Identities of Many Donors to Davis Foundations Remain Cloaked

Gov. Gray Davis raised $750,000 earlier this year to help elect fellow Democrats to governorships, but the identities of most of the donors remain cloaked.

By law, Davis must identify donors to his reelection campaign account, which contains more than $21 million, and he does. He is not legally obligated to identify those who gave $2.5 million to three tax-exempt foundations that help pay for his travel and home upkeep, or those who contributed most of the $750,000 he raised for Democratic candidates for governor in other states.

B.J. Thornberry, executive director of the Democratic Governors Assn., and Garry South, Davis’ chief political strategist, both declined to release a list of those donors.

Much of the money went to pay for the Democratic governors’ annual dinner in February.

A new law approved by Congress and signed by President Clinton requires that political organizations such as the Democratic Governors Assn. disclose the names of donors who gave after July 1.

Reports filed with the Internal Revenue Service since July show contributors to the Democratic governors group range from the National Education Assn., which gave $116,000, to tobacco giant Philip Morris, which gave $60,000. The lottery company GTECH, which has lottery contracts in California and other states, gave $50,000, and Los Angeles-based Global Crossings, a telecommunications firm, gave $20,000 and is a regular donor to Davis. The money was raised by various governors.

The Davis supporters who operate the tax-exempt foundations are not required to release the identities of donors to those funds, but The Times identified many of them earlier this month. They include several corporations with interests before the state.