Sunday, June 06, 1999
Cincinnati opens wallets to GOP
Bush, Dole, Kasich, Forbes stopping by this summer
BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
With 10 Republicans running for president, each under the gun to raise $20 million or so in campaign funds this year, candidates thirsty for cash are looking for the deepest wells they can find.
One of the deepest — bottomless, some would say — is right here in Cincinnati.
By the end of 1999, the Cincinnati area will have produced several million dollars for the small army of Republicans seeking the 2000 GOP presidential nomination and for GOP “party-building” — spending aimed at putting a Republican in the White House and keeping control of Congress next year.
For decades, Cincinnati has been a magnet for GOP presidential candidates.
In the last three presidential elections, only two American communities — Westchester County in New York and Orange County, Calif. — have produced more money for Republican presidential candidates.
“Any presidential candidate in the Republican Party wants to come to Cincinnati early on to see how they're doing,” said Hamilton County Republican Party Chairman H.C. “Buck” Niehoff. “And we welcome them all.”
With a short primary season coming up early next year and the conventional wisdom that it will take at least $20 million raised this year to have a viable candidacy, the candidates have to try to raise money at the dizzying pace of about $400,000 a week. Four of them have fund-raising events scheduled in Cincinnati in June and July, including:
• Former Reagan and Bush Cabinet member Elizabeth Dole. While in Cincinnati Friday to deliver the University of Cincinnati's commencement address, Mrs. Dole will attend a fund-raiser hosted by Nancy Donovan, owner of Ames Travel Service, and her husband, Steve.
• Texas Gov. George W. Bush. The leader in both the polls and fund raising, Gov. Bush comes to Cincinnati on July 22 for a massive fund-raiser organized by two of his former business partners, Cincinnati businessmen Bill DeWitt Jr. and Mercer Reynolds. The event is expected to raise at least $500,000.
• Ohio congressman John Kasich. He has a June 24 Cincinnati fund-raiser hosted by Ohio Treasurer Joseph Deters.
• Millionaire magazine publisher Steve Forbes. He will have a fund-raiser later this month in Cincinnati, which is home to his national campaign chairman, Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell.
This will be the first round of Cincinnati presidential fund-raisers, but it is unlikely to be the last. Those four can be counted on to return to Cincinnati later this year, and other GOP contenders, such as Ariz. Sen. John McCain, plan fund-raising events of their own.
But even with the flurry of Cincinnati fund raising, it is already clear that Gov. Bush, eldest son of former President George Bush, has a clear advantage in Cincinnati over the rest of the field.
“There are a lot of long and deep ties to the Bush family in this city,” said U.S. Rep. Rob Portman, R-Terrace Park. “There's no doubt he is going to raise a lot of money in Cincinnati.”
Mr. Portman himself is closely tied to the Bush family. He worked in President Bush's White House and campaigned with Gov. Bush for his father in 1988. But Mr. Portman is also a close friend of Mr. Kasich. He has tried to stay neutral in the contest, even though his phone rings often with contenders trying to get him to endorse or help raise money in Cincinnati.
Even Mr. Blackwell, a former Cincinnati mayor who signed on to the Forbes campaign last week, acknowledges that Mr. Bush has a fund-raising advantage in Cincinnati.
“Some individual souls out there will give on the basis of who they think is the best candidate, but there's no doubt that the Republican financial establishment in Cincinnati is netting out for Bush,” Mr. Blackwell said.
So far, the Dole campaign appears to be second in line in local fund raising. Mrs. Donovan said the June 11 fund-raiser she and her husband are hosting at her home will attract about 150 people.
“I'm talking to people here in town, both men and women, some of whom are Democrats who've never voted for a Republican, who say they want to help make Elizabeth Dole president,” Mrs. Donovan said.
Traditionally two of the biggest political contributors from Cincinnati have been financier Carl H. Lindner and Cintas Chairman Richard Farmer. Through the first quarter of 1999, Mr. Lindner and members of his family have given money to only two GOP presidential contenders: Mrs. Dole and former Vice President Dan Quayle. But Mr. Farmer has signed on with the Bush campaign and is one of the hosts of the July 22 Bush fund-raiser.
Mr. Bush, Mr. Niehoff said, is wrapping up the Cincinnati money for two reasons:
• “Because the old man has a lot of friends in Cincinnati.”
• Because he is seen as “the front-runner, the one who would do very well in a general election.”
But , the scraps that fall off the table will be enough to attract most of the rest of the GOP field.
“Any Republican candidate always has a good reason to come to Cincinnati,” Mr. Niehoff said.
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