President George Bush raised a record-breaking $4-million at a cocktail party in New York on Monday night, as his campaign for re-election to the White House in 2004 moved into a higher gear.
The haul means his administration has raised $11,85-million from a series of fundraisers over the past week alone. The drive has left a yawning gap between the campaign funds of the president and that of the Democratic hopefuls.
The event in Manhattan, close to Ground Zero, the site of the former World Trade Centre, means the Republicans are comfortably ahead of their target of raising $20-million in two weeks. The campaign to kickstart the re-election has been designed to intimidate potential Democratic candidates.
The Bush administration raised a total of $100-million for the 2000 election campaign but that is likely to be dwarfed by the amount raised by the Republicans for 2004. Under new rules the previous $1 000 limit on individual donations has been doubled to $2 000, and the administration is expected to raise up to $250-million.
According to the Washington-based watchdog, the Centre for Responsive Politics, John Edwards has raised the most money of the Democratic candidates.
Edwards has raised $7,4-million for his election campaign so far, followed by John Kerry with $7-million, and Dick Gephardt with just under $6-million. Al Sharpton has collected just $83 000 and Carol Moseley Braun has raised the least of the 10 candidates, with $72 000.
Some experts said the amount raised at the New York event was the biggest ever from a political fund-raiser — it was certainly the highest the state had seen. The highest amount previously raised by Mr Bush was $3-million from a similar event in New York in October 1999.
Around 1 000 supporters attended the New York event in the Sheraton Hotel, paying $2 000 a head for a buffet including coconut fried prawns, spring rolls, mini-quiches, and morsel sized pieces of beef Wellington. Others just sent cheques. It cost $20 000 for a picture with the president.
According to reports, the president was greeted with chants of ”four more years”. He told the cheering crowds: ”I’m getting loosened up, I’m getting ready, but I’m going to need your help.”
Dick Cheney, the vice president, emerged from the shadows to raise $1,6-million from two separate events in Virginia and Massachusetts. Cheney failed to elicit a similar rousing response and made a wry reference to his relative lack of stage presence. ”It’s an impressive turnout for the number two man on the ticket,” he said. ”But like I always say, nothing draws a room like raw charisma.”
The New York event was attended by many leading Wall Street figures, including Henry Paulson, chairman of Goldman Sachs, Stan O’Neal, who runs Merrill Lynch, and John Mack, chief executive of Credit Suisse First Boston.
Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani said in a speech at the event: ”He will be one of our great presidents, because of the way he led this country through the worst attack in the history of the United States.”
The president made no direct reference to September 11 but, in a half-hour address, promised to overhaul national security. ”Terrorism declared war on the United States of America, and war is what they got,” he said. ”We have captured or killed many key leaders of Al-Qaeda and the rest of them know we’re hot on their trail.”
Campaign financing was reformed last November. As well as lifting individual donations, so-called ”soft money” contributions were banned — unlimited, often generous sums supposedly used for general party purposes instead of election campaigns. The two political parties collected more than $400-million in soft money during the 2002 elections. – Guardian Unlimited Â