We're In The Money

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By Michael Isikoff

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Mobilizing his new elite team of moneymen known as the Rangers, President George W. Bush is about to kick off a two-week fund-raising blitz that aides say will shatter existing records, putting them on track to nearly double the $100 million they raked in during the 2000 campaign. The intense money tour begins in Washington on June 17 with a $2,000-a-ticket cocktail reception. A lineup of power lobbyists--including those representing the U.S. Oil and Gas Association, the Edison Electric Institute, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and many others--are among the event co-chairs. Bush will also fly off to fund-raisers in New York, California, Florida, Georgia and possibly Ohio. Local Republican officeholders are besieging the Bushies to add more events. "You can't believe how motivated the base is right now," says one top GOP moneyman, citing tax cuts and the toppling of Saddam Hussein. "You've got to strike while the fire is hot."

The fund-raising frenzy underscores the Bush team's determination to avoid the mistakes of the first President Bush, who GOP strategists say waited far too long to begin his re-election campaign. The blitz also highlights the GOP's campaign-finance-reform advantage. The new law--whose constitutionality is to be argued before the Supreme Court this fall--bans unlimited "soft money" donations to political parties. As it turns out, the Democrats are far more dependent on "soft money," especially from wealthy trial lawyers, Hollywood liberals and labor unions. But the new law also doubles the limits on "hard money" donations from $1,000 to $2,000. This plays directly to Bush's strength. In 2000, the Bush campaign recruited a core team of "Pioneers"--premier fund-raisers who brought in $100,000 apiece by "bundling" $1,000 donations from rich friends and associates. With the new expanded limits, the Pioneers have been supplanted by the Rangers--each of whom has now committed to raking in $200,000. GOP veterans say they have a far bigger network of $2,000 donors. By pushing campaign-finance reform, the Democrats "totally screwed themselves," gloats one Ranger. One Democratic strategist, Michael Feldman, acknowledges the GOP money advantage is a "political fact of life," but insists that it ultimately "won't be the decisive factor" in next year's race.

Next week's D.C. reception will be the Bush moneymen's first chance to strut their stuff. A copy of the invite list obtained by NEWSWEEK shows nearly 200 co-chairs, each of whom has committed to raising $20,000 for that event alone. In addition to the usual lobbyists, the list includes a bevy of ex-41 aides such as C. Boyden Gray and Janet Mullins. Other notables: Ken Starr, bete noire of the Clintons, and Edward MacMahon Jr., the court-appointed lawyer for Zacarias Moussaoui, the accused Qaeda terrorist. MacMahon, an old friend of event honorary chair Marvin Bush's (the president's brother), jokingly told NEWSWEEK: "I can't comment on whether I've asked Moussaoui" to chip in.

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