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Forum Attendees Funded Bush Campaign
WASHINGTON (AP) - Almost two-thirds of the corporate executives
planning to attend Wednesday's economic forum with President-elect
Bush contributed to his campaign for the White House.
Of the 36 people attending the event at the Texas governor's
mansion, 22 gave to Bush, all but one the legal maximum $1,000 to a
campaign that raised a record $100 million. In addition, the
attendees' companies contributed more than $7.2 million to
Republican Party committees, some of which went for ``issue ads''
supporting the Bush candidacy.
``People look for signals in any new administration,'' said
Larry Makinson, executive director of the Center for Responsive
Politics, a nonpartisan research group that studies campaign
finance. ``The one signal that is coming in loud and clear is that
the way to the inside of Bush administration is by giving campaign
contributions. Every list we see seems to be studded with campaign
contributors, many of them very big ones.''
Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said the conference attendees were
invited because the president-elect wanted to hear their views and
discuss his agenda with them, not because they were donors to his
campaign.
``The attendees were drawn on the basis of their expertise and
their knowledge of their communities and industries,'' Fleischer
said Wednesday. ``The idea that they are contributors or not
contributors has no bearing'' on their being invited to meet with
Bush.
The scheduled list of attendees included:
-Kenneth Lay, head of the energy company Enron, gave $1,000 to
Bush and raised more than $100,000 for the campaign. Enron officers
and employees overall gave $113,800 to Bush's presidential
campaign, and the company or its employees gave another $1.1
million to Republican Party committees. Enron and its employees
have given more money to Bush's various campaigns than anyone else,
according to the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington watchdog
group.
-Cisco Systems President John Chambers gave $1,000 to Bush and
another $280,000 to the GOP.
-Venture capitalist Floyd Kvamme gave a total of $145,000 to
Bush's campaign, his recount effort in Florida, and the Republican
Party.
-Jack Welch, retiring chairman of General Electric, gave $1,000
to Bush while his company gave $245,250 to the GOP.
-Ivan Seidenberg, president of Verizon, the telecommunications
giant formed by the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE, gave $1,000 to
Bush. His company contributed $818,000 to GOP party committees and
$3 million to the host committee for last summer's Republican
National Convention in Philadelphia.
Unlike President Clinton's 1993 pre-inauguration economic
gathering, which was televised nationally and allowed phoned-in
questions from viewers, Bush's will be closed.
Fleischer said the Clinton and Bush sessions could not be
compared. He said Bush decided that it was best to meet in private
with the leaders to get their ideas.
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On the Net: Bush transition team:
http://www.bushcheneytransition.com
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