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."