Ohio: Ground Zero For Bush Fundraising
By David Donnelly, AlterNet
March 3, 2004
-snip-
Bush's campaign has already held five major fundraisers in all of Ohio's
major cities, raising approximately $5.25 million. Surprisingly, Cincinnati
ZIP-code 45243 ranks second only to New York City's 10021 as the most
lucrative fundraising neighborhood for Bush, surpassing wealthy communities
in Houston, Dallas and even Beverly Hills. (For a full analysis of all $200
and up federal contributors by zip codes correlated with race and ethnicity,
see Public Campaign's Color of Money report.
But when you look at three Ohio mega-fundraisers for Bush - W.R. Timken, CEO
of Timken Company; Anthony Alexander, president of FirstEnergy Corporation;
and Walden O'Dell, CEO of Diebold Corporation - a delicious microcosm
emerges: In these three examples of special interest fundraising, we have
three of the recurring themes of Bush's administration.
1) Tax cuts for the wealthy (Timken) that have produced job stagnation and
cuts for the common folks; 2) Paybacks to corporate polluters (Alexander);
and 3) Support from well-positioned, powerful players (O'Dell), which has
created the appearance of rigging the game to aid his success.
Tax Breaks for the Wealthy, Layoffs for Workers
On April 24, 2003, President Bush traveled to Timken Company's Canton plant
to promote his tax plan. In a speech to workers, he promised that the tax
cut plan "means more money for investments, more money for growth and more
money for jobs." Numerous studies have refuted that claim, showing that
while the President's tax cuts rewarded wealthy Americans like Timken's CEO,
W.R. "Tim" Timken with tens of thousands of dollars in tax windfalls, the
rest of America actually received relatively little.
Two months later, Tim Timken co-hosted a fundraiser for Bush's campaign in
Akron which raised $600,000, and earned Timken "Ranger" status.
Then, in September, Timken Company announced it was laying off 700 workers,
adding more pain to one of the jobless recovery's most hardest-hit states.
In fact, since Bush was elected, Ohio has lost 270,000 jobs. So much for
"more money for jobs."
Paybacks for Polluters
Also co-hosting the Akron fundraiser was Anthony Alexander, president of
FirstEnergy Corporation. Alexander, who raised at least $100,000 in 2000,
has met that threshold again in the 2004 election, earning him repeat
"Pioneer" honors.
When Vice President Dick Cheney put together a secret task force to develop
a national energy plan in 2001, coal-fired utilities like FirstEnergy urged
the Administration to gut the Clean Air Act. FirstEnergy had a major
conflict of interest: In 1999, the US Department of Justice had sued it and
10 other corporations for violating the Clean Air Act.
As the Akron fundraiser was being held, FirstEnergy's case was finally
nearing a decision point in the courts.
On Aug. 7, a federal judge found that FirstEnergy had violated the Clean Air
Act 11 times. But later that month, the Bush Administration rolled back the
very provision in the Clean Air Act that FirstEnergy had repeatedly
violated. The timing couldn't have been better. Since FirstEnergy's trial
has not yet entered the penalty phase, this stroke of a pen could spare the
company literally hundreds of millions in fines.
Help From Powerful Friends?
The story of Walden O'Dell's fundraising for Bush and Republicans adds a
shadier dimension to the already simmering debate around voting machines.
O'Dell is the CEO of Diebold Corporation, the maker of ATMs, touch-screen
voting machines, and other products. O'Dell's company is one of a few to
have reaped a large number of state contracts to upgrade the nation's voting
apparatus.
Conspiracy theories about the touch-screen voting machines are prevalent on
the internet, and questions about their accuracy have made their way into
the mainstream media.
Fanning the flames is the fact that O'Dell has been actively fundraising for
Bush. In an invitation for a Bush fundraiser at his Columbus mansion last
year, O'Dell wrote that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its
electoral votes to the president next year." The words set off alarm bells
in the voting rights community and newsrooms alike because the letter was
sent after Diebold had secured a contract from Ohio's Republican Secretary
of State to provide the state's new voting machines.
O'Dell later issued a non-apology telling the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, "I'm
not doing anything wrong or complicated, but it obviously did leave me open
to the criticism I've received." The fundraising invitation had its desired
effect, however, and O'Dell raised at least $100,000. He was added to the
campaign's list of Pioneers on Sept. 30.
Protecting the Investment
"The Democrats have no choice but to try to make money Bush's liability," a
prominent Republican fundraiser told the Times last June. "They have to try
to tie the money to special interests, tie the special interests to
unpopular issues and then tie it all around Bush's neck...."
But as the presidential race has tightened, the rhetoric surrounding
fundraising seems to be getting balder all the time. According to the Jan. 9
Miami Herald, one Bush "Ranger," developer Mark Guzzetta, implored donors to
make a contribution to Bush during a fundraising event in order to
"[p]rotect your investment."
If the maxim that all politics is local is true, progressives concerned
about the Administration's agenda have a lot of material to work with in
tying the President's Ohio fundraising "around Bush's neck."
David Donnelly is the director of Public Campaign Action Fund's Campaign
Money Watch.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18006
--------------------------------------------------
There are at least three forms of greed:
1) an obsessive desire for ever more material goods and the attendant power.
2) a fearful need to store up surplus goods for a vaguely defined time of
want.
3) a desire for more earthly goods for their own sake.
