Fwd: Donors and Fundraisers As Ambassadors

[Guest guest]

CENTER FOR RESPONSIVE POLITICS

MONEY IN POLITICS ALERT

Vol. 8, No. 22; August 15, 2005

tel: 202-857-0044, fax: 202-857-7809

email: info, web: www.opensecrets.org

www.capitaleye.org; www.fecwatch.org

 

EMBASSY ROW

President Bush Continues the Tradition of Awarding

Ambassadorships as Political Favors

 

Contact: Larry Noble (202/354-0108) or Steven Weiss

(202/354-0111), info

 

U.S. presidents have long rewarded big campaign donors,

fundraisers and other loyalists with ambassadorships to

desirable countries around the world, and President Bush is

no

exception.

 

At least 40 well-connected individuals who have contributed

or

raised generous amounts of money to help elect Republican

candidates since Bush's first campaign for president are

currently serving or have been nominated by him to serve as

ambassadors.

 

As a group, they and their immediate families gave a total

of

$8.8 million to federal candidates and political parties

between

1999 and 2004. Of that, $7.7 million, or 88 percent, went

to

Republicans. Nearly 9 percent, or $757,000, went directly

to

Bush's two presidential campaigns, his two inaugural funds

and

the Florida recount fund he formed following the 2000

election.

 

Twenty-three of the 40 ambassadors and nominees were top

Bush

fundraisers, raising at least $100,000 for one or both of

the

president's campaigns for the White House.

 

Almost all of the nearly $974,000 contributed by the group

to

Democrats came from Roland Arnall, the billionaire owner of

Ameriquest Capital Corp. who Bush nominated last month to

be the

U.S. envoy to the Netherlands. Arnall and his wife

contributed

nearly $943,000 to Democrats over the period studied. Their

contributions to Republicans were slightly higher, totaling

more

than $1.1 million.

 

Not counting the Arnalls' contributions, the remaining

ambassadors and nominees donated a total of $6.7 million

between

1999 and 2004, of which nearly $6.6 million, or 98 percent,

went

to Republicans. Totals include contributions to third

parties.

 

The presidential practice of awarding ambassadorships to

donors

and fundraisers goes back at least as far as Franklin

Roosevelt,

who nominated Joseph Kennedy to serve in Great Britain.

Presidents traditionally reserve about a third of all

ambassadorships for friends and political loyalists.

 

In his first term, Bush nominated the likes of Richard

Egan,

chairman of data storage giant EMC, to be ambassador to

Ireland,

and investor Mercer Reynolds as envoy to Switzerland. Egan

and

his wife contributed $480,100 during the 2000 election

cycle

alone to Republican candidates and party committees, the

Bush-Cheney Inaugural Committee and Florida recount fund.

Reynolds and his wife gave a total of more than $456,000 to

Republican causes that cycle.

 

Arnall is by far the biggest Republican donor of the

current

crop of ambassadors and nominees. His $1.1 million to the

GOP

between 1999 and 2004 includes a $1 million contribution to

the

RNC in October 2002 by his wife, Dawn. She also contributed

$5

million in August of last year to Progress for America, a

Republican-leaning group that worked for Bush's reelection.

 

Roland and Dawn each were listed as Bush Rangers last year

for

having raised at least $200,000 for the president's

campaign.

Roland's company, Ameriquest, contributed a total of

$1,000,000

to the president's second inaugural committee. (Company

contributions are not included in an individual's totals.)

 

Investment banker Ronald Spogli, nominated to be ambassador

to

Italy, is the second-highest Republican donor on the roster

of

ambassadors and nominees. He and his wife contributed

nearly

$803,000 to Republicans between 1999 and 2004, including

$100,000 to Bush's first inaugural committee. The gave

nothing

to Democrats.

 

Spogli, who was Bush's classmate at Harvard Business

School,

founded the Los Angeles-based investment firm of Freeman

Spogli

with fellow Bush loyalist Brad Freeman. Spogli attained

Pioneer

status in both 2000 and 2004 for having raised at least

$100,000

for each of Bush's presidential campaigns.

 

The third-highest donor is GOP fundraiser Catherine Todd

Bailey,

who is currently serving as ambassador to Latvia. Bailey

and her

husband, a venture capitalist and former insurance company

executive, contributed nearly $621,000 to Republicans

between

1999 and 2004. Bailey was listed as a Bush Ranger last

year; her

husband achieved Pioneer status.

 

During the 2004 election, Bailey served as Kentucky finance

chairwoman for the Bush campaign. She once served as

co-chair of

Republican Regents, a donor designation of the Republican

National Committee.

 

In all, six ambassadors and nominees, and their immediate

families, contributed at least $500,000 to Republicans

between

1999 and 2004. Twenty-one gave at least $100,000.

 

<Research by Zach Barter and Doug Weber.>

 

This report, with relevant links, is available at

<http://www.capitaleye.org/inside.asp?ID=180>

 

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