NEW YORK - It's getting to the point where it might be easier to list who in Corporate America did not contribute money to George W. Bush's re-election campaign.
On the eve of the Republican National Convention in midtown Manhattan, the swell of corporate backing is good news for Bush and his campaign wallet. But it's hardly a surprise.
Deep-pocketed business leaders usually cheer for, and finance, Republicans' company-friendly candidates. Bush's countrywide list this year of contributing corporations, his A Team of Rolodex-empowered executive fundraisers, and the sheer volume of business managers willing to ante up the $2,000 maximum individual campaign contributions could set an Olympic record.
So far, the Bush campaign has collected $242-million, a sum that continues to grow even as you read this.
Democratic challenger John Kerry has managed to remain close behind Bush's money machine with at least $234-million, despite modest business support.
How modest? Kerry's campaign this summer proudly released a national list of 200 business executives who agreed to declare their support for the Democratic candidate. Bush could assemble a list of 200 business leaders in Florida alone.
Of Bush's 20 biggest corporate backers nationally, 15 are Wall Street giants such as Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, or big banks and major accounting firms. Kerry's top 20 is evenly split among more diverse groups: Wall Street firms and banks, but also major universities and big corporations. (Kerry's fundraising was examined in a July 25 column that ran prior to the Democratic National Convention.)
Geographically, Bush received the most campaign funds - $20.2-million - from his home state of Texas. Kerry's top contributing state, California, kicked in $23-million so far.
A critical, contentious state - the biggest of the swing states - Florida is really a tale of two races. Among Florida voters, polls show Bush and Kerry remain neck and neck. But in fundraising, Bush has flattened Kerry.
Bush has raised $14.7-million, making Florida his third biggest money state after Texas and California. Kerry has managed to raise just $4.8-million, putting Florida far behind his big states of California, New York and his home state of Massachusetts, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
It helps that the president's dad campaigned here on his own behalf in election contests of the 1980s and early '90s. It helps that the incumbent president campaigned here 2000 and has often traveled here since then to press the flesh and raise funds.
And, of course, brother Jeb, himself an accomplished fundraiser in his second term as Florida's governor, has placed his state fundraising machine at President Bush's beck and call. It's worth remembering, too, that Jeb Bush worked for years building both business and Republican party contacts as a Miami real estate developer at the same time his father served as vice president and then president of the United States.
The result: There's a long history of big business names raising money in Florida for the Bush family.
George Bush's list of campaign donors runs deep and wide around here. Thousands of Floridians, including many representing big and small businesses, individually contributed up to the legal maximum of $2,000 to his campaign.
But a big reason Bush's fundraising trumped Kerry in Florida stems from his state network of 55 big fundraisers. (Only Texas has more.) These are the typically powerful, or certainly enthusiastic, business executives who have persuaded people they know to give to the Bush campaign. These 55 are called bundlers for their ability to attract large numbers of individual donations and deliver them en masse to the Bush campaign.
To encourage this elite class of bundlers, Bush set up a rewards system. Fundraisers able to gather at least $100,000 earn the title of Pioneers, a designation that Bush used in his 2000 campaign. As some Pioneers in the 2004 campaign vastly exceeded their money goals, Bush established a higher tier called Rangers: people who bundled together at least $200,000. Bush recently added another level called Super Rangers to accommodate fundraisers who bundled $300,000 or more.
Many of these fundraisers ended up with positions in the Bush administration, or valuable government contracts for their corporations.
Nationwide, Bush has 544 such fundraisers. Nine of Florida's 55 are raising funds in the greater Tampa Bay area.
Just a few of the nine are well known business names. Two qualify as Super Rangers, one is a Ranger and the rest are Pioneers (though that may change as they raise more money). Here's a brief look at Tampa Bay's biggest money raisers for Bush:
* Al Austin. The Tampa developer of offices and hotels is finance chairman for the Florida Republican Party. He's a political institution, and this year a Super Ranger, having been involved in every presidential, Senate and gubernatorial race in the state since 1972. Gov. Bush appointed him to the board overseeing Tampa International Airport, and later named him to his advisory council on base realignment and closures to lobby against federal cutbacks in military spending in the state.
* Todd S. Farha. Never heard of him? You will. He emerged on the Tampa Bay scene in 2002 when the former executive with Oxford Health Plans led a New York investor group in the purchase of Tampa's privately held WellCare HMO (FYI, one of Farha's investment partners in that venture is George Soros, the billionaire who's spending a ton of money to defeat Bush). Last month, Farha took WellCare Health Plans Inc. public on the New York Stock Exchange. The company depends heavily on government contracts to run Medicare and Medicaid HMOs in Florida and five other states. Last spring, Florida House Speaker Johnnie Byrd flew home from campaign fundraising on a private jet chartered by WellCare at the same time the HMO was pushing legislation potentially worth millions of dollars to the company.
* David Hart. As finance director at WellCare Health Plans, Hart and Farha not only share the same executive suites but the same political interests. Two Pioneers in a pod.
* James W. Holton. He's a Madeira Beach real estate developer and attorney with beachfront holdings. Gov. Bush named Holton to the board of the Florida Transportation Commission and renewed his appointment last year until 2007.
* Tramm Hudson. He's a banker and the chairman of the Sarasota County Republican Party, so his fundraising success comes as little surprise. He was an executive with Provident Bank but now works for RBC Centura, the North Carolina bank (owned by a giant Canada bank) that recently bought Provident. Hudson served on Gov. Bush's transition team for the second administration.
* Bob Martinez. He's the best known of the nine area mega-fundraisers and a Bush Ranger to boot. The former Florida governor is not a lawyer but now directs government relations for the Carlton Fields law firm in Tampa. He's also a former Tampa mayor and served as the nation's drug czar under - you guessed it - President George Bush. He and wife Mary Jane pooled their fundraising skills to gain Ranger status.
* H. Gary Morse. Forty years ago, he and his father pitched mail order land sales. For $10 down and $10 a month, buyers got a piece of rural Lake County. It was a hit with mobile homes. Now Morse's The Villages with its faux small-Midwestern-town feel is perhaps the fastest-selling retirement community in the history of Florida. Morse was introduced to Republican politics by Al Hoffman, head of the upscale gulf coast condo developer WCI Communities, a big Bush family backer and the national finance chairman of the Republican National Committee. Morse listened. Now he, like Hoffman as well as Austin, have achieved Super Ranger status.
* Raghavendra Vijayanagar. He's a Tampa physician who also chairs the Indian-American Republican Council, which promotes legislation on medical malpractice and small-business issues. Though a majority of Indians in the United States are Democrats, he and Fort Lauderdale cardiologist Zach Zachariah have avidly worked to rally the Indian community behind Bush. One recent pitch: Kerry's public opposition to outsourcing of jobs overseas - often to India's detriment - could make Bush look more attractive.
* Robert Watkins. Along with wife Nancy, he owns the accounting business of Robert Watkins & Co. But raising big bucks for Bush is not enough. They are part of a group organizing the new Florida Leadership Council that, wrote St. Petersburg Times reporter Joni James this summer, pledges to "win the battle of ideas in Florida." How? By targeting advertising for less than MoveOn.org and other national liberal groups are spending. The group is led by Cory Tilley, a former aide to Gov. Bush.
Combined, these nine area fundraisers have collected as much or more money for President Bush as Kerry has been able to attract in the entire state. And there are 46 more like them spread across Florida. Among the notable: Jose "Pepe" Fanjul, a South Florida sugar baron and president of Florida Crystals Corp.; and real estate developer Mark Guzzetta, whose wedding featured Gov. Bush as Guzzetta's best man.
If these heavy lifters raised millions, George Bush also tapped many other Florida business folks happy to give up to their $2,000 individual limits. Perennial Republican supporters include Tampa's Outback Steakhouse founders Chris Sullivan, Bob Basham and Tim Gannon. Then there is Tampa's Walter Industries CEO Don DeFosset, Clearwater Hooters co-founder Ed Droste, and recently resigned TECO Energy CEO Bob Fagan.
Avram Glazer, one of the sons of Tampa Bay Buccaneers' owner Malcolm Glazer, also contributed in his role as CEO of the Glazer-controlled Zapata Corp. Raymond James Financial CEO Tom James, AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson, Winn-Dixie CEO Frank Lazaran, Tech Data CEO Steve Raymund, St. Joe Co. CEO Peter Rummell, and Wackenhut Corrections Corp. CEO George Zoley all gave, too.
Let's not forget The Boss. Even New York Yankees owner and Tampa resident George Steinbrenner gave to Bush. And he, more than anyone, understands the cardinal rule. It takes a whole lot of money to produce a winner.
