NYT: Newcomers Provide Fuel for Bush Money Machine

March 14, 2004
Newcomers Provide Fuel for Bush Money Machine
By GLEN JUSTICE

OUSTON, March 10 — When President Bush came to town this week, the line to exchange a few words and pose for a picture with him was thick with heavyweights. There, at a private reception, was Gordon Bethune, the chief executive of Continental Airlines, and Drayton McLane, the owner of the Houston Astros. And there was Paul Dickerson.

Mr. Dickerson is not well known, but he is highly valuable to the Bush campaign, one of 187 "Rangers" who have each raised at least $200,000. Only 33, he is one of many fresh faces behind Mr. Bush's financial operation, which has minted scores of new fund-raisers and molded them into the most effective money machine in presidential campaign history.

Mr. Bush as of this week has raised more than $159 million — an average of more than $590,000 a day — since June, breaking his own record of roughly $100 million from the 2000 campaign and establishing a vast financial advantage over Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee. The bankroll is a driving force in this year's election, shaping strategy and tactics as Democrats struggle to compete.

While fund-raisers have long fueled Washington politics, the new McCain-Feingold campaign finance law changed the game when it limited individual contributions to $2,000 for candidates and banned the unlimited "soft money" donations to political parties that used to help drive presidential campaigns. Now, the campaigns turn less to established wealthy donors and more to people like Mr. Dickerson, who can collect large numbers of small checks.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/14/politics/campaign/14MONE.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=

... in the last fifteen months or so, but he doesn't want to give more than an hour to just the co-chairmen of the 9/11 commission. I wonder why someone doesn't jump on that little fact.

so that you can get to shake his f'ing hand?
I'd do it so that I could spit in his face.

Just goes to show ya that there's a new one born every day.

And kick their asses in fund raising.

With all of the talk about "organizing" from the left, the right seems a lot more organized lately. I guess that's because they have the churches, but we are going to have to catch up if we want to win elections.

Why is the Democratic Party so far behind in fund raising? It's not just a matter of big donations where the Republicans win, but in small ones. Why?