Powerful ‘Pioneers’ Help Fill Bush Campaign Coffers

The list of 115 “pioneers” who took to the phones to raise $100,000 each for Texas Gov. George W. Bush’s presidential campaign is studded with governors, lawmakers, business leaders and lobbyists.

Past candidates have felt lucky to have one-third as many high-level fund-raisers.

And it’s much larger than the team Democratic fund-raiser Terence McAuliffe estimated is needed--100 people raising at least $50,000 each--for a successful White House bid.

“When it comes to this kind of fund-raising, this is retail politics,” said veteran Republican fund-raiser Fred Bush, a friend of the governor’s but no relation. “You’ve got to call them, you’ve got to write them letters and you have to convince them this is the right thing to do.”

He said pioneers typically had to call more than 200 people to find 100 willing to contribute $1,000 each.

The size of his stable of big rainmakers is just another of the fund-raising records that Bush is smashing. He already has raised $37 million, more money than the 1996 GOP nominee, Bob Dole, took in for his entire campaign.

Bush has already raised close to 27,000 donations of $1,000, which is the maximum individual contribution allowed by law. In 1996, all of the Republican presidential candidates combined received 48,786 contributions of $1,000 each.

Family ties and his own base of support in Texas account for 56 of Bush’s pioneers. Three family members are on the list: uncles Jonathan Bush and William H.T. Bush and sister Dorothy Bush Koch. So are four former co-owners with Bush of the Texas Rangers baseball team.

The list of pioneers released by the governor’s office includes two federal lawmakers, Reps. Jennifer Dunn of Washington and Joe Barton of Texas; and two governors, John Engler of Michigan and Bill Owens of Colorado.

Two others, Enron Corp. Chairman Kenneth Lay and Texas Utilities Chairman Erle Nye, were raising money for Bush while the Texas Legislature was deciding to deregulate the electric industry. Bush signed the measure into law last month.

Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice, a campaign finance advocacy group, said some of Bush’s big fund-raisers could be currying favor with a person they hope will occupy the White House.

“There’s always that appearance when people give such huge sums to political candidates,” McDonald said. “Do these donors want something from government? Absolutely.”

Gov. Bush portrayed his pioneers as a grass-roots network of supporters.

“These are people who’ve decided to take time out of their lives to help me become the president,” he said. “And I am really grateful and very humbled by the outpouring of support.”

Dunn, who said she had raised $130,000 for the Texas governor, said one factor is the GOP’s desire to end the eight-year Democratic occupation of the White House.

“The Republicans are hungry,” Dunn said. “That’s one of the reasons you see so many governors, so many state party chairmen getting on board. They really want to win.”