Bush 'Bundlers' Take Fundraising to New Level - Henry Paulson

By Thomas B. Edsall and Mike Allen, Washington Post Staff Writers
July 13, 2003

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Becoming part of the Bush money machine starts with a pledge card and a commitment to raise a specific amount, from $20,000 to $250,000 or more. A highly successful innovation of Bush's first campaign, which raised a record $101 million, was the designation of "Pioneer" for someone who raised at least $100,000.

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Rove, who remains on the White House payroll for the campaign and has been an energetic promoter of Bush's fundraising events, helped recruit bundlers by holding "pre-sale events" in New York, California and Texas.

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The single factor virtually all such donors have in common is that they, their clients, their corporations, their suppliers and their subcontractors are major beneficiaries of the Bush administration's tax-cutting and deregulatory policies.

Almost all of the top Bush fundraisers are in the top 1 percent of the nation's incomes, and many are in the top one-tenth of the top 1 percent. Consequently, they are among those who benefit the most from administration legislation reducing the top income tax rate, the capital gains rate and the elimination of taxation on dividend income.

For instance, four of the chairs for the $2,000-a-person cocktail party in New York were E. Stanley O'Neal, chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch; James E. Cayne, chairman and CEO of Bear Stearns; Henry A. McKinnell Jr., chairman and CEO of Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drug company; and Henry M. Paulson, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs. McKinnell, O'Neal and Paulson committed to raising $200,000 each, and Cayne agreed to raise $100,000.