the most--70.

From the monthly DNC finance reports addressed to the president, Clinton recognized the value of the sessions. Many were credited with yielding $400,000 in donations.

The coffees, when combined with 94 dinners and 98 other fund-raising events, still created a major disruption in the presidential calendar.

They began in 1995 as 45-minute motivating sessions for fund-raisers and major donors. But as the election year began, they grew to an hour and then to 75 minutes in March.

Deputy Chief of Staff Evelyn S. Lieberman warned Panetta in a Jan. 19 memo about the consequences of an urgent request to add 27 coffees to the 13 dinners already on the president’s calendar between Jan. 18 and April 26.

“Political fund-raising is critical, particularly during this period, but the realities of the president’s current schedule demand that we take a hard look at how many of the proposed additions can be accommodated.”

Coffees Cut Into Morning Briefings

Instead of cutting back, the president added even more fund-raisers, The Times study found. Between Jan. 18 and April 26, Clinton did 24 coffees, 21 dinners and 10 receptions.

Problems worsened when coffees ran long--some lasting up to two hours.

Normally, Clinton began his day with morning briefings by his chief of staff and national security advisor.

“It’s a good process to try to set up the day and give him a sense of what is happening,” Panetta said. “It was extremely important.”

By the time Clinton emerged from the coffees, however, it was usually about 11 a.m., and there was little time for briefings. Aides were left to scramble to squeeze time in later.

To make room for the added coffees in January, documents show, the president called off weekly economic briefings.

“It was a disappointment to us to have the briefings canceled, and no one knew at the time why it was being done,” said one official with the Council of Economic Advisers. Clinton received written reports until June, when he reinstated the briefings, but only once a month.

In early 1995, Clinton aides boasted of a major shake-up of the president’s calendar that would give him three or four hours of essential “thinking time” on most afternoons, at the expense of marginal public appearances. But this precious time all but vanished in 1996, aides said.

The coffees also took a toll on the White House staff, according to interviews and newly obtained documents.

At least 41 White House aides helped recruit, screen and invite thousands of prospective supporters to coffees. Staff members produced briefing papers for the president on the backgrounds of participants and any issues they might bring up.

“Did they take a lot of work? Yes,” said one aide who arranged the coffees. “Were they a logistical nightmare? Yes.”

Preparing for a May 13, 1996, Clinton coffee for bankers that raised $70,000, Treasury Department staff members generated a nearly 4-inch stack of documents.

Sniping sometimes erupted between the White House and DNC.

“This is pathetic,” Clinton aide Tracy B. LaBrecque wrote in a Jan. 24 e-mail. “We need a system in place if we are going to go forth with a series of these coffees--or it is a waste of the president’s time. They need to think about who they are inviting more than 24 hours out.”

The staff work did not end with the coffees.

At Clinton’s personal request, each participant of a coffee was sent “a nice copy” of the president’s State of the Union address.

Clinton advisor Marsha Scott also was assigned to take notes of the guests’ concerns and “follow-up on policy issues [with] the appropriate department heads for them to respond,” according to an e-mail.

White House officials said they could not explain what type of follow-up Scott performed. Scott was not available to comment.

Asked about administration staffers devoting so much time to fund-raising-related activities, White House spokesman Davis said employees are only prohibited from soliciting contributions at the executive mansion.

“They most certainly can be part of an event for helping motivate people to raise money and reward people committed to give money,” Davis said.

Also, Clinton got valuable feedback from the sessions and often enjoyed them, staff members said. But they could grow stale.

Karl D. Jackson, president of the U.S.-Thai Business Council and a former Bush administration official, attended a June 18 coffee that was dominated by Thai businessmen discussing U.S.-China policy.

“The president was not much involved,” Jackson testified before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. “It was curious, because he seemed quite disconnected. . . . He seemed like he was putting in time.”

The time proved worthwhile. A day later, one participant, Pauline Kanchanalak, gave $85,000 to the DNC. The money later was returned amid suspicions it came from overseas.

Clinton hosted a second coffee that afternoon, one of four in a three-day span. That week, Clinton also did 14 fund-raising-related events in six days and raised $5.6 million.

Now, more than a year after he coasted to reelection, Clinton is again fund-raising at full throttle.

In defending the president’s nonstop money chase, White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry cited the Republican Party’s substantial advantage in an off-election year that has seen record contributions to both parties. During the first six months, the GOP raised $59.1 million and the Democrats $35.1 million.

“Wake up and see reality,” McCurry told reporters earlier this month, suggesting there is no end in sight to Clinton’s fund-raising streak. “So get used to it, because the president is going to have to do a lot more of it unless we secure campaign finance reform.”

Times staff writers Robert L. Jackson, Marc Lacey, Doyle McManus and Alan C. Miller and researcher Robin Cochran contributed to this story.

Times researcher Janet Lundblad compiled the information and created the database for this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Money Marathon

President Clinton attended an unprecedented 237 fund-raising-related events--amassing $119.2 million in donations for the Democratic National Committee--during the 10 months leading up to his reelection last year. The schedule below reveals a typically frenetic--and lucrative--week:

JUNE 1996

Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta:

“The president’s schedule is very full this week.”

17 MON

9:15 AM / Arrive at White House from Camp David

9:30 AM / DNC coffee----Map room [raised $400,000]

12:45 / DBC lunch----Blue room [meetings with donors]

7:00 PM / Reception for Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan [$80,000]

8:00 PM / DNC dinner--Ritz-Carlton Hotel [$500,000]

****

18 TUE

9:00 AM / DNC coffee----Map Room [$400,000]

12:45 PM / DNC coffee----Map Room [$150,000]

****

19 WED

9:00 AM / DNC coffee----Map Room [political supporters]

7:00 PM / Reception for Harvey Gantt at Va. residence [$340,000]

****

20 THU

9:00 AM / DNC coffee----Map Room [$102,000]

****

21 FRI

8:35 AM / Fly Air Force One to Chicago

1:00 PM / Travel to Houston

5:30 PM / DNC gala----Marriott Hotel [$1.5 million]

8:00 PM / Dinner at home of Marcia & Neil Strauss [$1.5 million]

10:00 PM / Sax Club at El Dorado Ranch [$90,000]

****

22 SAT

7:10 AM / Travel to Cleveland

1:30 PM / DNC lunch at Slam Jam Sports Grill [$500,000]

3:00 PM / Fly ack to Washington, D.C.

7:00 PM / DNC White House barbecue & movie [meetings with donors]

Total Amount Raised This Week: $5,562,000

Sources: Public papers of the president, White House, DNC, Reuters Daybook, Financial News Service Daybook

Researched by JANET LUNDBLAD / Los Angeles Times

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Coffees Inc.

President Clinton attended at least 237 fund-raising-related events in 1996, netting the Democratic Party and its candidates $119.2 million.

*--*

Amount No. of raised Event events (in millions) * Dinners 94 $75.0 * White House coffees 45 $8.8 * Receptions 40 $26.2 * Luncheons 16 $5.8 * Sax Club 10 $1.7 * White House overnights 20 $1.7 * Other 12 NA TOTAL 237 $119.2

*--*

Sources: Public papers of the president, White House, Democratic National Committee, Reuters Daybook, Financial News Service Daybook

Researched by JANET LUNDBLAD / Los Angeles Times

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Year-round fund-raising

President Clinton maintained a relentless fund-raising pace throughout the 1996 election years.

*--*

Amount No. of raised Event events (in millions) January 10 $2.6 February 20 $5.8 March 22 $7.6 April 13 $7.6 May 28 $19.7 June 30 $15.6 July 20 $9.4 August 19 $18.2 September 31 $19.0 October 24 $12.0 (Other) 20 $1.7 TOTAL 237 $119.2

*--*

Sources: Public papers of the president, White House, Democratic National Committee, Reuters Daybook, Financial News Service Daybook

Researched by JANET LUNDBLAD / Los Angeles Times