Blogger Response #3

This is a response to the Sam Stein blog “Bush’s Top Donors Signing On With McCain,” which was posted on February 26^th, 2008. The article sums up the news that John McCain is getting money from some of the people who have given money to President Bush in the past namely for the 2004 presidential election. The biggest group of donors that McCain and Bush now have in common call themselves “Texans for Public Justice” they are also given the nickname 2004 Bush Rangers. The blog had a link to where the members of this group are listed. I notice that there are a lot of Jr, Sr, II and III in the list of donors. To me this shows that these “rangers” come from old money: oil money. This is a group that symbolizes the Presidents rich, conservative base which he has drawn on for support for all of his business and political career.

Stein has also provides links to a project called “The Buying of a President.” The director of this project Bill Hogan said “"If you are really great at shaking the money tree, history tells us that you are going to get donations from a lot of people in the party. It is a question of migration from one campaign cycle to the next. Some donors might sit it out or support other candidates early on. But as the campaign goes on the donors will increasingly gravitate to the likely nominee." The blog also has a useful link to a site where McCain’s fund raising totals are divulged along with the names of citizens and lobbyists who have given to the hopeful presidential candidate.

There is a very important question to answer: why are Bush supporters given money to McCain? It is well known that McCain is not well received in the ultra-conservative wing of the Republican Party. Wayne Berman, the managing editor of Ogilvy Government Relations said this to Jonathan Salant of Bloomberg Financial News "bringing the people who give and raise money for other candidates is an element of unifying the party. What attracts them is the comeback story... A lot of these folks don't agree with him on every issue, but they're attracted by the way he came back.'' Even with his Lazarus story, McCain has only raised $48 million which is less then Rudy Giuliani received in his failed attempt to be the Republican nominee. The story ends with this fact: McCain and his team have a long way to go, but his team also has some familiar faces in terms of Bush’s money raising ability. McCain has hired Mercer Reynolds who was the national finance chairman for Bush in 2004. McCain not only has the same donors as the President he is hiring the same people for his campaign. With the state of Bush’s approval rating I don’t think that is advisable, but it could help McCain in getting the support of Bush’s ultra-conservative friends and business partners.

Stein’s blog can be found at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/26/bushs-top-donors-signing_n_88502.html.