By Carl Weiser
Enquirer Washington Bureau

SQUARING OFF

Carl Lindner Age: 85 Career: Turned family's ice cream business into United Dairy Farmers convenience store chain; chairman of American Financial Group; majority owner of Cincinnati Reds. Philanthropy: Is the largest non-Jewish supporter of Israel via that country's government bonds. Has poured millions into local health care efforts. This year, personally bought and gave away an estimated 450,000 tickets to Reds games. Politics: Republican. Has been one of the most active donors over the last decade. Gives mostly to Republicans, though he has contributed to Democratic Mayor Charlie Luken and even Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. Gave maximum allowed donations of $2,000 to the Republican National Committee and $2,000 to the Bush campaign. Gave $1.02 million to the following 527s in the 2003-04 election cycle: • $500,000 to Progress for America Voter Fund. • $300,000 to College Republican National Committee. • $200,000 to Republican Governors Association. • $20,000 to GOPAC, which trains Republicans for office. Richard Rosenthal Age: 71 Career: Owned F&W Publications in Evanston, which was sold to Citicorp Venture Capital in 1999. Philanthropy: With his wife, Lois, has donated $6 million to new Center for Contemporary Art, which now bears their name. Helped establish Uptown Arts, an Over-the-Rhine arts center that provides urban children with free classes in art, music, theater and dance. Politics: Democratic. Gave maximum allowed donations of $2,000 to Kerry campaign and $25,000 to Democratic National Committee. In May, gave $1 million to an anti-Bush group active in Ohio.

WASHINGTON - Two of Cincinnati's richest men are squaring off against each other in the 2004 election - with their checkbooks.

Cincinnati Reds owner Carl Lindner is funding a group aimed at getting Republicans to vote, and arts patron Richard Rosenthal is funding a group working to motivate Democratic voters.

"A clash of the donors," Rosenthal joked.

Each has spent more than $1 million in the last two years funding so-called "527" groups that are becoming increasingly powerful in politics because of new campaign finance laws.

The groups, named after the section of the tax code that regulates them, are paying for many of the TV ads Tristate residents are seeing, as well as the canvassers coming to their doors and the propaganda filling their mailboxes.

A 2002 law capped donations to the Democratic or Republican parties at $25,000. So big donors turned to 527s or similar groups.

Lindner did not return calls. His spokeswoman, Sandra Heimann, declined comment.

But the chairman of American Financial Group is a longtime Republican donor who occasionally gives money to Democrats as well. He has split his money among several GOP 527s. On June 30, he gave his biggest donation, $500,000, to the Progress for America Voter Fund, a pro-Bush 527.

"There aren't that many people who give $1 million to political causes," said Derek Willis, an expert on 527s at the Center for Public Integrity, which monitors the groups. To find two in Cincinnati, as opposed to New York or San Francisco, is unusual, he said.

"It's not the first place one would think of," Willis said.

"Seven-figure amounts - that's a lot of commitment."

Rosenthal is new to the business of politics. In May he donated $1 million to the Joint Victory Campaign, which collects money for America Coming Together and the Media Fund, two groups determined to oust President Bush.

"I think that it had to do somewhat with my age," said Rosenthal, 71.

Because the next president could appoint several Supreme Court justices - the court has never gone this long without a vacancy - he "will dictate how that court votes perhaps for the rest of my life," Rosenthal said.

He said he was worried a Bush court would allow organized prayer in schools, erode abortion rights and be anti-gay.

Rosenthal said he also is angry about other issues, including:

• The war in Iraq, a conflict he thought could have been avoided.

• The way Bush has divided the United States from the rest of the world.

• A lack of funding for social programs such as Head Start.

Willis at the Center for Public Integrity said Rosenthal is typical of a new class of donors - people who had shied away from giving large amounts to political parties but now fund specific groups.

"Some never ran in party circles," Willis said.

They see 527s as a better investment than a political party. A $1 million donation to the national parties could end up helping, say, a state senator in Alaska. But 527s tend to focus on one goal. .

Rosenthal got involved in the race through his daughter, Jennie Rosenthal Berliant, and son-in-law, Allan Berliant. They organized a fund-raiser for Sen. John Kerry featuring musician Peter Frampton. They put him in touch with the 527s, he said.