Corruption Pereception Index

Corruption Pereception Index

06/06/03 (Public Campaign)

Total number of individuals Bush campaign identified as “Pioneers” in 1999-2000 for having raised at least $100,000 for his presidential campaign: 226 1

Actual number of “Pioneers” recently disclosed in lawsuit documents uncovered by Texans for Public Justice and the National Voting Rights Institute: 538 2

Largest amount raised for Bush-Cheney 2000 by a single “Pioneer,” Michigan real estate magnate Ronald Weiser, now U.S. Ambassador to the Slovak Republic: $588,309 3

Number rewarded with ambassadorships: 19 4

Number of $100,000 contributors to the first President Bush’s 1988 campaign who were rewarded with ambassadorships: 6 5

Amount a Bush supporter will have to raise for his 2004 campaign to be recognized as a “Ranger,” one step above a “Pioneer”: $200,000 6

Amount raised by President Bush for the Republican congressional campaign committees on May 21, 2003: $22 million 7

Amount of time the President spoke at the event: 24 minutes 8

Amount of time at the event he spent posing for photos with top fundraisers: 40 minutes 9

Number of letters mailed by Bush-Cheney ’04 to potential campaign donors on May 16, the day President Bush began his re-election campaign: more than 1 million 10

Cost of a backstage photo with President Bush at a June 23 Manhattan fundraiser luncheon: donor must raise $20,000 for Bush’s 2004 re-election 11

Cost of a “leadership luncheon” with Karl Rove, President Bush’s senior political adviser: donor must raise $50,000 for Bush’s re-election 12

Cost of coffee or lunch with President Clinton during his 1995-1996 re-election campaign: $50,000 contribution to the Democratic National Committee 13

Cost of coffee or lunch with President Bush during his 2003-04 re-election campaign: not yet determined.

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1 Texans for Public Justice, News release, May 5, 2003, http://www.tpj.org/press_releases/newpioneers_pr.html
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 http://www.tpj.org/pioneers/newpioneers/all_pioneers.html and http://www.opensecrets.org/bush/ambassadors/index.asp
5 Common Cause report, “The Country Club,” http://www.ccsi.com/~comcause/news/cc_7.html
6 Richard Oppel Jr., “Bush’s Heaviest Hitters to be Called Rangers,” The New York Times, May 24, 20037
7 Mike Allen, “Bush courts Big Donors in Presidential Mode,” The Washington Post, May 22, 2003
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.
10 Sharon Theimer, “Bush Targets One Million Campaign Donors,” Associated Press, May 25, 2003
11 Allen, op.cit.
12 Ibid.
13 “DNC Fundraising in the White House: Coffees, Overnights and Other Events,” Final Report of the Investigation of Illegal or Improper Activities in Connection with 1996 Federal Election Campaigns, Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, http://www.senate.gov/~gov_affairs/7.pdf.

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