Critics Howl Over Inauguration Gifts

President-elect George W. Bush’s plan to pay for most of his inauguration with private donations of as much as $100,000 has drawn criticism from election finance watchdog groups that warn it would allow special interests to improperly curry favor with the new administration.

“It’s a terrible first message to send about what kind of administration he’ll be running,” said Don Simon, general counsel for Common Cause, a nonpartisan group that lobbies for government accountability.

Organizers of the inauguration, however, say their effort to raise at least $30 million from private contributors will help defray the cost of tickets to the parade and balls, making it possible for more of the public to attend. “These contributions are from good people who want to be part of history,” said Dirk Vande Beek, spokesman for the Presidential Inaugural Committee.

Unlike four years ago, when donations to President Clinton’s second inauguration were limited to $100 per person, officials planning the festivities for next month aim to collect 200 to 250 “underwriter” contributions of $100,000 each, according to a member of the inaugural committee. He said individuals and companies would be limited to one donation each, though some firms had expressed interest in contributing 10 times that amount.

An additional $10 million could be raised by selling $2,500 tickets to several candlelight dinners planned on the eve of the inauguration, the committee member said.

Together, the contributions are expected to yield at least $30 million, with millions more to come from sales of tickets to inaugural events. Organizers estimated that tickets to the balls would be somewhat less expensive than the $150 charged for a standard ticket in 1997.

The reliance on private contributions marks a return to the way inaugurations were financed until four years ago, when the bulk of the costs was covered by sales of tickets to the gala, balls and parade. Before 1997, inaugurals were paid for in part by contributions and loans of as much as $100,000, but the Clinton team overhauled the practice after some of those who gave to his first inauguration later figured in controversies concerning Democratic fund-raising for the 1996 national campaign.

Watchdog groups said financing the celebration primarily through ticket sales would have posed less concern than covering costs with a small number of hefty donations. “This becomes yet another opportunity for wealthy interests who want to invest in a new administration to put down a substantial sum of money,” Simon said. “The investment pays off in terms of access and influence.”

Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, said that financing the festivities through large private donations nurtures the perception that “certain powerful corporations” will have an unfair advantage when they have business before the Bush administration. “The new administration doesn’t seem to be terribly sensitive to these considerations,” Lewis said.

During the last eight years, some Democrats and Republicans have grown increasingly alarmed by the avalanche of unlimited, unregulated special-interest contributions--called soft money--to the two major parties and other political groups.

Critics of the new financing plan said many contributions will come from donors who already had started to win Bush’s attention by giving money to support his campaign, the Republican Party and the Republican National Convention.

Being asked to donate to the inauguration is “like last call before the bar closes,” said Larry Makinson, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics. “It’s just a way to cozy up to the new administration.”

But Vande Beek dismissed concerns about the influence of special interests. The donors “are just being good citizens and helping us out.”

Vande Beek said the inaugural committee is not bound by federal election finance laws but would voluntarily follow Federal Election Commission guidelines.

He said that contributions would be accepted only from U.S. citizens and that all donations would be listed on the committee’s Web site, which is to come online next week.