Bush Campaign Bolstered by 19 New Rangers and Pioneers
ClAug. 17, 2004
Bush Campaign Bolstered by 19 New Rangers and Pioneers
Seven More Republican Party Rainmakers Reach “Super Ranger” Status
WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Bush’s unrivaled $228 million fundraising effort has been led by 544 major contributors, including 19 newly disclosed by the campaign. This elite group of “bundlers” has collected at least $76.5 million for Bush, according to WhiteHouseForSale.org.
The Bush campaign now boasts 221 Rangers, fundraisers who have collected at least $200,000 in individual contributions, and 323 Pioneers, who each have brought in at least $100,000. In addition, the Republican Party has named 69 “Super Rangers” – including seven recently identified for the first time – who have raised $300,000 for the GOP in addition to their contributions to the Bush campaign.
WhiteHouseForSale.org, a Web site created by Public Citizen to track contributors to the presidential campaigns, has updated its searchable database with the names of the new Rangers and Pioneers, along with their home states, employers and occupations. The site shows how much Bush has raised from key industries and which states have produced the most Bush bundlers.
Among the newly named Pioneers are five individuals who ranked among Bush’s top fundraisers in 2000, including Tom Hicks, the former vice chairman of Clear Channel and who bought the Texas Rangers from Bush. Other new Pioneer notables include former Kansas Gov. Bill Graves, head of the American Trucking Association, and Stephen Sandherr, CEO of the Associated General Contractors of America, whose wife used to be Enron’s top lobbyist. U.S. Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) is the lone new Ranger, although another nine previously identified 2004 Pioneers have been elevated to Ranger status.
Five of the seven newest Super Rangers already had qualified as Rangers (another is a Pioneer), meaning they each have brought in at least $500,000 for Bush campaign efforts. The only new Super Ranger previously unacknowledged by the GOP is Lindsay Rosenwald, chairman of Paramount Capital Investments. Information about all of the Super Rangers is available at WhiteHouseForSale.org.
“By the time President Bush accepts the Republican nomination, this elite coterie of campaign contributors personally will have collected more money than the entire Bush campaign raised in 2000,” said Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook. “We need to rescue the electoral process from these wealthy special interests and return it to average citizens.”