The Few, the Rich, the Rewarded Donate the Bulk of G.O.P. Gifts
        By DON VAN NATTA Jr. and JOHN M. BRODER

         PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 1 --
               Republican officials insist that their
          financial base is primarily small donors, but
          the party has received more than $90
          million from a relatively small pool of
          wealthy individuals and corporations, some
          of whom have shielded their generosity from public view.

          An elite cadre of 739 contributors, writing
          larger checks than in the past, has provided
          two-thirds of the party's $137 million in
          so-called soft money, the unrestricted party
          gifts. Some donors have been directed by
          party officials to make their gifts in ways
          that disguise their identity and the degree of
          their largess, according to a top Republican fund-raiser.

          The party's platinum-level sponsors are the
          Republican Regents, a group of 139 people
          and corporations that party officials say
          have each given at least $250,000 in soft
          money since January 1999. Two-thirds of
          the Regents are individuals, the rest are
          corporations. According to Federal Election
          Commission records, the select membership includes Lawrence Kadish,
          a New York real estate developer; Kenneth W. Lay, the chairman of
          Enron Corporation; Jerrold Perenchio, the chairman of the Univision
          television network; and Alex Spanos, a developer and investor based in
          Stockton, Calif.

          But Federal Election Commission records show only 54 corporations
          and individuals as having given the large donations to the party because
          some donors have split them into smaller checks, at the suggestion of
          party officials. That effectively makes the donors' contribution totals
          harder to trace.

          Some donors have also written checks to state party committees, whose
          records are not filed with the Federal Election Commission and are hard
          to obtain. Several party fund-raisers acknowledged that some donors
          have been told by finance officials to make contributions in the name of
          more obscure corporate subsidiaries that cannot always be easily linked
          to individuals.

          Bill Pascoe, the Republican Party press secretary, said he was not aware
          of a deliberate plan to direct large contributors to send checks to state
          party committees as a way of disguising the size of their gifts.

          But fund-raisers said big-dollar donors were willing to write numerous
          checks to different party committees to try to preserve their privacy.
          Some have even asked for suggestions from party officials for ways to
          disguise their contribution levels.

          "It's broken up," said a longtime Republican fund-raiser who declined to
          be named. "A man gives some, a spouse gives, an investment company
          gives, a subsidiary gives. People want anonymity. The party doesn't care;
          they're getting their money."

          Behind closed doors here this week, the Regents are getting suitably royal treatment.

          At 4 p.m. on Monday, Tiffany & Company closed early so it could hold
          a private reception for 200 Regents and their spouses. They sipped soup
          from mock Fabergé eggs as a string quartet played. Joan Specter, the
          wife of Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, designed the table
          arrangements, which included rare orange Gerber daisies and matching
          roses. Each Regent was given a trademark blue Tiffany box containing a
          crystal bowl, inscribed with George W. Bush's signature.

          Some Regents played golf this morning with Republican elected officials
          and former cabinet members at the White Marsh Valley Country Club in
          Lafayette Hills, Pa.

          These events have been strictly off limits to reporters, and credentials are
          carefully checked at the door. Several Regents asked the Republican
          National Committee to send extra party workers to guard their events
          from the media. (Party officials refused, suggesting the club hire its own
          security guards.)

          Party officials declined to disclose the Regents' membership list or a
          complete convention agenda, but The New York Times obtained a
          carefully guarded list of the Regents' Philadelphia itinerary from a
          member. On the calendar, the events are listed "REGENTS ONLY."

          In previous years, the donor elite was Team 100, a group of $100,000
          contributors that began in 1988 to help elect President George Bush. The
          club, now dedicated to the election of his son George W., the governor
          of Texas, has grown to 600 members and accounts for more than $60
          million of the party's $137 million in soft money. In Philadelphia, some
          Team 100 members have complained that their events are too crowded.
          One Regent crowed that Team 100 members were packed like sardines
          in their party suite, while the $250,000 club members had "room to
          stretch our legs."

          "You pay a little more, you get a little more," Mel Sembler, finance
          chairman of the Republican National Committee, said the other day.

          Party officials said that while they were grateful for the support of big
          donors, the core of the party was its 600,000 small contributors, whose
          average donation is $99.63, they said.

          "We are the party of small donors who represent grass-roots America,"
          said Jim Nicholson, the party chairman. "We're pleased with the
          outpouring of support we've seen in recent weeks, particularly since
          Governor Bush announced his selection of Dick Cheney."

          Some of the party's biggest donors have also written large checks to
          state Republican Party chapters. For example, 17 top donors to the
          national party also appear as donors to the Indiana party, according to
          the National Institute on Money in State Politics. Sam Fox, the chairman
          of the Harbour Group, a Missouri manufacturing company, and the
          party's largest individual donor, is credited in state records with having
          given the Indiana party $275,000. But Mr. Fox said in an interview today
          that he had not written a check to the state party. A Republican National
          Committee official said he could not explain the discrepancy.

          The institute found that 10 top national party contributors also gave a
          total of $367,000 to the New York party. A fund-raiser said that
          contributors were given credit for contributions to state parties when
          determining their qualifications for the Regents and Team 100 clubs.

          Campaign finance experts criticized the Republican Party today for what
          they said appeared to be efforts to hide large contributions.

          "This is an extraordinary development," said Fred Wertheimer, an
          advocate of revisions in federal campaign finance law and the president
          of Democracy 21, a group that works toward that end. "These efforts to
          raise soft money secretly are an outrageous evasion of disclosure laws.
          Large soft-money contributions are disappearing underground."

          Since March 1999, Governor Bush has raised $93.2 million in checks of
          $1,000 or less, much of it raised by a network of fund-raisers called the
          Pioneers. He has promptly listed his donors and the amounts they have
          contributed on his Web site.

          "I have always supported rapid public disclosure of campaign
          contributions as a healthy campaign finance reform," Mr. Bush said in
          September.

          Mr. Sembler, a Florida shopping center magnate and former ambassador
          to Australia, created the Regents last year, coining the name.

          "I thought it had a lofty sound to it," Mr. Sembler said in an interview
          earlier this year. But some Republicans do not like the name, saying it
          hardly hides the fact that a small donor group gets royal treatment from
          the party. This week's highlight event is a "Regents only" reception that
          precedes Wednesday's Republican gala lunch to be held at the
          Philadelphia Marriott. The Regents will get to meet privately with
          Governor Bush and his wife, Laura; Mr. Cheney; and Gov. Jeb Bush of
          Florida.

          When asked if he would allow a reporter to attend a Regents event, Mr.
          Sembler laughed. "Write me a $250,000 check," he said, "and I'll open
          the door for you."

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