Bush considering Ohioan for Commerce secretary

WASHINGTON — A top contender to become the next Commerce secretary is a Cincinnati-area businessman who raised $260 million for President Bush’s re-election campaign and is credited with helping him win Ohio’s electoral votes that clinched the election.

Mercer Reynolds III, an occasional overnight guest at the White House and Camp David whom the president nicknamed “Merce,” served as the president’s campaign finance chairman this year, filling a post that outgoing Commerce Secretary Don Evans held in 2000.

Evans, a close friend of Bush’s for more than three decades, announced his resignation this week, saying it was time for him to return to Texas. Reynolds, meanwhile, has been widely mentioned as a possible replacement for Evans at the helm of the nation’s agency responsible for employment, international trade, civil rights, patents and the census.

(snip)

Bennett said besides owning shares in numerous companies, being an adept fund-raiser for Republicans and having served as ambassador to Switzerland, a key strength is that Reynolds works hard: If no one’s around to do what needs to be done, he does it himself.

more…
http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?Category=23&ID=192185&r=0&external=&newCookie=yes&userID=129723&external=&newCookie=yes&userID=124067

Name Mr. Mercer Reynolds III
Appointed To Switzerland Ambassador
Industry Finance
Employer Reynolds DeWitt & Co.
Occupation Chair
Address 300 Main St
Cincinnati, OH 45202
Status for 2000 Raised at least $100,000
Status for 2004 not listed
Profile
The grandfathers of Pioneer cousins James Reynolds and Mercer Reynolds bought wood-pulp plantation land outside Atlanta that they fondly called “Cracker’s Neck.” Their grandsons and Pioneer Harold Reynolds developed it into the Reynolds Plantation Golf Resort (see also Robert Mitchell), with a luxury hotel and million-dollar homes covering 7,000 acres of woodlands overlooking Lake Oconee. A single 1999 Plantation fundraiser raised $700,000 for Bush. Mercer Reynolds and Pioneer William DeWitt both joined Cincinnati investment firm Gradison & Co. in 1974 before striking out on their own with Reynolds DeWitt & Co (see John Kern). Reynolds and DeWitt raised a record $605,000 for George W. Bush’s 2000 election campaign. That campaign also reimbursed Reynolds DeWitt $55,668 for flights that Bush took on its corporate jets. After Reynolds and DeWitt chaired the Bush-Cheney Inaugural committee that raised $40 million, President Bush appointed Reynolds as U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland. When Reynolds resigned that post in April 2003, Bush quickly made him finance chair of his reelection campaign. Bush’s second stop on his fundraising drive for his 2004 reelection returned him to the Plantation, where he initially hoped to raise $1 million. In fact, the event raised $2.5 million after Reynolds’ cousin, James Reynolds, and follow Pioneer Eric Tanenblatt, chief of staff to Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, beat the bushes to boost high-roller turnout. Reynolds and DeWitt have deep roots with Bush. The duo owned Spectrum 7 oil company, which bailed out Bush’s hemorrhaging Bush Oil Co. in 1984. Both partners—who also own fast-food and convenience store interests—were big donors to the first President Bush and major investors in the Texas Rangers baseball team, which made George W. Bush a millionaire 15 times over. Much of this profit derived from a large equity stake that other partners in the investment gifted to Bush as well as the $135 million that local taxpayers forked out for the Rangers’ new Ballpark in Arlington. Reynolds and DeWitt also own part of the St. Louis Cardinals along with Pioneer Stephen Brauer. The Cardinals demanded a new, bond-financed stadium in 2000, despite recent major expenditures by the city to remodel Busch Stadium.

Why wasn't Sec of State Blackwell considered for an appointment? He figured that Katherine Harris went on to bigger and better things.

wants to be Governor.

expect them to consider it.

. . . aka 2004's Katherine Harris for his failure to properly account for provisional ballots, and refusing to allow citizens to see the pollbooks.

BBV has requested that this be his new moniker from today forward. So let it be written, so let it be done.

Please invoke the following name change on Blackwell immediately, as he is 2004's Katherine Harris. He should now be referred to at all times as "Katherine Blackwell." Please retain this moniker for any future runs for governor.

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

TYY:7

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

Here we go, folks...payback time.
:grr:

for prints.

ever hear of the concept of fidicuary duty to the american people, or conflict of interest, mr. shrubhead?