WASHINGTON — George W. Bush has asked two old friends from Cincinnati, William O. DeWitt Jr. and Mercer Reynolds III, to help with his presidential inauguration.

        The pair, close to Mr. Bush since his Texas oil days, directed the Ohio finance committee for the Bush campaign, which raised $2.2 million across the state compared with $488,526 Democrats raised for Vice President Al Gore.

        Mr. DeWitt and Mr. Reynolds, partners in a Cincinnati investment firm, personally raised $1 million for Mr. Bush at a July 1999 fund-raiser at the Omni Netherland Plaza Hotel. Campaign donors from Greater Cincinnati gave $818,766 to Mr. Bush, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, the most of any region in the state.

        The financial advantage, combined with endorsements from Gov. Bob Taft and other state Republican leaders, provided Mr. Bush with a foothold in Ohio that Mr. Gore could never overcome. No Republican has ever won the presidency without Ohio, and the state was a part of the Bush campaign's electoral strategy.

        Mr. Bush turned to several of his friends and fund-raisers — who collected a record $103 million for his campaign — in selecting his inaugural committee. The team will raise as much as $30 million and plan activities around the Jan. 20 inauguration.

        “Our goal is to have a seamless celebration,” Mr. DeWitt said Thursday at a news conference.

        Mr. DeWitt and Mr. Reynolds were partners with Mr. Bush in a Texas oil exploration company and later, the Texas Rangers, a Major League Baseball team.

        Along with Mr. DeWitt and his wife, Kathy, and Mr. Reynolds and his wife, Gabrielle, Mr. Bush chose: Fred Meyer of Dallas, who chaired the Republican National Committee's “Victory 2000” campaign; Al Hoffman Jr. of Bonita Springs, Fla., a national co- chair and state finance chairman for the Bush campaign; and Jeanne Johnson Phillips of Dallas, a campaign adviser who also worked on “Victory 2000.”

        Brad Freeman, a partner in a Los Angeles private investment firm, was named finance chair of the committee, and Julie Finley, a Republican activist from the District of Columbia, was chosen as finance co-chair.

        Faith Bremner of Gannett News Service contributed.
       

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