Bush fundraisers got $1.2 billion in public funds(for $4.1mil. raised)

[Algorem]

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-20/1130700843224421.xml&storylist=cleveland

10/30/2005, 2:28 p.m. ET
The Associated Press

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Thirty Ohioans who raised a combined $4.1 million for President Bush's re-election campaign have received more than $1.2 billion in public funds for their companies and clients, a newspaper reported.

Since Bush took office in 2001, the federal government has given those companies more than $447 million in subsidies, contracts and other payments, according to records analyzed by The Blade. Ohio has awarded them about $800 million in the last six years, the paper reported Sunday.

Business leaders and lobbyists who raised money for Bush were called "Pioneers" if they raised at least $100,000 and "Rangers" if they raised $200,000; some also were given political appointments.

One of the fundraisers, coin dealer Tom Noe, was charged Thursday with illegally funneling $45,400 in contributions to Bush's re-election bid. Noe has denied wrongdoing in his fundraising and in his handling of a state investment fund, which prompted an investigation that led to Gov. Bob Taft's conviction on ethics charges...



Article published Sunday, October 30, 2005

A BLADE INVESTIGATION
Bush fund-raisers reap millions in contracts, corporate subsidies

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051030/NEWS24/51030006

They were executives, lobbyists, evangelical Christians, political veterans and rookies, and a rare-coin dealer from Maumee. They bankrolled a president.

Thirty Ohioans collected at least $4.1 million for George W. Bush's re-election campaign last year - exceeding Sen. John Kerry's entire take from the state. They raised $2.4 million more for the Republcan National Committee.

They are Ohio's "Pioneers" and "Rangers," President Bush's most prolific fund-raisers. Most Ohio voters have never heard of them, but the White House knows them well.

They have sat on crucial policy committees and won choice appointments. In the last five years, their firms have conducted more than a billion dollars of business with the state and the federal government...


Article published Sunday, October 30, 2005

Money, morals intermingle in contributions
'Christian business friends' key to 2 Ohioans' Bush donations

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051030/NEWS24/510300318

By JIM TANKERSLEY
BLADE POLITICS WRITER

CINCINNATI - Doug Corn had clicked through several hundred digital pictures - past a few dozen of himself with governors and senators, one of Vice President Dick Cheney's granddaughter splattered with orange paint, and another of Karl Rove bear-hugging Mr. Corn's daughters - when he stopped on what appeared to be a darkened figure climbing a staircase.


Mr. Corn identified the scene as the White House, circa Christmas 2004.

"Ah, the President," he said, pointing at the man on the stairs, "going up to bed."

Mr. Corn chronicled Mr. Bush's re-election campaign with a digital camera. His photos document the inner workings of the Republican National Convention in New York, special White House events, and the 16 meetings Mr. Corn, a Bush "Ranger," said he had with the President...


Article published Sunday, October 30, 2005

Noe's 'generosity' to GOP could end up costing him

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051030/NEWS24/510300355

By CHRISTOPHER D. KIRKPATRICK
BLADE STAFF WRITER

Tom Noe in the 1980s began to craft a powerful image of himself and strengthen the struggling Lucas County Republican Party.

Over the ensuing two decades, he gave to GOP campaigns and golfed with the right politicians. He would become envied in a powerful circle of Columbus lobbyists and political staff who praised him as a millionaire businessman with unquestioned acumen and unending generosity.

He was the back-slapping rare-coin dealer who invested $50 million for the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation in rare coins and picked up expensive bar and dinner tabs for lobbyists and government aides.

But in Gatsby-like fashion, his quest for a political shortcut to the American Dream cost him dearly...


GOP finds a partner in charter school CEO
Article published Sunday, October 30, 2005

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051030/NEWS24/510300316

By JAMES DREW
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU CHIEF

COLUMBUS - In 1986, shortly after David L. Brennan's company bought a failing steel mill in Gadsden, Ala., a television reporter had a question for the millionaire industrialist.


How, the reporter asked Mr. Brennan, did it feel to show up in town on his "great big black horse wearing a black hat" and planning to cut jobs?

Mr. Brennan had a quick response.

"You got that wrong. I'm on a white horse wearing a white hat, and I'm saving 1,500 jobs," he replied...


Article published Sunday, October 30, 2005

Ohio Bush donors richly rewarded
'Pioneers and Rangers' handed access to contracts, policymakers

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051030/NEWS24/510300346

By JAMES DREW
and STEVE EDER
BLADE STAFF WRITERS

COLUMBUS - The Ohio business leaders and lobbyists who steered at least $4.1 million to President Bush's re-election campaign last year collected more than $1.2 billion in taxpayer dollars for their companies and clients, a Blade investigation shows.

The fund-raisers who helped deliver the battleground state - and ultimately the 2004 presidential election - also received choice appointments from state and federal officials. The posts included an ambassadorship to Germany and a seat on the Ohio State University board of trustees.

Others made millions from unbid contracts varying from supplying ball bearings to the military or office furniture for federal agencies.

As they raised millions to help re-elect George W. Bush in 2004, the 30 Bush "Pioneers" and "Rangers" from Ohio - who raised at least $100,000 and $200,000 respectively - also had access to policymakers from the Ohio Statehouse to the White House...

[Tight_rope]

1. These crooked fuckers must be stopped.

[slay]

2. The Bush Criminal Empire in action

The worst, most corrupt government money can buy. :(

[xchrom]

3. no wrong doing in the ohio election.

nope -- couldn't be -- i don't care how much like a payoff this sounds.

[indepat]

4. Just a microcosm of the whole rotten mess

[napi21]

5. Proof of Quid Pro Quo! that'S illegal!!!

ALL politicians claim ther's no quid pro quo and they just get the $$ because their constituents love them. Well, this sure looks like a case, provable in court, of illegal activities!

[rfranklin]

6. Sounds like a great return on investment....

What's that? About 10,000% ROI?

[Old and In the Way]

7. Takes a lot of money to steal an election.

Lots of people to pay off. As our economy gets worse and worse, those people will be easier to find, too.

[texpatriot2004]

8. That's true buying elections is expensive. Plus the public picks

up the tab...the * family never pays for it from their own stash, the public always pays for their messes.

[MsConduct]

9. Oh my bloody hell! It just never ends. Thanks and nominated. n/t

[ngGale]

10. Corruption that never ends...

Argh! I'm sure the election was on the up and up.:sarcasm:

[salin]

11. I have said for awhile - the drama of Pay to Play and slush fund pol.

in Ohio - is just a mirror of DC - and the more folks are familiar with these stories (people beyond DU) the more the theme of republican greed - and slush fund politics - will penetrate the public psyche. Now - with a quick turn in the Blade - the stories reach confluence as one and the same.

Give $
Get huge contracts (note the "no bid" mentions)$$
Give more $

end result - more tax payer money spent to elect republicans and spent to pay off those who paid for those elected slick campaigns.

[libodem]

12. last year about this time Harpers magazine

printed an article called something like George Bush Makes a Million Dollars at the mall. It was about how highly organized they were in raising money. The team leader has several people under him donate ...say 10,000 dollars and he gets credit for a 100,000 dollar donation and gets his picture with the President. I was so disheartened by the article I knew then that Kerry would never have a chance to win just on the money factor. I think the best way to beat this is make sure that we all donate and volunteer where and when we can to help make a difference in our party.

[wordpix]

13. $ounds like Rowland in CT- he ended up in jail and

looks like some of his cronie$, pleading guilty, are going there, too.
They were cited for runinng a criminal enterprise out of governor's office.

We need to get these fuckers, too.

Part of the problem are campaign finance rules---it's easy to find loopholes. Witness Delay saying people donated thousands to the RNC, not to him and his Repug political candidates; therefore, he is "innocent."

Rowland was "innocent," too, until his cronies had the squeeze put on them and they flipped. Rowland has only gotten one year, though, despite millions of $$$ in no-bid state contracts he let out in return for cigars, cases of champagne, renovations to his lake house, etc.

"Culture of Corruption" continues ad infinitum, ad nauseum

[G_j]

14. kick