Posted on 01/20/2005 2:59:45 PM PST by Mark
Golden State tops list of gala donors
By Lisa Friedman Washington Bureau
Thursday, January 20, 2005 - WASHINGTON -- Political strategists may see California as a blue state, but when it comes to filling President George W. Bush's inauguration coffers, the Golden State is all green.
To help pay for this week's inaugural festivities, Californians and corporations based in the state donated $4.5 million -- more than any other state, and twice as much as second-place Texas.
Contributors in Los Angeles and Ventura counties alone gave $1.9 million, more than all the donations from Florida.
"Good," said Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, when told of the figures.
Government watchdog groups don't see it quite the same way.
"We're a country at war, we have soldiers in Iraq that don't have proper equipment and gear, we just saw the worst natural disaster in the world," said Common Cause President Chellie Pingree.
Of the more than $40 million being raised for the inauguration from Californians and others, she said, "Some people find a shocking contrast in our nation, and this may not be the way we want to be viewed."
Pingree called the inauguration week of balls, luncheons and corporate-sponsored private parties a "high-end lobbying bonanza" for the companies sinking hundreds of thousands of dollars into the events.
Leading the California fund raising is Los Angeles businessman Brad Freeman, a longtime Bush fund-raiser who is serving as co-chairman of the inaugural committee. He gave $100,000 for the week's festivities.
In the Los Angeles area, Occidental Petroleum Corp. gave $250,000 while Northrop Grumman, based in Los Angeles, and biotechnology giant Amgen Inc. of Thousand Oaks donated $100,000 apiece.
Individual Angelenos opening their wallets to the tune of $100,000 or more include investor Elliott Broidy, developer and city Police Commissioner Rick Caruso and Marna Schnabel, wife of Rockwell Schnabel, U.S. ambassador to the European Union.
"I think it's a wonderful example of democracy in action, of having a peaceful election and celebrating the democratic process," said Caruso, who donated $100,000.
Bruce Bialosky, president of the Republican Jewish Coalition of Los Angeles who raised $100,000 for Bush's re-election but was not one of the top inaugural donors, took issue with what he called a "cynical" view that political donors are always angling for access. While it may be true of corporate bigwigs and lobbyists, he argued that many individual donors "just really like the president."
Besides California's $4.5 million in donations to the 55th Presidential Inauguration Committee, other top donating states were Texas, $2.06 million; New York, $1.8 million; Florida, $1.5 million; and Ohio, $1.5 million.
California has long been known as the ATM machine of politics. GOP political consultant Dan Schnur said it's no surprise that California inauguration donations far surpassed every other state.
"Donors like this fall into two categories. They're either existing donors and supporters of the president, or they represent interests that they think help get them access to the administration.
"California has more than its share in both of these groups, so it stands to reason we'd have more donors to the inaugural committee," he said.
Staff Writer Rick Orlov contributed to this report.
--- Lisa Friedman, (202) 662-8731 lisa.friedman@langnews.com
Well said.
there are at least 10 million of us in California that voted for and support Pres Bush regardless of others perceptions.........
Yeah, and that's important. I remember how I hated SD getting tweaked constantly back at me for the Daschle problem. Feels good to not have that anymore.
everyone that is complaining about the parties and the money spent forgets the real reason people pay for parties -THEY WANT TO HAVE FUN. These individuals invite their employees and their friends to events where they can dress up like grown ups. Wives get to put on theri best and men get to complain about wearing a tux- so what. It is fun and that is the real reason people are spending money. All the political reasons are for the newspeople who ahve too much time on their hands.
So true! Then there is a national news corporation looking for a funeral of a U.S. soldier on the same day.
About 5 million voters acutally. Of course Bush got more votes here then from any other state.
Not to mention to mention Californian's were the biggest contributors to both parties. Not that we got to see any ads. Still in all I am glad we won.
thanks for the correction........as a true Repub alot of my time here is spent defending Calif from people who don't know crap about it except for what they see on the news. This state is great and transcends politics for the most part......when you spend all day in front of cable TV or on blogs, all you see is the bad stuff of course.........
Yeah. People were bashing California 20 years ago. It has little to do with politics and a lot to do with jealousy IMHO.
Of the more than $40 million being raised for the inauguration from Californians and others, she said, "Some people find a shocking contrast in our nation, and this may not be the way we want to be viewed."
I see this hasn't deterred Ms. Pingree from taking a considerable sum of money in political donations from Californians over the past 5 years
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I wish these big corporations would help in getting Barbara Boxer defeated. We are growing in numbers. We also # 2 on Free Republic doner list his quarter :>
Those Texans gave more dam dimes that we did
Nope. Californian's donated the most to FR. Like usual.
"nope, Calif donated the most to FR"
Great.. :> :> :} I looked yesterday after donating and we were second. now we are going to have to keep it up
AND they found a kid in Texas.
Most of our state has red counties... 44% of us voted for Bush.
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